SAFETYEducation

Summer 2011ISSN 0459-2034

Keeping them safe inand out of school

Contents

SAFETY Education Summer 2011 1

Inside this issue...

Managing Editor Janice Cave MBE

Editorial ConsultantJim Barrow

Occupational Safety AdviserRoger Bibbings MBE

Risk Education AdviserJenny McWhirter

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News 2Young drivers targetted

Making trips safer 3New workshops

Knowledge 4Widening scope

Four qualify 5National award

Research 6-7Young parents

Road safety 8-10A Frank view

Evaluation 11Making it happen

Disasters 12Things people do

2 SAFETY Education Summer 2011

News

I Leeds sign up

I Parents set bad example

Cambridgeshire AdvancedDrivers and Riders are tack-ling young driver safety headon. Working with the fireservice and other agencies todeliver the Drive 2 Arrive roadsafety campaign in Cam-bridgeshire schools and col-leges, CADaR is aiming tochange young people’s opin-ions and helping to make thecounty a safer place.

Drive 2 Arrive consists of 15minute micro lessons deliv-ered to groups of up to 16students at a time to addressdriving issues and is de-signed to create maximumstudent participation.

During this lesson the stu-dents are asked to identifynot just the possible conse-quences of irresponsible driv-ing but also the benefitswhich responsible driving

can bring. The students then explain

to the group the pros andcons that they have identi-fied.

Mid way through the activi-ty the students discuss thepros and cons of standing upto their peers to tackle irre-sponsible driving behaviour.

Pros and cons is one ofseven lessons;• Pros and cons• Hazards and distractions• Judge and jury• Cool wall• Speed• Driving with mates• Statistic interrogation

Station Manager MartinOckenden the Cambridge Fireand Rescue Service roadsafety lead officer said “Iwould like to thank the in-structors from CADaR who

interacted extremely wellwith the students. They werevery professional and the re-sults of the survey identifiedthat the students felt the in-structors had a high level ofcredibility.”

Some comments from thestudents:• “I have learnt many things

that I will take into account,not just for now, but for therest of my life! Thank you!”

• “That you should not drive

recklessly”• “The dangers about driving

inappropriately”• “I have learnt all the dan-

gers of driving and how lit-tle things can go wrongwhen full attention is notpaid on the road”

• “It was eye opening”The lessons have been de-

veloped by members CF&RSwith the assistance of Cam-bridgeshire and PeterboroughRoad Safety Partnership.

I Target is young driver safety

An innovative new partner-ship between the THINK!child road safety campaignand The Leeds United Found-ation has been launched .

The Leeds United Found-ation will use its after-schoolclubs and activities in schoolsand on match days to helpyoungsters learn about roadsafety with THINK!’s Tales ofthe Road materials.

The new initiative will focuson helping six to 11-year-oldslearn how to find safe placesto cross the road after evi-dence showed that this is akey factor in helping childrenstay safe on the roads.

Alan Scorfield, educationproject manager at The LeedsUnited Foundation, said: “Aspart of our involvement in theTHINK! ‘Tales of the Road’campaign, we will be visitingaround 50 primary schoolsacross Leeds to deliver class-room activities and raiseawareness of road safety. Wewill also be running activitieson match days, supported bymembers of the teams andour mascot, Lucas the KopCat.”

Blackburn Rovers, Sunder-land and West BromwichAlbion are also running simil-ar schemes.

One in 10 parents know achild who has been knockedover by traffic, new researchshows. However, many par-ents and children are still put-ting themselves at risk, withone in three parents andnearly one in 10 children ad-mitting they cross the roadwhile talking on phones, tex-ting or listening to aniPod/MP3 player.

Car insurance specialist,Admiral, questioned parentsand children to find outabout their road safetyhabits and worryingly foundless than half of parents (42per cent) follow the GreenCross Code when crossingthe road and almost one infive children (18 per cent)say they don’t. This is de-spite the research alsoshowing most parents feeltoday’s roads are busier (85

per cent), with people driv-ing faster (70 per cent) andbeing less considerate topedestrians (61 per cent)compared to when theywere children. Despite notalways following it, parentsalso think following theGreen Cross Code is moreimportant than ever before(45 per cent).

Commenting on the sur-vey’s findings, Kevin Clinton,head of road safety at theRoyal Society for thePrevention of Accidents, said:“Parents and carers have animportant role to play in help-ing their children learn aboutroad safety from an early age.Simply walking to school orto the shops together pro-vides fantastic opportunitiesto start talking about roadsafety and to put into practiceactions like choosing safe

places to cross and not beingdistracted by music, a mobilephone or friends while cross-ing the road. And, of course,it’s important that the adultsthemselves set a good exam-ple!”

But children don’t make iteasy for their parents, as al-most a fifth (18 per cent)argue with their parents be-cause their parents worryabout them crossing the roadby themselves.

So for a 21st Century up-date on the Green Cross Codeand to stress its importance,Admiral has put together avideo with presenterAngellica Bell, highlightingwhat dangers exist for chil-dren on our roads today andhow to avert them. It also fea-tures Kevin Clinton. To see thevideo visit www. admiral.com/GreenCrossCode

SAFETY Education Summer 2011 3

News

I Teacher heads back

I Blog to air your views

higher-risk activities includingvisits to foreign countries.Workshops begin by look-

ing at schools’ individualschool trip policies, ensuringthat each session is tailoredspecifically to delegates’needs and take a look at whatcan happen in the unlikelyevent that something goeswrong on a trip.

