SAFETYEducation

Summer 2010ISSN 0459-2034

Down to the woods

Contents

SAFETY Education Summer 2010 1

Inside this issue...

Managing Editor Janice Cave MBE

Editorial ConsultantJim Barrow

Occupational Safety AdviserRoger Bibbings MBE

Risk Education AdviserJenny McWhirter

Cover pictureGrant Pritchard

© Published termly by RoSPA EnterprisesLimited - a wholly owned subsidiary of The Royal Society for the Prevention ofAccidents.

Opinions expressed and claims made by individual contributors are not necessarily subscribed to by RoSPA.No responsibility can be accepted

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, Edgbaston Park, 353 Bristol Road, Birmingham B5 7ST.

Telephone: 0121 248 2000

Web site: www.rospa.com

RoSPA is a registered charity No. 207823

VAT registration No. 655 1316 49

To advertise in Safety Education please contact: safetyadvertising@rospa.com

Printed by JPL Colour PrintersHalesowen, West Midlands

Design and production:The Cheese RoomGraphic Design Studioswww.thecheeseroom.com01827 50341

News 2Safety misses out

Togo and Nogo 3New website

Kent target 4Teenagers in front line

Down to the woods 5Play schemes

Playworkers 6-7Latest projects

Teenage taskforce 8Teaching their schoolmates

Too risky 9Destroying myths

Road forward 10-11Swedish stunner

News extra 12Answers for everything

2 SAFETY Education Summer 2010

News

I Young advisers visit RoSPA

IFloat first

The Royal Society for thePrevention of Accidents isdisappointed that a plan tomake PSHE education astatutory part of the NationalCurriculum was shelved aslegislation moved throughParliament ahead of theGeneral Election.

Personal, social, health andeconomic education - ofwhich injury prevention is akey part - is currently non-statutory, meaning that it isnot a legal requirement forschools to teach all elements.

Last year, an independentreview carried out by SirAlasdair Macdonald recom-mended that PSHE educationshould become a statutorypart of the National Curric-ulum in both primary andsecondary phases in England.

But clauses related to PSHEeducation were removedfrom the Children, Schoolsand Families Bill.

Dr Jenny McWhirter,RoSPA’s risk education advis-er, said: “Injury prevention isa key part of what is an ex-

tremely broad PSHE educa-tion curriculum and at RoSPAwe had high hopes for thisimportant issue to become astatutory requirement.

“A third of the young peo-ple who die each year in theUK lose their lives as a resultof injuries sustained in acci-dents. We know that safetyand risk education is a crucialway of preventing such acci-dents.

“Moreover, a key RoSPAprinciple is that life, and par-ticularly our leisure time,

should be as safe as neces-sary, not as safe as possible.Safety and risk education is avaluable way of helping chil-dren and young people de-velop an understanding ofthis concept and how it canbe achieved in reality – man-aging risks, for example,rather than eliminating themaltogether. It can equip chil-dren with the skills to lead ac-tive lives and protect them-selves while doing so.”

She added: “There is al-ready a great deal of goodwork ongoing across Eng-land. We had hoped thatteachers and schools, and theinjury prevention profession-als who work with them,would have had their effortsin this sphere reinforced bynew legislation.”

I Safety education misses out again

RoSPA’s youth participationstrategy was under the spot-light when a group of youngpeople visited the safetycharity’s Birmingham head-quarters.

Drawn from across thecountry, they represented theYoung Advisors Charity,which advises decision-mak-ers on how to engage youngpeople in community life.

They met Cassius Francis,

RoSPA’s youth liaison worker,to discuss how RoSPA was al-ready working with youngpeople and how this could betaken forward.

Among the ideas weremore partnerships with otherorganisations, greater use ofsocial media, and competi-tions and awards to getyoung people actively in-volved in RoSPA’s mission tosave lives and reduce injuries.

Back row: Michelle Tatton,development officer at YoungAdvisors Charity, JacquelineMacaulay, 21, of London,Robert Franklin, 19, of Wolver-hampton, Sophia Fashioni, 16,of Sefton, Emily Hamilton, 18,of Sefton, and Cassius Francis,RoSPA’s youth liaison worker.

Front row: Richard Kusi, 18,of London, Marie Heathcock,19, of Dudley, and KhadeemRashid, 19, of Luton.

Traditional life-saving advicefor those who accidentallyfall into water has beenturned on its head by a teamof scientists working withRoSPA.

Instead of immediately at-tempting to swim or wave forhelp, researchers at theUniversity of Portsmouth areurging people to “float first”.

Tests showed that stayingas still as possible in the firstfew minutes after tumblinginto water increases survivaltime by enabling air trappedin clothing to keep the headabove water, protecting theairways and slowing the rateat which the body is cooled.

The research team is nowcalling for the “float first” ap-proach to be taught as a sur-vival skill to as many peopleas possible.

