SAFETYEducation

Autumn 2009ISSN 0459-2034

Combining fun with a message

Contents

SAFETY Education Autumn 2009 1

Inside this issue...

Managing Editor Janice Cave MBE

Editorial ConsultantJim Barrow

Occupational Safety AdviserRoger Bibbings

Risk Education AdviserJenny McWhirter

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News 2Youth parliament

Junior road safety officers 3Fun in Wales

Fire safety 5School campaign

Meet the new team 6-8Coalition starts up

Focus on youth 9Two different approaches

Young drivers at work 10-11Understanding the risks

School parking 12Advice for parents

2 SAFETY Education Autumn 2009

News

A project evaluating Staff-ordshire County Council’syoung drivers’ coaching pro-gramme, conducted by IreneWilliamson of StaffordshireCounty Council and DrHelen Wells of Keele

I £20,000 for coachingUniversity, will receive£20,000 under a new schol-arship scheme.

The Royal Society for thePrevention of Accidents es-tablished the scholarshipscheme after BNFL (British

Lord Brougham and Vaux, RoSPA vice-president, Irene Williamson,Staffordshire County Council, Dr Helen Wells, Keele University, and TomMullarkey, RoSPA chief executive

ourselves which introducedus to them and talked aboutwhat we are doing here atRoSPA.

It shared our aims of whatwe wished to achieve bydoing our presentation andthree examples of someyoung people who have triedto do something to raiseawareness about road safety.There was also a road factsand statistics sheet in thebooklet and a page which in-cluded website links, so theycould research more on roadsafety and other safety organ-isations in general.

Finally, the last page wasabout the Youth Network

group on Facebook. It brieflytold them RoSPA was launch-ing a Facebook group to raiseawareness of teenagersabout road safety and gavemembers of the parliamentthe details, so they could be-come members if they wouldlike to.

A school that Cassius hasbeen working with, called

Park View, came along to theParliament with us and spentaround 15 minutes sharingwhat they had learned aboutroad safety. Their presenta-tion contained, a short videoclip and a poster with some“did you know facts”.

The final part of our presen-tation was Cassius’s askingfor feedback from theParliament on the presenta-tion and Sam’s final questionof her quiz that asked them todiscuss something they coulddo about road safety. Thegroup responded well to ourpresentation and had a lot ofquestions to ask as well assharing about projects thatthey had already developedwith their schools.

Overall, we agree that thepresentation went very welland the children and youngpeople from the Parliamentenjoyed what we did andgained a good understandingof road safety.

I Leah and Sam talk to ParliamentIn July Leah Malady and SamanthaAshurst from Swanshurst School visitedthe Children and Young People’sParliament at Birmingham Council Houseto share a presentation about road safetywith them. This is what they found...First of all, Cassius Francisthe youth liason officer spentfive minutes introducing theworkshop to the parliamentthen followed Sam’s 20minute quiz.This allowed theParliament to discuss an-swers within small groupsand think about what theirsafety knowledge is like as in-dividuals, but also in relationto their peers.

Cassius then spent a fur-ther 10 minutes talking aboutwhat they could find in thepack which was handed tothem when they arrived. Thispack contained a bookletabout RoSPA and road safetywith profiles of Cassius, and

Nuclear Fuels) donated£500,000 to fund researchwhich will have a significantimpact on improving safetyin the UK and around theworld.

Thirty-two research pro-posals addressing keythemes in road, home, work,water and leisure safety,safety education and riskcommunication were re-ceived in response to the firstcall for applications.

The RoSPA/BNFL Scholar-ship Scheme is believed tobe one of the biggest acci-dent-prevention scholarshipsever funded.

BNFL won many topawards from RoSPA for itscommitment to health andsafety and, now that nuclearpower management hasmoved into the private sec-tor, the scholarship will en-sure its name lives on as asafety champion.

HSE report that 138 childrenwere admitted to hospitalafter accidents at school in2007-8.This was a slight re-duction from the 147 totalthe previous year.

I Childrenget hurt

SAFETY Education Autumn 2009 3

News

I Fun packed day for juniorroad safety officers

I Sad messageaimed at drivers

tion packed and educational,with 16 schools participating.