Sessions also look at theplanning of a school trip athome, and abroad, usingRoSPA’s guidance as well asthat from local authorities.

Simple measures RoSPArecommends schools takewhen planning trips include:• Ensuring teachers have the

necessary competence andskills to lead the trip theyare planning

• Involving young people inthe risk assessment process

• Ensuring parents are fullyaware of what is planned sothat they are happy theirchildren will want to partici-pate

• Making sure what is donehas been planned properly(not making last-minute de-cisions to introduce new ac-tivities which have not beenproperly thought through)

• Having a plan B and plan Cin case circumstances (e.g.weather, travel arrange-ments) alter while on thetrip.If you would like to organise

a workshop for your organisa-tion, please contact JenniferFergusson, RoSPA Scotland’stele-business delivery and ad-ministration co-ordinator, on0131 449 9378 or email jfer-gusson@rospa. com.

Has a safety topic rattledyour cage? Has something inthe news piqued your inter-est? If you’re a teacher, safetyprofessional, or simplysomeone with an interest inhealth and safety, RoSPA’snew blog “Safety GoneSane” will have somethingfor you.

Keeping school trips on theagenda in Scotland is a keypriority for the Royal Societyfor the Prevention of Acci-dents and it has launched anew series of bespoke work-shops to provide teacherswith the skills and knowl-edge to run safe and excitingtrips.

RoSPA Scotland hopes theworkshops, to be run withinorganisations, will help teach-ers to overcome their fearsabout taking children out ofschool, and give them theconfidence to plan and riskassess school trips effective-ly.

Karen McDonnell, head ofRoSPA Scotland, said: “Plan-ning a school trip doesn’tneed to involve masses of redtape, and these workshopsaim to show teachers justhow simple it is to conductrisk assessments.

“We are always disappoint-ed when teachers tell us thatthey have been put off run-ning school trips because ofthe perceived dangers andbureaucracy involved. Mill-ions of British children go onschool trips each year, and thevast majority of visits happenwithout serious incident.

“School trips have huge ed-ucational and wider socialbenefits for children; and tripsprovide ideal opportunitiesfor children to learn aboutchallenges and risks in theirlives. We need to promote aculture where things are ‘assafe as necessary’ not ‘as safeas possible’. Restricting chil-dren unnecessarily will nothelp them to cope confidentlyin later life.”

The workshops are aimedat teachers and others withresponsibility for organisingand running school trips. Theycover:• Legal obligations and re-

sponsibilities in connectionwith school visits and trips

• How to manage and controlthe health and safety risksassociated with takingpupils out of school

• Factors associated with

I Keeping school trips going

Experts from many fieldsof health and safety (also in-cluding home safety, waterand leisure safety, road safe-ty and workplace safety) con-tribute their news and opin-ions on a regular basis, giv-ing you the opportunity toget involved.

RoSPA isn’t just about edu-

cation and information: itwants to hear from the peo-ple involved. You may be aninterested member of thepublic, or safety may be inte-gral to your job – why not jointhe dialogue?

Visit www.safetygonesane.wordpress.com and get in-volved.

Head teacher Heather Holthas a go on a back-to-backtandem. Heather is head ofLoddon Primary School inEarley, one of the firstschools in Wokingham tohost a Bikeability course.

The council obtained agrant from the Departmentfor Transport to pay for up to600 children to receive

Bikeability training in2011/2012.

Cycle training coordinatorJill Bissell said: “In theWokingham Borough we havea huge demand from parentsfor cycle training to help theirchildren cycle more safely onthe roads, by improving theircycling skills, behaviour andhazard awareness.”

tributing to road safety beingpromoted ‘by’ local communi-ties rather than ‘for’ local com-munities, keeping this impor-tant work fresh, appealing andcontemporary.”

Lyn and her colleaguesidentified that road safety is alifelong education processwhich doesn’t begin and endin school, but neverthelessshould still use approachesbased on sound educationalpractice – designed to devel-op appropriate attitude andbehaviours.

Starting in schools, under‘Every Child Matters’, theCULTURE process ensuresthat not only will all the chil-dren in a member school geta comprehensive road safetyeducation, but because it is

A new edition of a road safety tool box aimedat teenagers has been launched in SouthLanarkshire.

The new edition of Crash Magnets encour-ages the young people to acknowledge thechoices they have as independent travellersas well as the risks and responsibilities of be-coming a driver.

It stresses the importance of positive atti-tudes and behaviours before young peopleget behind the wheel of a car.

Chair of South Lanarkshire Council’s RoadSafety Forum, Councillor John Murray, said:“Road Safety education is vitally important inshaping opinions and attitudes to speeding;drink-driving, drug-driving and in-car safety.“

Lyn Morris, founding co-di-rector of Stilwell Road Safety,officially launched theirsrsCULTURE project at theRoSPA road safety seminar inFebruary.The aim of the proj-ect is to provide on-goingroad safety education to asmany groups of road users aspossible, based on the philos-ophy that the more you knowand understand about yourenvironment, the safer youwill be in it – and this appliesto all walks of life.

Ian Proctor, head of roadsafety at Kent said of the proj-ect “Through its innovativeweb-based approach srs CUL-TURE enables communities toengage with road safety in amanner which is both accessi-ble and relevant to them...con-

4 SAFETY Education Summer 2011

News

I Crash magnets tool box

delivered within a strategicframework the school willalso be providing an ethos ofroad safety, permeating theireveryday activities as well as

the curriculum.srsCULTUREforSchools

aims to deliver the 10 princi-ples of effective safety educa-tion by adopting a wholeschool approach, encourag-ing active teaching and learn-ing in both the formal and in-formal curriculum.