The project was funded bythe Royal Society for thePrevention of Accidents’ schol-arship scheme, which was setup after British Nuclear Fuels(BNFL) donated £500,000 tosupport research that wouldhave a significant impact onimproving safety in the UKand around the world.

SAFETY Education Summer 2010 3

News

I Mum and Dad sit-ins do work

I Playground partner

Parents sitting in on theirchildren’s driving lessons canreally help them to developskills to supervise the learneron private practice drives.

This is one of the findingsof an evaluation of the YoungDriver Coaching Programmeresource pack devised byStaffordshire CountyCouncil’s road safety unit.

The lesson sit-in was suc-cessful, as predicted by theprogramme designers, inhelping parents understandhow their learner was beingtaught and in helping learn-ers show their parents theprogress they were making.

Initially parents were con-cerned that their childrenwould be distracted by theirpresence but this concernwas not shared by the learn-ers.

A further success of the sit-in, was its beneficial role inresource pack recruitment.The sit-in provided a channelof communication and wasan ideal situation for ADI’s toexplain the pack to bothlearners and parents at thesame time.

However, if the introduc-tion of the resource pack istied to sit-ins, then they needto start in the early stage oflearning. At this stage learn-ers and supervisors are notalready settled into a routineso the resource can mergesmoothly into being simplythe way that learning is done.

The pack consisted of alearner driver’s record bookand a supervising driver’s in-formation guide. The re-source pack aimed to bringabout a beneficial three way

relationship between par-ent/supervisor, learner andADI.

The underlying principlesof the YDCP are to increasethe effectiveness of privatepractice in conjunction withprofessional instruction, andto involve parents in thelearning to drive process.These principles are support-ed by findings from interna-tional research on road safe-ty, learning to drive, and ado-lescent development.

Although the pack was tar-geted at learners, parentswere crucial to the recruit-ment process. Without theenthusiasm and support ofparents learners did not par-ticipate in the programme.

Parents engaged with theresource pack materials inflexible ways, principally byusing the supervising driver’sinformation guide as a refer-ence book; – as something torefer to when questions orconflict arose. ADI’s, learnersand parents were universal intheir entirely positive ac-counts of how the resource

'Step Outside with Togo andNogo' was launched inManchester five years ago aspart of Manchester’s pedes-trian training scheme. Togoand Nogo are two award win-ning characters who help toget the road safety messageacross to children in a colour-ful, fun and interactive way.

They also have their ownwebsite: www.togoandnogo.co.uk and email address.

The website can be ac-cessed by teachers, parents,carers and children at schooland at home. There's a play athome section, which containsroad safety games and activi-ty sheets for the children.Activity sheets and lessonplans have been updated forteachers as well.

The website has recentlybeen updated, new sectionshave now been added and in-clude:• Safer Steps, a colourful an-

imated video aimed atunder 5's

• The 'Adventures of Togo,Nogo and Sam' aimed at 5to 7 year olds, this containsa colourful 16-page story-book and a six minute ani-mated video

• A new interactive game,the children must guideTogo through four stages toreach Nogo in the park, tak-ing care to choose safercrossing places. As the chil-dren guide Togo, all danger-ous and safer crossingplaces are explained byclear live video footage andvisual pop up text boxes. Itguides the children safelyand does not allow themcross at dangerous points,by prompting them tochoose again. The 'Step Outside' ped-

estrian package can be downloadable directly from the re-source area. This resource isaimed at Year 2 pupils andteaches them about gettingready to go out, traffic, roadsand safer crossing places. It

I Togo and Nogoget own website

pack helped to avoid or solveconflict

Many parents commentedthat their own driving knowl-edge had improved. Throughusing the resource pack par-ents had to learn and acceptthat their own knowledge andbeliefs about driving mightnot be quite as satisfactory asthey once thought.

The programme designersdid not intend private super-vision to replace formal pro-fessional learning. However,from the outset of the re-source pack there were con-cerns aired by ADI’s that inpromoting the resource theywould be losing paid busi-ness.

ADI’s feared that by in-creasing the amount of pri-vate supervision, learnerswould opt to reduce the num-ber of paid professional les-sons they take. This fear wasnot substantiated but war-rants further attention.

For further informationcontact Irene Williamson atirene.williamson@staffordshire.gov.uk

contains all the lesson plansthat teachers will need to useprior to the on road practicaltraining session with the chil-dren.

Paperless safety inspectionswill be rolled out to thous-ands of playgrounds througha new partnership betweenthe Royal Society for thePrevention of Accidents andPSS.

PSS, Public SectorSoftware Ltd, has designatedRoSPA Play Safety its princi-pal safety inspection partner.

