RoSPA Press Office : Press Release

November 5 , 2007
MORE SCHEMES NEEDED TO HELP CHILDREN EXPERIENCE RISK

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents is calling for a massive expansion in schemes which allow children to experience risk so that they will be better prepared for situations they face in later life.

Currently only about six per cent of primary school children visit a LASER – Learning About Safety By Experiencing Risk - scheme.

Errol Taylor, Deputy Chief Executive of RoSPA, said: “This is far too low. It means thousands of children miss the opportunity to learn how to face challenges successfully and lead more enjoyable lives.”

There are about 200 safety schemes across the UK that fall under the general LASER banner. Some are permanent centres and others are annual events. RoSPA worked with scheme providers to publish a set of LASER Good Practice Guidelines and was then commissioned by the Department of Health to establish an accreditation service for safety projects across England.

Centres and schemes use realistic settings – such as road, garden, railway and building site scenes - to stress the importance of children: taking more personal responsibility for their own safety and the safety of others; understanding risks; and learning how to cope when faced with dangerous or difficult circumstances.

Errol Taylor spoke about “LASER and its Contribution to Risk Literacy” at the recent launch of a paper on “Risk and Childhood” by Nicola Madge and John Barker at the RSA.

He welcomed the report which said that children needed to understand risk and how to cope with it if we want to develop enterprise and strengthen our economy. It said that often children were not provided with the opportunities to take risks and so did not learn the necessary skills for successful risk-taking.

“RoSPA agrees with the recommendation that ways are found to give children the chance to make their own decisions about risk-taking as soon as they are competent and confident enough to do so,” Errol Taylor said.

“LASER has an important role to play in this, but currently the majority of primary school children do not have the chance to experience this way of learning through calculated risk-taking.

"We need Government, local authorities and all groups with an interest in children's education to help with funding and play their part in ensuring a greater provision of RoSPA-LASER-accredited schemes throughout the UK.”

For more information about LASER schemes, see www.lasersafety.org.uk