The lesson plans follow thespiral curriculum, and sup-port teaching staff to facilitatepupils making real decisionsin real settings, safely. Thecurriculum bundles also con-tain very comprehensiveguidance for teachers on theroad safety aspects of the les-sons and how these link tochild development and toother areas of the curriculum.

The website is already upand running, membership isvery affordable and can evenbe funded by sponsorshipfrom families or local busi-nesses. Further CULTUREprogrammes, including foryoung drivers, work, parentsand senior citizens, are soonto be launched and it is hopedthat the team will eventuallyhave a dedicated sector for allroad user groups.

All srsCULTURE memberswill be encouraged, by usingthe built-in evaluation pro-cess under development, tofeed into the E-valu-it tool forevaluating road safety pro-grammes and thereby in-forming future road safetystrategy.

Visit www.srsculture.org.ukfor more information.

I Project aims to widen knowledge

SAFETY Education Summer 2011 5

News

I Ringway award goes to Thomas

I Four get qualificationOne of the aims of the ChildSafety Education Coalitionwas to increase the capacityof practitioners who workwith children and young peo-ple to prevent injury.

In 2008-9 five CSEC mem-bers put themselves forwardfor a national qualification inPersonal Social Health andEconomic education knownas the PSHE CPD qualifica-tion. The course is deliveredlocally but assessed national-ly by Roehampton University.

The qualification includeshaving sessions observed bya qualified teacher and thedevelopment of a portfolio ofevidence of effective practice.

Four candidates have suc-cessfully completed the qual-ification (one has re-submit-ted after feedback from theassessor). In February 2011Jane Stark, Andy Townsend

and Cassius Francis travelledto London for the presenta-tion of their certificates atRoSPA’s national safety andrisk education committee. Thefourth candidate, RobCotterill was successful butnot able to attend.

Also in attendance at themeeting was Margaret Jones(HMI for PSHE at Ofsted) andJohn Lloyd of the nationalPSHE Association. John said“Safety education is an im-portant part of PSHE educa-tion and it is great that theyhave all had the opportunityto think how their work con-tributes to the health andwellbeing of children andyoung people.”

Jane Stark said that themost useful part for her in thetraining was to have her les-sons observed. “The feed-back I got really helped me to

understand how best to helpchildren learn to keep them-selves safe. I hope to usewhat I have learned in myrole as health improvementpractitioner specialist – acci-dents for NHS Wakefield.”

Six more candidates have

Highway and constructionservices firm Ringway hasbeen working with StanilandPrimary School to provide asafer way for pupils to navi-gate around hazardous roadworks near to the school.

The school, in Boston,

Lincolnshire, ran a competi-tion for its pupils to design aroad safety plan for the areawhich had to cover all modesof transport from cars andlorries, to cyclists and pedes-trians. The plan was to raiseawareness of road safety

among the pupils at the sametime as highlighting ways inwhich all modes of transportcan safely manoeuvre aroundthe road works at the sametime.

Ringway and client projectstaff are turning the winningdesign into a constructionproject with the winningpupil taking a lead role in theprocess.

Bob Sutton, the contractsmanager for Ringway inLincolnshire, said: “We haveall seen incidents when chil-dren come running out ofschool, full of energy, andtemporarily forget their roadsafety rules. So it is really im-portant children understandthe dangers of traffic andnavigating safely aroundbusy road works.

“This competition is anideal way of teaching themabout road-signs, road mark-ings and the safest way to be-have in such conditions. It isa pleasure to work togetherwith Staniland School onsuch an enlightening project.”

For the competition entries,pupils could use road mark-ings and signs which areused every day on our high-ways or, as long as it wasclear what the instructionswere meant to be, they coulddesign markings and signs oftheir own.

They were given two differ-ent areas around the schoolfor which to design plans. Thefirst being a crossing be-tween the school playgroundand school playing field; thesecond area where the play-ing field extends up to theend of a play equipment area.

Head teacher, RachelCreasey, and Ringway will beshortly start constructing thedesign, created by ThomasMaund, age 8, for all pupils touse. Each of the pupils fromStaniland School will be giventhe chance to assist with theconstruction and winnerThomas will help supervisethe project as it progresses.The competition winner willalso be asked to open the newfacility upon completion.

enrolled on the course andwill be submitting their as-signments in the near future.If you are interested in learn-ing more about this nationalqualification, please contactJenny McWhirter (jmcwhirter@rospa.com).

Jane Stark receives her certificate from David Robinson,committee chair

Winning pupil Thomas Maund with Bob Sutton (left) and IanSweeney, from Lincolnshire county council

6 SAFETY Education Summer 2011

Research

RoSPA has been host to itsfourth Changemaker’s YoungAdvocate, Zahida Begum,who investigated home safe-ty among young parents.Zahida produced a reporthighlighting the views ofyoung parents and makingrecommendations for RoSPAand other home safety pro-fessionals.

Four focus groups andsafety workshops were car-ried out with 26 parents whoare or were teenage parents.The aim of the project was togain an insight into the atti-tudes towards safety in thehome and to gain an idea ofhow safety messages couldbe better tailored to meet theneeds of this target group.The sessions received a highsatisfaction rate and the re-searcher was able to con-clude that educating youngparents is pivotal to raisingawareness of potential risksand dangers.

