RoSPA Press Office : Press Release
December 6, 2007
NEW STRATEGY TO MAKE SCOTLAND SAFER FOR CHILDREN
Leading Scottish safety organisations today launched a national strategy for preventing accidents involving children and young people.
Scotland’s Child Safety Strategy, which was unveiled at The Risk Factory, Newmart Road, Edinburgh, covers all types of accidents, including those on the road, in the home and at leisure. It outlines the current unintentional injury problem, outlines what children and young people think about accidents, and recommends key approaches and action needed to improve the situation.
Unintentional injury is second only to cancer as a cause of death for under-15s in Scotland and is the most common cause of emergency hospital admissions for them. Every year in Scotland, one in five children attends an Accident and Emergency department following an unintentional injury, totalling around 200,000 emergency hospital visits, and in 2005/06, 10,000 children were admitted to hospital as a result of injuries. It is estimated that in Scotland, children’s accidents cost the NHS £40million and society generally around £400million every year.
Scotland’s child death rate from unintentional injuries is better than in many other EU countries, but is 30 per cent higher than in England and Wales. Research has also identified a link between child accident deaths and deprivation in Scotland.
A survey conducted during the development of the strategy found that children and young people worried about being injured in an accident, but many thought they knew everything they needed about staying safe or rejected the whole idea that accidents could be prevented.
The strategy, put together as part of the European Child Safety Action Plan Project, says the focus should be on preventing the accidents that result in death, serious or long-lasting injury, as well as those that are most numerous. It also says that prevention programmes should be based on sound knowledge of what works, and that the difference between the injury death rates of the poorest and wealthiest families has to be reduced “as a matter of urgency”.
But it also states that a balance must be struck between accident prevention and children’s need for active exploration and development.
Clear leadership from the Scottish Government is recommended, including through the production of a detailed plan of action for reducing injuries to children. It is recommended that the action plan is developed by the end of 2008, setting out priority injury issues and identifying clear lines of responsibility.
Elizabeth Lumsden, of RoSPA, who chairs the Child Safety Action Plan for Scotland Steering Group, said: “Although the number of children dying from unintentional injuries has reduced dramatically, many thousands of children are still being admitted to hospital each year for treatment. In 2005/06, 9,829 children were admitted to hospital as a result of an unintentional injury in Scotland and the figures show that boys were almost twice as likely to be admitted as girls. We also know that young children - those aged from one to four-years-old - are especially at risk of being injured in the home. Action is therefore still needed.
“Despite the significant social and economic costs of injuries to children and young people, however, Scotland has no co-ordinated child injury reduction plan. Earlier this month, a ‘Report Card’ produced by the European Child Safety Alliance rated Scotland’s performance on child safety as ‘fair’. It recommended stronger leadership from government, including a government-endorsed national child safety strategy. We now have a strategy, and are waiting to hear whether the Government will endorse it.”
The document can be found at: www.rospa.com/news/scotland/childsafetystrategy/
The Child Safety Action Plan Project, run by the European Child Safety Alliance, aims to develop government-endorsed child safety plans in participating countries.
*The Child Safety Action Plan for Scotland Steering Group – a coalition of public and voluntary sector organisations - consists of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, Child Accident Prevention Trust, NHS Health Scotland, Children in Scotland, Road Safety Scotland, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, Chief Fire Officers Association Scotland, Scottish Accident Prevention Council and Association of Scottish Local Authority Health Improvement Officers.
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