WIREDGOV

The official evaluation report for Safe At Home, the first national home safety equipment scheme, will be made public yesterday at RoSPA’s National Home Safety Symposium.

Safe At Home, which was hosted by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents from 2009-2011, aimed to help families tackle one of the country’s most severe accident problems - home accidents to under-fives, which account for an estimated 500,000 A&E visits across the UK each year.

The scheme installed free home safety equipment - including safety gates, fireguards and cupboard locks - in the homes of 66,127 disadvantaged families in areas with the highest child accident rates in England. It also saw 4,300 local delivery providers trained and supplied with educational resources to help them talk to families about home safety, and more than 300,000 families with children under five received home safety advice and information during the two-year project.

Among the findings of the evaluation team, from the University of Nottingham, were that:

• 96 per cent of families were satisfied with Safe At Home
• 91 per cent of families felt their homes were safer after having the equipment fitted
• Safe At Home had particular success in reaching the most disadvantaged families (99 per cent of those who received equipment were in receipt of social benefits and there was good coverage of families of minority ethnic origin) showing that targeted schemes of this nature are effective in working towards reducing inequalities in health
• Safe At Home was based on evidence of best practice and itself demonstrated the importance of using a combination of injury prevention approaches, specifically the provision of education, home safety checks, equipment and installation
• Safe At Home was cost effective - the cost of equipment was £96 per child, whereas the estimated cost of treating a non-fatal home injury to a child under five is £10,600*.

Although RoSPA worked with partners in 130 local authority areas, the national co-ordination and management of the project was described as key to its success, particularly because of the economies of scale in respect of purchasing equipment and the high profile afforded by a national initiative.

In conclusion, and in light of only short-term government funding being available for the scheme, the evaluators stated: “There was evidence of considerable energy in establishing local schemes, and as schemes seek alternative sources of funding to sustain their efforts, it is important that the momentum and expertise gathered is not lost.

“Unintentional injury continues to be a major cause of death, ill health and long-term disability in childhood. It is a public health problem of such magnitude that it merits a significant response. Continued support will be needed at national and local levels if the benefits resulting from the Safe At Home scheme are to be sustained.”

Errol Taylor, RoSPA’s deputy chief executive, said: “Safe At Home was the largest scheme of its type in the world and I’m delighted that Nottingham’s findings are so positive. More than 100,000 children are much safer thanks to Safe At Home and we have early indications that there has been a significant reduction in visits to hospital emergency departments. Once all the outcomes data has been collected, we expect to be able to show that Safe At Home was an extremely cost-effective public health intervention. Such injury prevention programmes deserve substantial and sustained investment by Health and Wellbeing Boards because they are relatively low cost and yet they deliver superb results quickly, reducing the burden on the NHS.”

Sheila Merrill, RoSPA’s public health adviser, said: “Accidents in the home are the biggest cause of injury to children under five, and there is a proven link between disadvantage and higher accident rates. Schemes like Safe At Home work so well because, by providing equipment and also information and advice about home safety, they help families take their own steps to preventing accidents affecting young children. As children grow and develop, their natural inquisitiveness can result in them having accidents at home. Thankfully, many of these accidents are minor; however, too many children are still experiencing the impact of more serious, but preventable, accidents on their lives. It can only be hoped that there is sufficient investment at both a national and a local level to build on the achievements and learning afforded by Safe At Home.”

The evaluation was conducted using a range of methods including postal surveys, one-to-one interviews, discussion groups, direct observation, case studies, documentary analysis and postcode mapping of family data. The final evaluation report is available at www.safeathome.rospa.com/.

Safe At Home was funded by the former Department for Children, Schools and Families (now the Department for Education).

RoSPA’s National Home Safety Symposium is taking place today at Maple House, ETC Venues, Birmingham, sponsored by Kid Rapt. This year, the annual gathering of home safety professionals will emphasise the importance of home safety cementing its place on the public health agenda. See www.rospa.com/events/homesafetysymposium/ for the full programme.

*A set of equipment cost £130 per family. However, per child who benefited from Safe At Home, the cost of equipment equated to £96.