RoSPA feels that this re-search will help towards its

aims of working with youngpeople i.e. young advocate,to break down the barrierswhich can often hinder deliv-ery of safety messages to oneof the highest risk groups...teenage parents.

Zahida’s report, ‘Educ8 2Keep Myn Safe’ makes thefollowing recommendations:• Increasing media coverage

of home safety messagesvia channels which willreach young people, suchas social networking

• Implementing home andchild safety sessions for 14-16 year-olds in schools

• Encouraging young par-ents to design useful gadg-ets containing safety mes-sages, such as fridge mag-nets

• Including information aboutsafety equipment in abounty pack which preg-nant women receive

• Introducing an automatedtext message service pro-viding information and ad-vice

• Training young parents tospread safety messages totheir peers.Zahida organised four

focus groups BirminghamRights of Children, BromfordHousing Group, St Basils, StMichael’s Fellowship (youngfathers). During the sessions,held in Birmingham andLondon, young parents saidthat it is “often easy to forget”about safety issues; and thatalthough information wasprovided through health visi-tors and midwives it oftendidn’t get through.

Some participants said theyfelt “desensitised” when theyhad been exposed to “toomany” safety messages.

What is considered to be arisky situation among youngparents?

The ‘Draw and Write’ task(McWhirter,) was used toidentify what the parents con-sidered to be risky in theirhomes and what they coulddo to make this situationsafer for their child.

The most common re-sponses mentioned in allgroups at least once includedthe cooker: because it washot, and the child could oftenreach up and grab handleswhich were hanging over thecooker; the stairs because thechild could easily fall andplug sockets because the

child was likely to put theirfingers inside and risk elec-trocution.

Other instances which theparents reported included thedangerous naked flame of acandle, cleaning productsstored in a child-accessiblecupboard, sharp corners onfurniture, fireplace danger,unlocked front doors, hotdrinks left within reachingdistance and untidy wires.

One parent described a sit-uation where she was‘straightening her hair’ whilesmoking a cigarette, shenoted that she was not watch-ing her child therefore shewould put the child in the cotto reduce the risk of an acci-dent occurring; this instanceis discussed further in the fullreport. Overall parentsdemonstrated a high ability

Spotlight on parents’ views

Some comments from the parents

‘It wasn’t exactly an accident. My mom left matches onthe fire when I was about thre

with the matches.’ (Jane age 20 fro

‘It’s just easy to forget when you have kids because yougo to do something, but you have to do something else

because the kid wants you to.’ (Emma age 17 from St Basil’s Group)

‘That’s important about the age group, because I knowthat I could have never left my daughter at the age of two

or even three years old for five minutes.’ (Adrian age 22 from St Michael’s Fathers Group)

Zahida presents her report to Sheila Merrill, RoSPA’s public health adviser, as AndyHowell from Changemakers, Tom Mullarkey, RoSPA chief executive and Cassius Francis,RoSPA youth liaison worker look on

SAFETY Education Summer 2011 7

Research

to identify these and demon-strated initiative in reducingthe presented risks.

Eighteen of the parentswere aged 19 and above,while eight were aged 17-18.Two of the parents had chil-dren who were aged abovefour, and three had childrenaged below six months.

Seventy seven per cent of theparents had children aged be-tween one and four years.

Only two of the parentsconsidered themselves tohave a disability.

Twelve of the participantswere white-British, threewere of black African origin,another three were white andblack Caribbean, five wereblack Caribbean and twowere white-Irish.

All of the parents from ‘StBasils’ classed themselves ashomeless (9/26), while all ofthe parents from ‘Rights ofChildren’ group classedthemselves as ‘in or leavingcare’; however, the majorityof St Michaels fellowship andBromford housing group re-garded themselves to be oflow income (66 per cent inboth cases) only two of theparents saw themselves aslone parents.

Eleven of the parents were

s’ views

arents

ent. My mom left matches onree, and I set the house on firege 20 from St Basils group)

e you have kids because youou have to do something elseid wants you to.’

om St Basil’s Group)

e age group, because I knowmy daughter at the age of twos old for five minutes.’ Michael’s Fathers Group)

unemployed at the time ofthe focus groups, three werein some form of training,eight were in education, (twoof these eight were also ei-ther employed or self-em-ployed) and one parent wasself-employed. Twenty threeper cent of the parents hadno qualifications of any formwhile 35 per cent had NVQ’s,19 per cent had qualificationsabove level 2 (GCSE’s atgrades A*-C, including mathsand english) and only 15 percent of the parents had A-lev-els.

The ‘Better Safe Than SorryReport’ notes that “there is asignificant social class gradi-ent in the death rate of chil-dren from injury or poison-ing. For children of parents in‘routine occupations’ (Nati-onal Statistics Socio-econom-ic Classification class 7), thedeath rate is 2.6 times higherthan that of children of par-ents in ‘higher managerialand professional occupa-tions’ (NS-SEC class 1).

However, the greatest dif-ference in mortality is be-tween children of parentswho are employed and chil-dren of parents who are not.The death rate of children ofparents who have neverworked or are long term un-employed (NS-SEC class 8) is13.1 times higher than that ofchildren of parents in NS-SECclass 1.

The children of the father’sgroup at St Michaels spentthe majority of their time atthe mother’s residence.During that time the fatherdid have access to the child, itappeared that most of thistime would be spent at agrandparent’s house, wherethe father felt there was asafer environment for hischild.