The arrangement will see

RoSPA’s team of play inspec-tors using PSSLive – softwarethat enables data and photo-graphs from annual safety in-spections to be gatheredusing a hand-held device anduploaded instantly to the in-ternet. Inspection reports willthen be accessible to play-ground providers on anycomputer or device with in-ternet access at any time.

across 20 schools in areaswith the highest casualty rateor largest student numbers.While this activity will cause ashort disruption it will be fol-lowed with a serious mes-sage about road safety andhow distraction can lead todisaster. Eleven to 16 yearolds are an extremely vulner-able age group of road userswith more distractions thanever before.

Crossing the road has al-ways been a hazardous taskwhich needs to be treatedwith respect but over the lastdecade the growth of mobilephone use, MP3 and MP4players and mini computershas added to the distractionsand danger. Temporary dis-traction or the lack of full en-gagement with your sur-roundings on a road can eas-

“Nothing Ventured … balanc-ing risks and benefits in theoutdoors” is a new publica-tion aimed at teachers andother children’s services pro-fessionals.Written by Tim Gill,it encourages readers to takea reasonable and proportion-ate approach to safety and re-assures them that a degree ofrisk, properly managed, ispositively desirable in help-ing young people to learn tomanage their own safety.

A risk-averse approach isdiscouraged. Instead, readersare encouraged to balancethe risks and the benefitsfrom an activity.

RoSPA’s chief executiveTom Mullarkey endorsed thepublication in a lengthy fore-word. He said “Developingconfidence and risk judge-ment among young people iscrucial if we are to structure asociety which is not riskaverse. We need to acceptthat uncertainty is inherent inadventure, and this containsthe possibility of adverse out-comes.

“A young person’s develop-

Young people aged 11 to 16were the target of a new KentHighway Services road safetycampaign aimed at raisingawareness of the dangers ofdistractions while near orcrossing Kent’s roads. Thecampaign ‘Ditch the Dist-raction’ was launched at theNew Line Learning Academy,in Maidstone in March.

The campaign aims to gainthe attention of students inthe age range with an in-classactivity involving an actorwho will enter classroomswearing a body cast from thewaist up. The actor will cre-ate a few seconds of havoc ashe tries to talk/shout into amobile phone handset whichwon’t reach his ears due toboth arms being set in a plas-ter cast attached to his body.

This activity will roll out

ment should not be undulystifled by the proper need toconsider the worst conse-quence of risk, but must bebalanced by its likelihood andindeed its benefits. Counter-

intuitively, the key to chal-lenging risk aversion amongleaders and decision makers,is the application of balancedrisk assessment.

“It is only by objectiveanalysis that thebenefits and op-portunities of anactivity can beweighed againsttheir potential togo wrong. IndeedI feel that the ter-minology shouldbe changed to‘risk/benefit as-sessment’.

“For the mostpart, as previousgenerations havelearnt by experi-ence, it is rare in-deed that a wellplanned exerciseleads to accident.It will instead bemost likely tobring a sense ofenterprise, funand accomplish-ment, so vital formaturity, judge-

4 SAFETY Education Summer 2010

News

I Way to get advice on outdoor risks

ily lead to disaster. Thesenew distractions have notreplaced more establisheddistractions such as talkingwith friends, being tired,eating and drinking, andgeneral complacency butare now equally as serious.

‘Ditch the Distraction’asks students for a few mo-ments of full concentrationbefore and during crossingthe road, and will be sup-ported at all secondaryschools with a series of busshelter posters locatedwithin 300 metres of second-ary schools, in-school postersand handouts directing stu-dents to a dedicated ‘Ditchthe Distraction’ website, host-ing an online competition,game and prizes.

A digibike will be touringfour pedestrian locations in

Kent on Saturday afternoons.The bike will hold two 42 inplasma TVs showing cam-paign collateral and givingthe opportunity to enter theonline competition.

For more informationabout the campaign visit www.ditchthedistraction.info

I Kent youngsters are target

ment and well-being, whichmust nearly always offset theresidual and inevitable risk.Our mantra at RoSPA sumsup this approach: We musttry to make life as safe asnecessary, not as safe as pos-sible.”

A number of myths relatingto outdoor activities are de-molished in the paper... Forexample, an encouraging ac-count of the current legal po-sition shows that fears of agrowing compensation cul-ture are unfounded and thatcourts do in fact take a com-mon sense view.The publica-tion has also been endorsedby HSE.It will be very reassur-ing to teachers who wish togive their pupils an adventur-ous experience.

Published by the EnglishOutdoor Council, it is a 28page, full colour publicationdesigned to complement theEOC publication “HighQuality Outdoor Education”. Apdf is available at http://www.englishoutdoorcouncil.org/wp-content/uploads/NothingVentured.pdf

SAFETY Education Summer 2010 5

Forest

Forestry Commission andPlay England joined forces tooffer free play opportunitiesin forests in March.

The week highlighted thehealth benefits of outdoorplay and that children todayare playing outside far lessthan ever before, as recentstatistics show: • Adults said they played

outdoors 40 per cent of thetime as children, childrentoday only did this for 10per cent of their time

• The attraction of TV andcomputer entertainmenthas increased, in a surveythe average child spentnearly 51/2 hours a day infront of a screen

• Thirty one per cent of boysand 30 per cent of girls arein the obese or overweightcategory due to bad dietand physical inactivity.

