Child Safety Week – are you involved?

Accidents are the biggest killer of children and young people in the UK and cause thousands of serious injuries every year.

According to Child Accident Prevention Trust (CAPT), they can be reduced through advocating change in legislation, improving product design, creating child friendly environments and through better knowledge of how children's accidents are caused.

CAPT organises Child Safety Week, an annual initiative that aims to increase awareness and understanding of children's accidents and how they can be prevented. This year Child Safety Week will be held 23 - 29 June 2003.

Child Safety Week assists safety practitioners by providing information and materials to help promote child safety. Each year a different approach or theme is chosen to encourage active participation and to promote child safety in an interesting way.

For 2003 the theme is ‘One moment changes everything’.
The message is 'Accidents happen in seconds but the effects can last a lifetime. Take action now for child safety’.

The aims of Child Safety Week are:

• To provide clear and accurate safety information
  
• To persuade local communities to take part in child safety activities
  
• To encourage the media to provide positive coverage for child injury prevention and child safety issues.

Through Child Safety Week, CAPT aims to involve anyone interested in child safety, including practitioners who work in safety, such as environmental health officers, road safety officers and trading standards officers.

Practitioners are encouraged to participate by organising Child Safety Week activities and events in their local communities and thus generating coverage in local media. CAPT supports regional activity by offering planning days and putting participants in contact with each other so that they can share ideas.

CAPT also prepares and distributes resources to practitioners and the public and organises a national media launch. It also evaluates the impact of each Child Safety Week to measure its strengths and weaknesses.

Every year resources are extended and updated. For each Child Safety Week CAPT produce an ideas booklet and poster, which are sent to anyone interested in organising an activity, event or long-term campaign. Additional leaflets, posters, stickers and other resources are available and can be purchased directly from CAPT.

Alternatively, resources and further information can be obtained from CAPT’s website, www.capt.org.uk