RoSPA Press Office : Press Release

December 3, 2007
£18MILLION BOOST FOR HOME SAFETY WELCOMED BY RoSPA

Tom Mullarkey, Chief Executive of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, said today that he was delighted by the Government’s decision to invest £18million in home safety measures designed to protect children in vulnerable families.

“This is something RoSPA has pressed for over many years,” he said. “We are extremely pleased the Government is taking the need for home safety measures seriously as it is an area that has been neglected. It has been a Cinderella for too long.

“Around 2.7 million people go to hospitals after a home accident in the UK each year, about a million of them are children and half a million are under-five.

“Clear links have been shown between deprivation and childhood accidents. If we can put money into areas where families are less well off it can have wonderful benefits, not only reducing pain and suffering, but also saving money for local authorities and the health service.

“RoSPA looks forward to working with the Department for Children, Schools and Families to help ensure this money is spent wisely and has the maximum effect.

“Even a relatively small investment in accident prevention work can pay dividends and so this announcement is great news for those who campaign to save lives and reduce injuries. Several recent small-scale accident prevention projects have returned savings of between three times and five times the costs of the projects.”

The Government said today that it would announce in the forthcoming Children’s Plan an £18million scheme over the next three years to help the most vulnerable families keep their children safe from accidental injuries at home.

The Children’s Plan will set out details of a new Home Safety Equipment scheme targeted at those families in the most deprived circumstances. Though some local areas already have schemes set up to provide home safety equipment at low or no cost these are not available in every area of the country.

Ed Balls, Children’s Secretary, said : “We want all families to be able to provide a safe home environment for their children and this scheme will provide practical help for the most vulnerable families to reduce the risks of accidents in the home. This includes providing stair gates, fireguards and socket covers.

“Most families can provide essential home safety equipment to keep their children safe. Vulnerable families often struggle to buy stair gates, socket covers or fireguards and during our consultation for the Children’s Plan we identified that more help was needed for these families to prevent accidental injuries at home. ”

See: www.dfes.gov.uk/pns/DisplayPN.cgi?pn_id=2007_0226