Home Safety: Sharing Good Practice
Davina Hartley 2011
Background
• DCSF funded National ‘Safe at Home’ scheme
• Will end in March 2011
• Main focus to provide and fit home safety equipment sets to
families in receipt of benefits with a child under 5.
• Children from disadvantaged backgrounds are more likely
to suffer unintentional injury.
“ a child whose parents have never worked is 13 times
more likely to die from unintentional injury and 37 times
more likely to die from exposure to smoke, fire and flames
than children from parents in higher managerial
professions’
The Bradford District
• Of the 354 local authority areas in England, Bradford
ranked the third highest (93.9 excess admissions over the
88.82 average)
• Serious accidental injury relating to hospital
admissions for under 4’s for 2004-2005 :
Bradford
= 112.3 per 100,000
Yorks and Humber
= 94.2 per 100,000
National average
= 88.4 per 100,000
(This is more than 26% above the national average.)
The Bradford District
• The Bradford District is the 4th largest
District in England
• Children 0-4 = 30,400, 7.9% of overall
population
• 31.7% of children live in poverty
• Due to the number of excess admissions in
Bradford we were allocated 2868 sets of
equipment per annum.
The Scheme Locally
• 2868 sets of equipment over two years adds up to approx
£745,680 (incl fitting)
• Delivered through an effective multiagency partnership
• Fitting service commissioned by RoSPA
• Tiered service has included a universal services for all families
with children under five and targeted services to reach the most
vulnerable children.
• Referrals were made to children centre and a home visit or safety
session was held
• If eligible then referral into fitting service was made and
equipment was fitted
Set of Equipment
• A set of equipment from safe at home consists of:
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2 Stair Gates
Fireguard
Cupboard locks
Window restrictors
Bathmat
Corner cushions and
Blind cord gadget
Approx cost per set = £70.00
Benefits of the scheme
•Valuable service for professionals to refer into – increased
partnerships
•Aims to reduce inequalities
•Consistent scheme accessible to all in District regardless of
postcode
•Targets the most vulnerable children
•Filled the large gap left by discontinuation of FSU scheme
•Contributes to meeting the target within the CYPP (20092012) and the current needs assessment in which accidental
injury to children is seen as a priority.
Impact
• Still too early to see the full impact of the scheme
• Anticipated long term benefits
• No quick return, however, short term funded projects will
not produce the long term gains required to tackle this
complex issue locally
• Commitment to long term required from public service
leaders and from localities within Bradford if we are to
really impact on outcomes for children.
What the scheme has meant to parents
BSCB are doing a survey of every 20th family in receipt of the scheme, some
of their comments are below:
“Made a big difference overall as I have a marble fireplace that was a real
hazard but is now safer”
“Been a lot better safety wise….the safety gate is far better than expected and
is in daily use”
“Has definitely made a difference to us now the children can’t get up the stairs
and into cupboards with chemicals in”
“…the safety gate and fireguard have definitely made things better”
“It has made life a lot easier, the equipment was fitted about a week before
the baby started crawling, very good timing. The fireguard is great”
“…It has taken away the worry of the stairs.”
Statistics
• BSCB have had a total of 5200 referrals into the scheme to
date from local practitioners
• We do not have access to good representative data relating
to attendances at A and E due to injuries
• We are waiting for the National evaluation through RoSPA
to find out how effective the scheme has been in terms of
reducing injury related admissions
A Case Study: ACAP
•ACAP : Action on children’s accidents project
•Funded by East Lancs NHS
•Award winning project
•Central team offering fully installed home safety equipment
for vulnerable children under five
•Have designated team of fitters
•Also offer home safety talks and safety events to raise
awareness
•The scheme has reduced child A and E attendances
LOCAL OPTIONS : After March 2011
•The evidence shows that schemes are more effective when the
equipment is installed
•The Bradford District needs to provide an equitable district
wide scheme
•Safety assessments should continue to be offered by frontline
staff carrying out home visits
•Home safety advice and information should continue to be
offered to parents/ carers
OPTIONS continued
The options for children centres/ localities include:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Offer home safety assessments (using checklist)
Offer home safety sessions
Offer cost price equipment to most vulnerable families
Offer free equipment to most vulnerable families
Offer free equipment and installation of equipment to most
vulnerable families
Tools to aid sustainability
•There are tools available after the safe at home scheme ends to help local
centres deliver important key messages to parents:
RoSPA DVD’s for home safety sessions
home safety checklist/ assessment
Storyboard method
Online home safety training
Baby Burns dolls and hot drinks burn DVD pack
Blind Cord winder packs available from RoSPA
ELFS packs
The purpose of this event
• To provide information about national guidance relating to
home safety
• To share good practice in relation to the home safety
scheme
• To thank everyone locally for their fantastic contribution to
working to prevent injuries to local children
• To gather the views of local frontline staff regarding the
delivery of the scheme and the challenges faced
• To provide tools to help you continue to work to try and
prevent injuries to children in the Bradford District
My Details
Davina Hartley
Child Accident Prevention Coordinator
Bradford Safeguarding Children Board
01274 431490
davina.hartley@bradford.gov.uk