Zahida said: “I feel the proj-ect was very important in re-lation to the community andour society especially duringthese difficult economic

times. Many home safetyprojects have had funds cut. Istrongly disagree with thisbecause I feel that one of themost effective ways to savepublic money would be to in-vest in accident preventionrather than to deal with theexpense incurred after acci-dents, as these costs are notonly tangible but cause thou-sands of people long termpsychological and emotionaldistress.”

Tom Mullarkey, RoSPA’schief executive, said: “Thiswas a great piece of originalwork, thoughtfully scopedand expertly delivered. It hasadded to our knowledge andprovided real insight into oneof the most hard-to-reach is-sues we tackle at RoSPA, thereal-life impact of our efforts.Zahida is to be congratulatedon her excellent rigour andprofessional delivery.”

Sheila Merrill, RoSPA’shome safety manager for

England, who commissionedthe research, said: “Zahidawas friendly and enthusiastic.She carried out a very chal-lenging piece of work withprofessionalism providingRoSPA with an excellentpiece of research.”

Accidental injuries are themost frequent cause of deathamong children aged overone year. The home is themost common location for anaccident, with young childrenbeing particularly vulnerable.Half a million under-fives visitA&E in the UK each year aftersuffering an accident at home.Every year they leave manythousands permanently dis-abled or disfigured for life.

Zahida’s full report can befound at http://www.rospa.com/homesafety/Info/young-parents-report.pdf. Change-makers works with organisa-tions which want to improveor increase the ways they en-gage with young people.

Zahida designed this poster to support her project

8 SAFETY Education Summer 2011

Roads

Frank defines education asthe communication of knowl-edge: from “one to many”and distinguishes this fromtraining, which is skills based.This distinction may seemodd to teachers of PersonalSocial and Health Educationwhich aims to develop youngpeople’s knowledge, skills andattitudes.

Frank acknowledges thisdilemma and suggests thateducators need to be clearerabout their aims and objec-tives when planning an inter-vention. This would make itmuch easier to establish if weare “getting it right”.

He also stresses that muchof what he says about roadsafety education applies toother health concerns such asdrug education and to publichealth interventions in gener-al. The reference list at theback of the article attests tothis since it draws on pub-lished studies from across thewhole of public health.

So what are Frank’s keymessages for road safetypractitioners?

“First do no harm”.This is animportant ethical principle inmedicine as well as publichealth, but also has practicaland financial implications. Wecan’t afford to waste re-sources on interventionswhich do not work, or whichmay make matters worse.

An example of interven-tions which could contributeto making matters worse isone which contributes to amisperception of the socialnorm. Interventions whichhighlight the frequency of un-

safe driving by young peoplecan lead to the perceptionthat most young people driverecklessly, speed, drink anddrive and do not wear theirseatbelts. A moment’s reflec-tion will reveal that this is notthe case.

Rather, Frank says, weshould focus on the outcomesfor victims and their families.Even a minor collision canhave serious health and finan-cial consequences which, ifthey could be prevented,would benefit individuals andsociety as a whole.

The next key message re-lates to planning interven-tions. It is not enough to want

the world to be a safer place.We need to plan our interven-tions on the best possible evi-dence available. Currentlythat evidence is very sparse(across the whole of publichealth, not just road safety).In the absence of evidence weneed to focus on theory.

Unfortunately too few prac-titioners (e.g. road safety offi-cers, fire and rescue officers,teachers) have the opportuni-ty to study public health theo-ry in any depth. Most roadsafety practitioners are pro-fessionals in their ownsphere: fire and rescue offi-cers are experts in savinglives, teachers are experts intheir subject and in under-standing how children learnat different ages and stages.

However, Frank points outthat ‘expertise does not gen-eralise’. We can be experts inone area but well-meaningamateurs in another. How-ever, it can be difficult to ac-knowledge this when we arefired up with emotion gener-ated by the death of a youngperson in a road accident.

Frank McKenna is well knownto RoSPA – he is a member ofthe road safety committeeand a regular speaker atRoSPA road safety congress-es. He is also known profes-sionally for his work on haz-ard perception, which led ulti-mately to the implementationof the hazard perception testas part of driver testing.

As a psychologist FrankMcKenna began working onroad safety almost 30 yearsago. He recalls, with someirony, that his interest arose‘by accident’ when he was of-fered a job for at the AppliedPsychology Unit at theUniversity of Cambridge, forwhich he had no previous ex-perience.

It seems that that lack of ex-perience was the best possi-ble start as he began his re-search with no prior assump-tions about what individualfactors influenced road acci-dent involvement. A review ofthe literature at the time re-vealed a lack of evidence forwhat works in preventingroad accidents and that inter-ventions were based on ‘littlemore than superstition’.

Professor McKenna hadtwo other advantages at thisearly stage in his career: regu-lar contact with road safetypractitioners to whom he isoften asked to speak, andcommunication with victimsand families of victims withwhom he has often sharedconference platforms. “It isprofoundly unnatural to out-live one’s children, and yetthis is what happens in fami-lies where a young person iskilled in a road accident,” hesaid.

Throughout his careerthese two motivations: scien-tific curiosity and the desire toreduce road casualties, espe-cially among the young, havesustained him and made himone of the most influential fig-ures in road safety in the UKtoday.

The RAC ‘think piece’ focus-es on road safety education.