• Twenty eight per cent ofboys and 37 per cent of girlsage 2-15 are not meetingthe recommended 60 min-utes of moderate intensityexercise a day Children took part in fun

outdoor activities for free dur-ing Outdoor Play Week at

Forestry Commission centresacross the South East.Activities ranged from denbuilding and fire making, cy-cling and mini-beast huntsand children from age twoand upwards could join thefun.

Research by RebeccaLovell, social and economicresearch group at theForestry Commission in 2009shows that levels of moder-ate to vigorous physical exer-cise is reached for just 20-30minutes on an averageschool day, compared with1.5 hours on a day spent at aforest school.

A key finding from anotherstudy by Jenny Roe, forOpenspace also in 2009found that forest settings alsohad the ability to stabilise andreduce anger across all chil-dren. Anger in young peopleis linked with reduced physi-cal and mental health, de-pression and increased anti-social behaviour.

Research by Liz O’Brien,deputy head of social andeconomic research group atthe Forestry Commission,found that children attendingForest School sessionsgained increased confidence,better social skills, improved

Going down to the woods

language and communica-tion, improved physical skillsand better motivation andconcentration.

Liz O’Brien, said: “Outdoorplay has lots of all round ben-efits for children, including in-creasing their physical exer-cise. It helps to improvemood in the short term andconfidence and self-esteemin the longer term, especiallyfor those with mental healthor behavioural problems.

“When playing outdoorschildren are also more likelyto meet other children andimprove social skills, an op-portunity which doesn’t ariseat home. Being outside in na-ture puts children in touchwith their senses and has arestorative effect, also help-ing them to cope with stress.”

Outdoor Play Week was aninitiative supported by theDepartment of Health, Natur-al England, Play England andWellbeing South East.

For further informationplease visit www.forestry.gov.uk/aliceholt, www.forestry.gov.uk/bedgebury, www.forestry.gov.uk/wendoverwoods

6 SAFETY Education Summer 2010

CSEC

Play workers join in projectsMore children and youngpeople will have practical op-portunities to learn aboutdanger and how to cope withit thanks to a range of proj-ects launched by the ChildSafety Education Coalition.

Among the highlights ofCSEC’s projects so far are: • Around 70 play workers

being the first to take partin new training designedand delivered by CSEC andthe Birmingham PlayCareNetwork to give them theconfidence to lead activitiessometimes deemed “toorisky”

• Outdoor activity instructorsfrom Youth Afloat inRedditch piloting CSECtraining which focuses onhow children can learnsafety skills through adven-ture pursuits like canoeing,mountain biking and sail-ing

• Students from Coventry

University’s department ofcomputing and the digitalenvironment developingcomputer games which willhelp children learn aboutfire safety

• CSEC and Sandwell’s InjuryMinimisation Programmefor Schools working togeth-er to review and develop in-jury prevention and imme-diate first aid training forchildrenOther projects will be

launched in the comingmonths including: • A national wildlife-focused

initiative to encourage chil-dren and young people toexplore and enjoy the out-doors while also breakingdown the perceived “healthand safety barriers” to this

• A road safety project in-volving the parents of chil-dren at a Birmingham pri-

mary school • A project to get children

thinking about safety dur-ing farm visits

• A programme linking na-ture and safety learning at awaste and recycling educa-tion centre The development of a re-

source profiler which will beused to identify the strengthsand weaknesses of existingand future safety educationresources.

It is a year since CSEC waslaunched publicly and mem-bers were first invited to join.Since then, more than 80 or-ganisations have joined thecoalition.

In addition to the practicalprojects, another first-yearhighlight was the first inter-national seminar aboutyoung people’s involvementin injury prevention. Co-or-ganised by CSEC and AdRisk,it was attended by delegatesfrom across Europe. Studentsfrom Heartlands Academy inBirmingham, who are work-

Five safety education practi-tioners will soon become thefirst professionals of theirkind to achieve a nationally-recognised qualification inPersonal, Social, Health andEconomic education.

Robert Cotterill, of Sand-well’s Injury MinimisationProgramme for SchoolsCassius Francis, who worksfor both RoSPA and theChild Safety EducationCoalition, Deborah Kiernan,of National Children’sCentre in Huddersfield,Jane Stark, of NHS WakefieldDistrict, and Andy Townsend,of Lifeskills – Learning forLiving in Bristol, are all in thefinal stages of a year’s train-ing.

Led by Jenny McWhirter,RoSPA’s risk education advis-

By Jo Stagg

Jane Stark and Robert Cotterill studying hard

ing on a peer-to-peer safety edu-cation project with CSEC, wereamong the speakers.

