WIREDGOV

On Tuesday, June 12, the European Child Safety Alliance (ECSA) will publish report cards for more than 30 European countries at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, supported by Malcolm Harbour MEP, chairman of the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee, and John Dalli, European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Policy.

The report cards, and accompanying country profiles, will assess safety measures that relate to children and young people by examining the adoption, implementation and enforcement of national policies that address accidental injury. A summary will provide a multi-country overview to facilitate European-level planning to support national efforts, including a section on inequalities and child safety.

Nine safety areas will be covered: passenger safety; motor scooter and moped safety; pedestrian safety; cycling safety; water safety/drowning prevention; falls prevention; burns prevention; poisoning prevention; and choking/strangulation prevention. Three strategic issues will also be assessed: leadership; infrastructure; and capacity.

Report cards will be issued for Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, England, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Scotland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Wales. For some countries, earlier versions of the report cards were published in 2007 and 2009.

The publication of the cards is just one of a variety of activities to benchmark and monitor child injury and related action as part of ECSA’s EU-funded TACTICS project (Tools to Address Childhood Trauma, Injury and Children’s Safety).  

ECSA, which is an initiative of the European Association for Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion (EuroSafe), is hosted by RoSPA. More information about ECSA and the report cards is available at www.childsafetyeurope.org.