Frank’s fresh view on road safetyLast year Professor Frank McKenna wrotea ‘think piece’ for the RAC Foundation onroad safety education ‘Education in roadsafety: are we getting it right?’ Recently

Jenny McWhirter, RoSPA’s safety and riskeducation adviser, discussed the issues

raised by the paper with ProfessorMcKenna.

Professor Frank McKenna

SAFETY Education Summer 2011 9

Roads

safety

It is also important to recog-nise that power is not thesame as expertise. Seniority inan organisation, or politically,

does not automatically conferan understanding of how toprevent road injuries. Havingan understanding of publichealth theory would help poli-cy makers, funders, managersand practitioners plan moreeffective interventions.

This leads Frank to his nextkey message: We need to beclear about what we are try-ing to achieve. The overallgoal of road casualty reduc-tion may not be achievablethrough road safety educa-tion, so we should not claimthat it is. Rather, we shouldfocus education interventionson education outcomes.

While we may not havemuch evidence that road safe-ty education works, this is notthe same as saying that roadsafety education does notwork. Theory suggests thatunder some circumstancesroad safety education canwork. We should be lookingfor interventions which havethis potential and describe the

aims and objectives as clearlyas possible.

In these times of austeritythe next key message may bethe most important – and themost difficult to communi-cate. We must evaluate whatwe do, to find out of it is ef-fective – and of course wemust learn from the evalua-tion which means publishingour findings as widely as pos-sible, even if those reveal thatwe did not get it right.

Frank admits that his ownwork has not always been rig-orously evaluated. The intro-duction of the hazard percep-tion test is a good example.When asked what would beneeded to prove that the in-troduction of this test wouldhelp new drivers to be safe,his proposals were not fol-lowed up. “We need tochange the culture so that in-terventions are properly

planned and that evaluation isincluded in that planning.”Again, policy makers, fundersand managers need to leadthe way by expecting evalua-tion.

So what is the answer to thebig question: Can road safetyeducation work? HereProfessor McKenna is at hismost hopeful. Road safety ed-ucation can work in two pos-sible ways:

Directly, from knowledgegain and/or attitude shift.

This is theoretically possi-ble but we don’t yet havegood enough evidence tosupport this.

Indirectly, as a way of en-abling other approaches, suchas legislation or the use of en-gineering solutions.

There may be bettergrounds for pursuing this ap-proach. This could be themeans by which educationhas contributed to thechanges in our behaviourwith respect to a wide range

of health improvements in re-cent years, including reduc-tions in smoking, increaseduse of seatbelts and installa-tion of smoke alarms.Perhaps the aim of road safe-ty education should be to con-tribute to long term culturalchange, rather than road ca-sualty reduction.

What is clear is that we

can’t go on as we are, relyingon outdated beliefs, poorly ar-ticulated aims and objectivesand overly ambitious out-comes. Frank McKenna’spaper should make us all stopand think – can we get it right?

Frank McKenna (2010)Education in Road Safety: Arewe getting it right? RACFoundation Report 10/113

We can be experts in one area but well-meaning amateurs in another

By Jenny McWhirterOne of the key points whichProfessor Frank McKennamakes in his article: ‘Edu-cation in road safety: Are wegetting it right?’ is that we donot plan road safety educa-tion with theory in mind, nei-ther do we evaluate what weare doing to see if we havemade a difference.

Back in 2009 I was invitedto meet researchers from theTransport Research Labora-tory. TRL had been asked bythe Driving Standards Agencyto develop a new approach tochanging learner drivers’ atti-tudes to safer driving.

The objectives of the projectwere to help learner drivers to:• Understand that being a

safe driver is an importantelement of being a gooddriver

• Reflect on solo driving andhow this will impact ontheir lives

• Understand what makesnovice drivers vulnerableand what increases theirrisks of collisions

• Recognise their limitationsas drivers and develop selfevaluation skills

• Develop self efficacy andrisk mitigation strategies

• Take responsibility forlearning to be a safe driverBritta Lang, a researcher at

TRL, had reviewed theories ofbehaviour change and recog-nised that in order to achievethese objectives it is impor-tant to engage learner driversactively in the developmentof their knowledge and un-derstanding of safer driving,not only in the physical con-trol of the vehicle, but also inunderstanding the risks asso-ciated with being a new driv-er. Jenny was asked how TRLcould develop a workshopwhich addressed the objec-tives and met the require-ments of the theory behindbehaviour change.

The result was a two hourworkshop in which learnerdrivers (who did not knowone another!) could discuss:what being a good drivermeans (objective 1); why theywere learning to drive (objec-tive 2); what makes novicedrivers vulnerable (objectives3 and 4); strategies for man-aging risky situations (objec-tive 5) and how to approachtheir driving lessons as anopportunity to learn to drive,rather than just to pass theirtest (objective 6). A propor-tion of the time at each work-shop was spent helping theparticipants to get to knowone another so that theywould feel comfortable to ex

Continued over

Evaluate toeducateJenny McWhirter, RoSPA’s

safety and risk education adviser

10 SAFETY Education Summer 2011

Roads

‘It’s good because it teaches’Continued

change views and contributeto the discussion.

During the planning phaseTRL developed a range ofevaluation strategies to in-form the further developmentof the workshop. Learner driv-ers were offered incentives toparticipate in the workshopsand to complete a question-naire based on the theory ofplanned behaviour (see theglossary in www. roadsafe-tyevaluation.com for a de-scription of this theory) priorto and immediately after theworkshop, and participationin focus group discussionsfollowing the workshop.