Unintended injuries are theleading cause of death and seri-ous injury in 0 to 19 year olds. Thefive types of unintended injuryCSEC is working to reduce are:road traffic injuries, drowning,

New training a booster, and funded by the CSEC, theCPD training has seen partici-pants developing their safety edu-cation work in line with best prac-tice.

The course has included groupdiscussions, practical activitiesand one-to-one support. The par-ticipants have built up portfolios,

including evidence of observedsessions, and their portfolios arenow being independently as-sessed.

Until now, such training hasbeen reserved for teachers andcommunity nurses.

Robert Cotterill, Sandwell

Until now, such training hasbeen reserved for teachers

and community nurses

Kathy Shortt with the playworkers

SAFETY Education Summer 2010 7

CSEC

ojects

Parents become pupilsA project designed to equipparents with the necessaryskills to help their childrenlearn how to stay safe on theroad is being run at aBirmingham infant school.

Parents were invited intoMarlborough Infant School inSmall Heath to find out howthey can share road safetymessages with their children.The ultimate aim isfor parents to helptheir children reach apoint at which theycan keep themselvesand others safe.

As well as cover-ing general roadsafety, the course run by theChild Safety EducationCoalition and BirminghamCity Council’s road safety ed-ucation team, focuses on theparticular nature of roadsclose to the school. These in-clude areas of high-densityhousing and lots of parkedcars.

Children at the school tookpart in practical road safety

sessions, during which theygained an understanding ofthe Green Cross Code, recog-nised safer places to crossthe road and learned how tocross in between parked carsand at junctions.

Jason Cole, the CSEC co-ordinator supporting the proj-ect, said: “Children can learna great deal about road safety

from their parents and carers,and this should be encour-aged when outside of theschool. Simply walking toschool or to the shops togeth-er can provide really goodopportunities for adults totalk to children about stayingsafe and for children to ‘learnby doing’.”

Jennifer Coombs, the roadsafety education officer lead-

ing the project said: “Over thepast six years, through theStreets Ahead on Safety(SAOS) project, a team of en-gineers and road safety edu-cation officers have been im-plementing engineering fea-tures and education, trainingand publicity projects. Thisproject aims to continue withthe successful work already

completed, and willempower parentsand the communityto take positive ac-tion in raising roadsafety awarenesswith their children.”

The project atMarlborough Infant Schooltook place over the course oftwo weeks. Parents attendeda one-hour training sessionwith road safety education of-ficers, and then assisted inthe training of their own chil-dren the following week.

If successful the project willprovide a training model thatcan be used in schools acrossthe city.

Children can learn a great dealabout road safety from their

parents and carers

poisoning, burns and scalds andtrips and falls. CSEC is hosted bythe Royal Society for thePrevention of Accidents.

For more information aboutCSEC, including details of how tobecome a member, seewww.csec.org.uk

a boostI.M.P.S co-ordinator, said: “Thetraining has helped me consoli-date my teaching knowledge andbuild on it. It is also encouragingme to make better links withother organisations to see how tomake our work really joined up.”

Jane Stark, child accident pre-vention manager at NHS

Wakefield District, said: “I havefound the course really interest-ing and stimulating and I wishwe had had the opportunity todo this a few years ago. It hasbeen really useful to look athow to structure lessons and to

reflect on your own practices andhow you could improve them.”

It is hoped that the CPD trainingwill be offered free-of-charge toCSEC members next year.Contact Jenny McWhirter formore information at jmcwhirter@rospa.com

ass

Children demonstrate their road safety knowledge

Young people arepart of the solution

8 SAFETY Education Summer 2010

CSEC

Team, Trudi Maybury of SaferBirmingham Partnership,Michael Dunn of the RoyalLifesaving Society, Alan Vineyof the Royal National LifeboatInstitution, John Welsh of the

Birmingham Youth ServiceCanal Boat, Scott Walker ofthe West Midlands FireService, Sharon Burton, ofWest Midlands Fire Service’sSafeside and Scott Henery ofIn-volve Hiah.

Ideas for the week whichemerged during the event in-cluded: a fashion show which

points to the dangers of ill-fit-ting clothes, a party whichshows young people how tohave fun without alcohol ordrugs and the incorporationof water safety information

into lessons. Scott Walker was so im-

pressed by the pupils’ pas-sion that he offered them a“once in a lifetime opportuni-ty” to visit a nearby fire sta-tion in April for training.

Michael Dunn, a pro-gramme manager for theRLSS, a member of CSEC,

said: “Young people are thebest to train because they re-tain so much information andare often so motivated tolearn. A group of committedyoungsters in a school likethis is much more likely tohave a positive impact ontheir peers than, say, a bignational initiative whichdoesn’t take into accountlocal factors.”

He then offered to sendRLSS volunteers into classesto demonstrate life-savingequipment.