During the morning ses-sion the fire and rescue serv-ices, Heddlu Gwent Police,DHL’s heavy goods vehicle,and the road safety teamplayed their part. In the after-noon the junior road safetyofficers experimented withstationary bicycles, rowingmachines and a ‘beer goggle’obstacle course!

The children were given theopportunity to exploreMaindee Station’s fire appli-ance and see their emer-gency cutting equipment,which can be used to extri-cate passengers fromcrashed cars. The RoadsPolicing Unit brought in twomotorway police cars andgave some children the expe-rience of being breathalysed!

DHL provided a HGV whichthey use for their trucks andchildren presentations. Thechildren were advised aboutwhere large vehicle’s blindspots are, how big they areand to never cross the road inthese spots.

The road safety team alsoheld a cycling quiz, the

JRSOs worked in teams tofigure out what was wrongwith two broken bikes. Theywere also given some usefulinformation about lookingafter their own bikes and theimportance of wearing theircycle helmets.

During the lunch breakeveryone had a special treatof watching the semi-profes-sional cyclists using the spe-cialised track, which was thor-oughly enjoyed by all.

The afternoon sessionswere a lot more active. Theyvisited an anti drink drive sta-tion, where they had to com-plete an obstacle course andother tricky tasks wearing‘beer goggles’.

The JRSOs also tried outtwo stationary bicycles androwing machines, they werechallenged to cycle or row asfast and as far as they couldin a minute. Luckily for theteachers, they were excusedand instead received presen-tations and a trouble shoot-ing question time with repre-sentatives from the SchoolsTravel Plans, South EastWales Transport Alliance andKerbcraft programmes.

A junior road safety officerconference was held at theNewport International SportsVillage, Wales NationalVelodrome. It was a fun, ac-

website, after members of theDenbighshire council roadsafety team were played thesong written by close friendKatie Benbow.

It led to a full blown videoshoot, featuring Katie andother friends of David.

She not only wrote thesong, but also performs it inthe film, against a flowingbackdrop of black and whiteimages of her friend.

Called 'To Day', the video'stitle remembers that DavidWares was known to hisfriends as 'Day'.

The mother of a young driverkilled as he raced a friend atspeeds of up to 95mph hopesa new film and song abouthim will save lives.

David Wares, 22, waskilled instantly in the crashin August 2008, just yardsfrom his home nearPrestatyn.

A pop song penned by afriend has been turned into alavish anti-speed film byDenbighshire's road safetyteam.

Mother Edwina Wares said ifit helped just one family avoidtheir tragedy it was a "job welldone".

Mr Wares had nearly reachedthe turning for his home whenthe collision occurred.

His friend, 20-year-old DavidBexon was later given twoyears, nine months in youthcustody for his role in thecrash, after admitting danger-ous driving.

The anti-speed video hasbeen posted onto the YouTube

I New websiteLaunching in late September,www.twothirtyvolts.org.uk isa new website designed tocomplement key stages 3and 4 of the national curricu-lum relating to electricity, andfurnish 11-16 years olds witheverything they need toknow to understand and staysafe around this energysource.

Created by the ElectricalSafety Council, the site willoffer a range of material forscience and PSHE teachers,including lesson plans, revi-sion notes, guides to practicalexperiments and revisionquizzes, using a wide rangeof electrically related infor-mation.

The TwoThirtyVolts educa-tion zone will also featuresections providing informa-tion on careers in the electri-

cal industry, environmentalissues and vital first aid tips.Learning support materialsfor students will also be avail-able.

“TwoThirtyVolts has a freshand funky design to appealspecifically to a teen audi-ence,” explains LorraineCarney, campaign managerfor the ESC. “However, a keyobjective of the site is also tosupport teachers - by provid-ing them with the tools to de-liver information about elec-tricity and electrical safety inan engaging and informativeway.

“We want to make sure thatteenagers are well-informedabout electricity to better un-derstand the risks and thebenefits of this energysource, so that it can be usedsafely and effectively.”

4 SAFETY Education Autumn 2009

News

I 100% of school children sign upEvery Year 3 pupil inRichmond upon Thames pri-mary schools has beensigned up for road safetycoaching as the boroughequips the ‘next generation’with the tools to stay safe.