Altogether 42 learners aged17-26 years attended pilot

workshops in the midlandsand south of England. Theevaluation suggested thatmost of the learners enjoyedthe sessions and found theminteresting. They were bothsurprised and pleased at thehigh level of interaction.

One participant said “Wewere given the chance to ex-press our views freely. Ourviews were questioned ratherthan corrected. I liked the factthat we did not get preachedat.”

Some learners recognisedthe approach as similar totheir PSHE lessons in school,and said school would be agood place to do this kind ofsession, although others en-joyed the element of dis-cussing with people they did

not know. However, somethought the workshop was abit too like school!

Several remarked on howtheir driving lessons did notinclude many of the facts ortopics introduced and onesaid: “I would recommend it;it’s good because it teachesyou more than the driving in-structor or theory test.”

Most interestingly thequestionnaire findings sug-gested that learners’ attitudestowards safer driving had im-proved significantly in theshort term, although therewas no change in the alreadyhigh scores for self efficacy.

Without a control group wecannot reliably say that thechanges were all a result ofthe workshop. Neither can we

say that the changes wouldresult in any change in behav-iour, although some partici-pants thought it would. Onesaid “I feel like I could changehow I would act in a car. Ineed to be more calm andaware of people around me.”However, the findings wereencouraging and in line withtheoretical predictions.

The full report can bedownloaded from: http://www.trl.co.uk/online_store/rep o r t s _ p u b l i c a t i o n s / t r l _reports/cat_road_user_safety/report_development_of_a_discussion_based_interven-tion _for_learner_drivers.htm

We are now consideringhow to improve the work-shop and develop a versionto be trialled in schools.

Offered exclusively via dtd training ltd this new IOSH approved course is designed and delivered as a direct response to real needs in the Education and Work Based Learning Sectors.

This interactive course is aimed at those who supervise learners whether at school, college or private training provider, assessors of health and safety units within NVQ programmes and those who supervise learners in the workplace.

Courses commencing May 2011: Manchester • Birmingham • S. Wales • London

Availability is limited so contact:

Email: training@dtdtraining.co.uk Phone: 01443 866344Address: dtd training ltd, Tredomen Business & Technology Centre, Tredomen Business Park,

Ystrad Mynach, Caerphilly. CF82 7FN

New course:Supervising Safely in Education and Work Based Learning

SAFETY Education Summer 2011 11

Future

E-valu-it: Enabling EvaluationOne of the key reasons givenfor why people do not evalu-ate their work is that theysimply do not know how.There is already a positiveawareness among both prac-titioners and procurers of theneed for evaluation in roadsafety education. Awarenesson its own, however, is notenough.

The project team behindwww.roadsafetyevaluation.com and E-valu-it recognised

this and developed the web-site and training support tocreate, not just a desire toevaluate, but the skills andknowledge necessary to ‘do’evaluation.

The website was funded bythe Department for Transportand designed by RoSPA, andis a free to use resource foranyone interested in evaluat-ing their interventions. Whiletargeted at road safety educa-tion, training, and publicityinterventions, the evaluationadvice within the website hasmuch wider relevance.

Alongside the advice, thewebsite acts as a repositoryof road safety ETP evaluationreports, via a free to view ‘re-ports’ section.

The main interactive part ofthe website is the E-valu-itToolkit. After users have cre-ated a free E-valu-it accountfor their project they areasked a series of questionsabout the intervention theyhave in mind.

These questions help usersto plan their intervention, forexample by asking aboutproblem analysis, aims andobjectives. Crucially thoughthe questions enable theToolkit to provide tailored rec-ommendations for each userabout how to go about evalu-ating their particular interven-tion.

After users have collected

and analysed their evaluationdata they can return to theToolkit which assists in thestructuring of an evaluationreport. If the user chooses,the completed report canthen be uploaded into the re-ports section of the websitewhere everyone can read theresults, thus furthering thesharing of good practice.

Reports describing whatand why interventions havenot been successful are justas important as those whichdo demonstrate effective-

ness, and it is these reportswhich are especially encour-aged.

At any time users can con-tact the E-valu-it support

Members of two practicalsafety education projects,CSEC (the Child Safety Edu-cation Coalition) and LASER(Learning About Safety byExperiencing Risk), are layingplans for future work to helpchildren and young peoplestay active and keep them-selves safe.

The final arrangements arebeing made to wrap up theprojects in their current formsand both sets of membershave expressed an interest injoining forces in the futureunder a new name.

Both projects were found-ed on a belief that childrenand young people can bestlearn skills for keeping them-selves and others safe byhaving opportunities to expe-rience risk.

Launched in 2009, CSEC, amember organisation hostedby the Royal Society for thePrevention of Accidents andfunded by the Department forEducation, encouraged and

supported “high quality prac-tical safety education”through everyday activitiesthat helped children learnabout danger and how tocope with it.

The LASER project began atRoSPA in 1999 and was fund-ed by the Department ofHealth. Its ultimate aim was toestablish good practice guide-lines for interactive safety ed-ucation schemes. In 2005, itreceived further funding toundertake a programme ofvoluntary accreditation forpermanent safety centres andannual events.

At a joint meeting, projectmembers said they hoped anew initiative formed fromCSEC and LASER would havethe advantage of being able tooperate throughout the UK.Previously, funding criteriameant activities were restrict-ed to England.