Year 10 pupil DevanteBenjamin said: “We are get-ting better with our presenta-tions and all of the organisa-tions said that they would beprepared to help us with our‘Have Fun Be Safe’ pro-gramme.”

A teenage taskforce hasteamed up with WestMidlands safety experts tohelp their schoolmates learnhow to keep themselves andothers safe.

A committed group of 14and 15-year-olds, workingwith the Child SafetyEducation Coalition invitedseveral highly-specialised in-jury prevention professionalsto Heartlands Academy, inNechells, Birmingham. Theiraim was to win support forambitious plans to markChild Safety Week (June 21-27).

The Have Fun Be Safe brief-ing saw the Year 10 studentsgive presentations on five ofthe biggest killers of childrenand young people: road traf-fic injuries, drowning, burnsand scalds, trips and falls,and poisonings.

The students were: AliyahNesbeth, Bhesme Nimo,Devante Benjamin, ElizabethKoko, Govan Rashid, HennaAzam, Jinade Meherali,Mobarak Jama, Nazoly Safy,Rahmatala Haqmal, Ruksh-ana Begum, Shanice John-son, Sohail Hussain andTanzeela Ahmed.

Using video, music andpower point slides, they out-lined ways in which the as-sembled guests could give in-formation and financial back-ing to a number of initiativesaimed at sparking discussionamong fellow pupils duringthe week.

The young people then ledworkshop discussions withthe visitors, many of whomcame from organisationswhich have joined CSEC dur-ing the last year.

The guests were: Ibrar Aliof Birmingham’s Road Safety

Youth taskforce helps inteaching schoolmates

‘The course gives you ideas of how to getchildren thinking about being safe, rather

than us just telling them’

The Heartlands students with Gisela Stuart MP in the House of Commons

SAFETY Education Summer 2010 9

CSEC

Nothing is too risky if youhave the correct training

tical safety education thatCSEC is all about – enablingchildren to develop lifelong

safety-related skills during thecourse of everyday activities.”

Birmingham PlayCare Net-work aims to support, sustain

and promote high-qualitychild-centred play experi-ences, particularly throughopportunities which mighthave been lost from a child’severyday life.

Rebecca Coley, BPCN’sproject and fundraising man-ager, said: “I am delightedthat BPCN has been able tocollaborate with CSEC to de-liver this training.

“BPCN is dedicated to rais-ing the profile of play and thistraining has given playwork-ers an insight into how theycan practically implement el-ements of child safety with-out compromising the needfor risk in play.

“This training enables chil-dren to have an awarenessof risk while at the sametime equipping them to un-derstand and manage theirown safety. Play workerswere given the opportunityto experience practical activ-ities which they can then goback and deliver in their set-tings.”

Nicola Cox, a qualified nurs-ery practitioner at HighfieldDay Nursery, Birmingham,was one of the course dele-gates. She said: “The courseis really useful. It gives youideas of things you could doin your setting which you hadn’t thought about before,especially things which couldget the children thinkingabout being safe, rather thanus just telling them. It is allabout getting them to thinkfor themselves.”

The playworkers’ coursetook place at RoSPA’s head-quarters in Edgbaston, and itis hoped it will lead to the es-tablishment of a trainingframework which can be usedacross the country.

Children’s play workers fromacross Birmingham are tak-ing part in a new type oftraining aimed at givingthem the confidence to leadactivities sometimes deemed“too risky”.

The Child Safety EducationCoalition and BirminghamPlayCare Network have puttogether a new two-daycourse for after-school clubs,nurseries, daycare centresand charities which work withchildren aged from four to 11-years-old.

As well as getting delegatesto think about the preventionof road accidents, burns andscalds and trips and falls inand around their own premis-es, the course also givesthem guidance on helpingchildren learn how to keepthemselves safe.

Four training days inJanuary saw around 70 dele-gates completing the firstpart of the course and theyreturned for the second partin March. A new group of del-egates started the training inFebruary, returning for theirsecond day in April.

Kathy Shortt, the CSEC co-ordinator working on theproject, said: “The focus ofthe course is two-fold. It notonly helps play workers iden-tify anything which could beimproved in terms of thesafety of their own settingsbut will hopefully give themconfidence to enable childrento develop the skills theyneed to keep themselves andothers safe.

“For example, activities likecooking are sometimes avoid-ed in play settings due tofears about onerous risk as-sessments and the potentialfor injuries like burns. But

when such activities are wellplanned and well run, chil-dren can learn really valuable

lessons – not just about cook-ing, but also about dealingwith items which are hot orsharp. This is the type of prac-

Activities like cooking are sometimesavoided in play settings due to fears

about onerous risk assessments

Play workers from BPCN at training day

10 SAFETY Education Summer 2010

Congress

Debate raged when Sweden’sPatrick Magnussen brandedroad safety education for chil-dren as “a waste of time”.

Mr Magnussen, traffic safe-ty expert for the SwedishNational Roads Adminis-tration, provoked consterna-tion among some delegateswhen he dismissed the target-ing of under-12s as “point-less” because they were notyet mature enough to under-stand traffic dangers.

Less controversial, but justas radical, was his account ofSweden’s Vision Zero strategy- which aims to eradicate roaddeaths.

Mr Magnussen said it was“a moral outrage” that peoplewere still dying on roads, andthat we each had an obliga-tion to end the devastation itcauses millions of grievingloved ones every year.

The scheme’s philosophy isbased on the achievement ofsome occupational health andsafety strategies, and on theinescapable fact that all peo-ple are prone to making mis-

takes.As such the approach focus-

es on injuries, and not thecrashes which cause them.

Mr Magnussen said: “Roadsafety is a matter of publichealth. Let’s face it, we don’thave the right to kill or seri-ously injure for the sake ofmobility.

“But people make mistakes,they always will. In fact 85 percent of all accidents arecaused by human error.

“As such we should focuson injuries not crashes. InFormula 1 they know thatcrashes will occur so theyconcentrate on how to stopserious injuries.”

He then talked about theneed for shared responsibili-ty. If road users failed to com-ply with the rules because of alack of knowledge or ability,system designers were re-quired to take the necessarysteps to stop those people

being killed or injured.Mr Magnussen said this ap-

proach had helped produce asteady decline in the numberof deaths on Sweden’s roadssince the 1950s.

Currently it has among thelowest fatality figures in theworld, with just 4.3 peoplekilled per 100,000.

He then described collabo-ration as Sweden’s silver bul-let in the quest to eliminateroad deaths.

So far the need for co-oper-ation has resulted in a nation-al reference group involvingthe emergency services, na-tional authorities, insurancecompanies and car manufac-turers, which meets everysecond month to trou-bleshoot pressing concerns.

The congress was then toldthat Sweden’s biggest prob-lem continued to be speed-ing.

Mr Magnussen said that ifeverybody kept within thelimit 150 lives would be savedevery year.

The country’s interim targetis to halve the number of fa-talities by 2020 - saving atleast 220 lives - and to cut thenumber of seriously injuredby a quarter - protecting atleast 4,000 people.

He hoped the targets wouldbe met through a range of in-terventions.

These included more 2+1roads, which have already re-sulted in a 90 per cent reduc-tion in fatalities where theyhave been introduced, a newspeed limit system, whichtakes into account road condi-tions and the installation of1,000 speed cameras.

He said this approach wasalready paying dividends. In2008 only one child, aged 0-17, was killed while walking orcycling, while only two chil-dren below the age of six

were killed as car passengers.Low child mortality rates

have also been achieved byseparating cars from vulnera-ble road users in some resi-dential areas, establishing 30km/h zones, forcing under-15sto wear bike helmets and in-troducing rear-facing seats forchildren up to the age of four.

Mr Magnussen then point-ed to a slew of new technolo-gies which could also be ofgreat benefit over the comingyears.

These included better seat-belt reminders, speed limitrecognition, autonomousemergency braking, electron-ic stability control, and al-colocks.

Sweden’s unusual approach

Safe rou

Several speakers tackled thorny educational problems at RoSPA’s road safety congress.

Michael Corley reports from Stratford-upon-Avon

A project to get more pupilswalking and cycling to schoolin America has heralded anew approach to the waydata is evaluated.

Lauren Marchetti set up theNational Center for SafeRoutes to School in responseto a law which was passed in2005.

The legislation was drawnup in a bid to improve unsafewalking and biking condi-tions, increase physical activ-ity, slash vehicle emissions,and cut transportation costsfor schools.

As an added benefit it washoped the strategy wouldalso help tackle the country’schild obesity epidemic.

The problem is that since1969, there has been a 26 percent drop (to 16 per cent) inthe number of youngsterswho walk to school.

Parents who drive theirchildren to school currentlyaccount for about 25 per centof all morning rush-hour traf-fic.

Ms Marchetti said the prob-lem had been exacerbated bynew ‘mega-schools’ appear-

Patrick Magnussen was controversial

SAFETY Education Summer 2010 11

Road crashes are the leadingkiller of young people - wip-ing out more than 400,000every year, and injuring mil-lions more.

Reminding the auditoriumof those sickening statistics,Floor Lieshout prefaced histalk with a passionate plea foraction.

The chief executive of Youthfor Road Safety (YOURS),which is based in theNetherlands, said: “I think it isan outrage that so manyyoung people are still dyingon our roads.

“Unless action is taken nowfatality figures will start to riseagain significantly.”

His organisation’s goal is tocreate an international youthNGO for road safety, whosemission would be to conquera lack of recognition of thevulnerability of young peoplein traffic, unite a fragmentedapproach to road safety foryoung people and provideone strong voice to advocateon behalf of those at risk.