Peter Cornall, RoSPA’s headof leisure safety, said: “CSECand LASER have been suc-

The main interactive part of the websiteis the E-valu-it Toolkit

cessful projects, and havebeen a breath of fresh airwhen it comes to safety edu-cation, so it is sad to see themgo in their current forms.However, this also opens upnew opportunities to reachmore children all around theUK, as well as getting morechildren and young people in-volved.

“Children need to experi-ence risk in order to developthe skills to cope with all thatlife throws at you. Wrappingchildren up in cotton wool isnot good for anyone, and issomething we have beenworking to avoid.”

Following the joint meeting,Errol Taylor, RoSPA’s deputychief executive said: “I wasstruck by the enthusiasmshown by CSEC and LASERmembers to involve childrenand young people in decision-making while pooling re-sources, sharing best practiceand developing an influentialvoice for the sector.”

team for help at: Evaluit@rospa.com or visit theLinkedIn group: Roadsafetyevaluation.com.

The website was launchedlast December and now hasover 250 users, with 152 liveprojects between them.

Future looks bright

By Lindsey Simkins

12 SAFETY Education Summer 2011

Hard lessons in safetyThe Daily Telegraph reports that children should be encour-aged to climb trees and graze knees, according to recom-mendations from the HSE and Play England. In a victory forcommon sense, guidelines say children should be allowedto take risks, and councils should not pander to over-anx-ious parents.

A seven-year-old was forced to sit through three hours oflessons with a broken elbow after two first aiders failed tospot the injury. She was in “terrible agony” after fallingfrom a climbing frame at school in Tewkesbury.

A schoolboy was injured after falling 12ft from a tree inStratford-upon-Avon.The 12-year-old hurt both arms in thefall.

A group of teenage school students wanted to leave a rain-soaked Dartmoor before a 14-year-old girl drowned in aswollen stream, an inquest jury found as it returned a nar-rative verdict over the death in 2007. The coroner madethree formal recommendations to improve safety. Shecalled for students to have more than two training trips tothe moor before undertaking the Ten Tors event, for all teamleaders to be properly qualified, and for the Health andSafety Executive to check that independent schools reachthe same safety standards as state schools.

A 50-year-old teacher who lost her voice trying to makeherself heard in a noisy classroom has accepted more than£150,000 in compensation. She quit teaching after devel-oping nodules on her vocal cords, blamed on having toraise her voice over the din from a nearby children’s play-ground.

A three-year-old boy with a severe brain condition was leftin a council minibus for five hours, after the driver failed tonotice he was still strapped into his seat at the end of themorning school-run. He was discovered by the afternoondriver. Coventry City Council has suspended the morningdriver and launched a full investigation.

One hundred children were hurt, seven of them seriously, ina stampede on school stairs in western China. They wererunning to exercises in the playground when some tripped,sparking the stampede.

Two 15-year-old girls, who were off school because of thesnow, needed surgery to their legs following sledging acci-dents at a Cheshire park.

A two-year-old girl died after her neck became wedged inan outdoor playhouse which had been modified by a nurs-ery, causing her to have a heart attack, a Chelmsford in-quest heard. She was discovered at the end of a 25-minuteplaytime. The court heard it was possible she could havebeen saved if resuscitation attempts had started immedi-ately.

A 13-year-old boy is being taught in isolation for breachinghis school’s uniform policy by wearing plain black boots sohe doesn’t slip in the snow. The teenager has been bannedfrom normal lessons at his school in Stoke-on-Trent sincehe started wearing the boots.

Children’s groups were warned not to play games in thedark after the Court of Appeal upheld a compensationaward to an injured scout. The court upheld a £7,322 pay-ment to a 22-year-old man who hurt his shoulder in 2001while playing a game called Objects in the Dark.The ScoutAssociation was ordered to pay costs and was refused per-mission to appeal to the Supreme Court.

A 37-year-old technology teacher was sacked for taking asledge to school to use as a teaching aid. He was accusedof breaking health and safety rules when he allowed twopupils to use the racing sledge in 2009 at Cefn HengoedCommunity School after sledging down the slope himselfto check for hazards. A General Teaching Council committeefound him guilty of unacceptable professional conduct andgave him a two-year reprimand, although he can continueto teach.

The children’s farm at the centre of Britain’s worst E.colioutbreak faces paying out millions of pounds in damagesafter it accepted the blame for infecting almost 100 people.Goodstone Farm, near Redhill, Surrey, was sued for “sub-stantial” damages by victims and their families over theoutbreak in August 2009.

An 11-year-old girl fell to her death while sliding down abanister at her school in Bethnal Green last October, an in-quest heard. She fell two floors and suffered “multiple frac-tures of her skull”. Verdict: accidental death.

Traditionally, Boy Scouts gain badges for activities such ashill-walking or canoeing. But members of the 1st ShipstonScout pack, in Warwickshire, have earned themselves amore unusual one...traffic cop. In return for helping the po-lice operate speed traps and lecturing offending drivers onthe dangers of speeding, the boys, aged 10 to 14, have beenpresented with a community challenge badge in what isthought to be one of the first exercises of its kind in thecountry.

A schoolboy scared away a pack of hungry wolves by blast-ing a heavy metal song at them. The music of US bandCreed halted the pack as they closed in on the 13-year-old,who had been walking to his farmhouse home from theschool bus stop. The snarling animals turned tail and fledafter the teenager, who lives in Norway, played the songOvercome on his mobile phone.

A 12-year-old girl has forced Anglesey Council to spendnearly £350,000 on pavements and road safety by com-plaining about her dangerous half-mile walk to school.

Case files