Picking up on Mr Lieshout’sconcerns, Dr JennyMcWhirter, RoSPA’s risk edu-cation adviser, and UrsulaLowe, AdRisk project coordi-nator for the Austrian RoadSafety Board, then took to thestage.

The pair teamed-up in 2008for a two-year pilot projectthat looked at youth participa-tion in injury prevention.

Their presentation unveiledthe results of an internationalseminar, which concludedthat more should be done topromote risk competenceamong 15-24-year-olds.

Dr McWhirter said: “Wehave to really try to engagewith young people. There is afundamental belief thatyoung people have a right tobe involved in the issues af-fecting them.

“They must not be treated

as mere decorations or to-kens.”

She pointed to RoSPA’sYouth Network on Facebook,which was set up by a team ofyoung people on work experi-ence.

Mrs Lowe said: “Risk takingbehaviour is normal in ado-lescence; it’s part of their de-velopment.

“Young people mostlydon’t like to be given advice;they can react badly to regula-tions being imposed onthem.”

She added that youngsterscannot be fully protectedfrom their own behaviour, butattitudes can be shaped tohelp them improve self-re-liance.

As part of this approach shesaid adults can help them torecognise and handle risksand dangers.

The work has resulted inthe Split the Risk School pilotprogramme – which encour-ages participants to take asplit-second before consider-ing what action to take.

It tests this approach by get-ting youngsters to studyvideo clips on YouTube.

The last presentation of theafternoon was delivered by DrGillian Hotz, director of theWalkSafe Program, at theUniversity of Miami, inAmerica.

WalkSafe is an elementaryschool-based project whichaims to bolster pedestriansafety, increase daily physicalactivity, and improve walk-ways around schools.

A study undertaken by theNational Highway SafetyAdministration has shownthat WalkSafe has been one ofthe key reasons for a fall inthe number of children beinghit by cars, and a rise in thenumber of youngsters walk-ing to and from school.

It is now hoped that aBikeSafe scheme will take-off,using a similar approach.

tes to school

Action on childaccidents now

Congress

ing on the edge of towns andcities.

The success of her scheme- almost 6,500 headteachershave already signed up to it -is being measured by studenttally forms, where for two

days of one week teachersask their pupils how theymade their way home theprevious day and how theytravelled to class that morn-ing.

Goals are only set once athorough under-standing of thelocal situation hasbeen grasped.

Though theaims differ fromregion to region,all surveys showthat achievementis most likelywhen targetingchildren who livewithin a two mileradius of school.

At one school adramatic uptakein the number ofpupils biking andwalking meantthe establishmentcould reduce itsfleet of schoolbuses from six toone – saving it atleast $220,000 int r a n s p o rt a t i o ncosts a year.

Floor Lieshout made a plea to save young people

Lauren Marchetti took a new approach

12 SAFETY Education Summer 2010

News extra

IAnswers for everythingEver wondered where youcan find the answer to suchquestions as “is Tufty aliveand well” or “what internetresources are available toteach children about homesafety”?

Well wonder no more, be-cause RoSPA’s mission tosave lives and reduce in-juries has been broughtbang up to date with the un-veiling of a new interactivewebsite that includes a hugefrequently asked questionsdatabase.

The Royal Society for thePrevention of Accidents’ mainsite - www.rospa.com - hasbeen totally refashioned tohelp fulfil the charity’s aim ofleading the way on accidentprevention in the 21st century.

About two years in themaking, the new site wentlive when Lord Jordan ofBournville, RoSPA’s presi-dent, pressed an onlinelaunch button at the society’sBirmingham headquarters.

The site, which was de-signed and built by RoSPA’sin-house web team, providesplenty of life-saving informa-tion about preventing acci-dents at home, on the road, atwork and at leisure. There arealso sections dedicated tochild safety and safety and

risk education.Among other things, visi-

tors can now view a series ofvideos and use an interactiveheritage timeline whichcharts many of RoSPA’s cam-paigns and successes duringits 93-year history, as well ascheck up-to-the-minute newsabout all of RoSPA’s cam-paigns, products, servicesand training.

Visitors will also have theopportunity to customisetheir homepage and to set upRSS feeds.

Tom Mullarkey, RoSPAchief executive, said: “This isa very exciting developmentthat shows we’re still at thecutting edge of saving livesand reducing injuries.

“It’s vital that in the age of

information technology wehave a big, interactive pres-ence on the web. Our previ-ous website received 2.92million visits in the last yearand we look forward to manymore visitors in the future.

“Our aim has always been

to advise and educate asmany people as possible

about the risks they face ineveryday life. This websiteshould help carry our mes-

sages into the homes andworkplaces of millions ofpeople who we hope will useit time and again as a valu-able resource.”

A dedicated web zone forRoSPA members, whichholds exclusive content in-cluding access to theInfocentre catalogue (whichstores details of more than28,500 documents), has alsobeen integrated into the site.

Check up-to-the-minute news about all ofRoSPA’s campaigns, products, services

and training