The council’s road safetyeducation team are delightedat achieving 100 per cent takeup for the pedestrian trainingscheme, which will see all theyoungsters complete thecourse by the end of theschool year. Having alreadybeen named as the LondonBorough with the highestpercentage of children receiv-ing National Standard CycleTraining, this is another bigstep forward for the boroughon the safe and sustainabletravel agenda.

The scheme aims to rein-

force the message of stayingsafe on the pavement andcrossing the road carefullywhile walking to school. Thetraining - practical teachingon roads around their school- also promotes the manybenefits of walking both forthe youngsters and the envi-ronment.

Cllr David Trigg, cabinetmember for transport, trafficand parking, said “The safetyand welfare of youngsters ontheir way to and from school– and out and about in gener-al – is a priority. The dedica-tion and enthusiasm of theofficers and trainers is to beapplauded.”

Each child who completesthe training, which comprises30-minute sessions overthree days, receives a much-

coveted blue enamel Rich-mond Safe Walking badge.The scheme uses a variety ofon-road situations which pro-

vide a realistic learning expe-rience. More than 3,500 chil-dren have already benefitedfrom this scheme.

teachers contact their com-munity fire safety team attheir local Fire and RescueService who will be aware ofthe campaign. They may beable to support the day bycoming in to school and talk-ing to the children about‘planning a safe escape’.

The five key messages thatchildren should learn in rela-tion to planning a safe escapeare:

SAFETY Education Autumn 2009 5

News

The Fire Fighters Charity andthe Communities and LocalGovernment Fire KillsCampaign have joined forcesto encourage schools acrossEngland to work with theirlocal fire and rescue service,and help launch a NationalSchools’ Fire Safety Day onWednesday October 14.

Latest statistics haveshown that 29 children underthe age of 11 are killed infires in the UK every year,and over 1,100 are seriouslyinjured. The two organisa-tions have put measures inplace which will help reducethis statistic. Over the nextcouple of years they aim tomake learning about firesafety an annual, high profileevent listed in schools’ di-aries up and down the coun-try. By introducing a differentfire safety topic each year,pupils taking part will learnvaluable fire safety lessonsthat might one day save theirlives.

Supported by TheDepartment of Children,Schools and Families, thisyear’s campaign will focus on

‘planning a safe escape’ andwill be specifically targeted atKey Stage 1 children. Themain objective is for Year 2children to learn five relatedkey messages, which theycan take home and relay totheir families.

All teachers or parentswishing to participate in theevent can request a free re-source pack which will in-clude activity worksheets, aposter and guidance notes.The campaign will be sup-ported by a fun and educa-tional microsite, lead by fic-tional character - Neenaw thefire engine, and will include individually designedzones for adults and children.

The resource pack can beordered by calling 01202 653360, or by completing an on-line request form at: www.nationalschoolsfiresafetyday.com. Additional materials canalso be downloaded from thewebsite, where teachers willbe able to discover moreabout the event.

To support the day’s activi-ties, The Plan a Safe EscapeTeam recommends that

• Plan an escape route andmake sure everyone knowshow to escape.

• Take a few minutes to prac-tice your escape plan.

• Make sure exits are keptclear.

• The best route is the nor-mal way in and out of yourhome.

• In the event of a fire, GETOUT, STAY OUT AND CALL999.

I Joining forces to prevent fires

I Quick reponseI Get in Gear

When 10-year-old JosephJones’ mum Shirley waschoking on a piece of meathe knew exactly what to do.

Joseph, a pupil at AshurstPrimary School in St.Helens,patted her back and whenthat did not help he carriedout the Heimlich movementwhich dislodged the meat. Hethen put his mum in the re-covery position.

Joseph puts his quick re-sponse down to the fact thathe recently attending aCrucial Crew course run bySt.Helens Council, Mersey-side Fire and Rescue and police. It is a RoSPA LASERaccredited scheme.

Joseph, 30 classmates, hismum and teachers weretreated to a special day outat St.Helens Fire Station

where they had rides on atender and tour of the sta-tion. Merseyside police do-nated gift vouchers to allowJoseph to attend the climb-ing wall in Warrington.Joseph is also the first re-cipient of the Captain’s Cup -a special award made byCaptain Crucial and theCrucial Crew steeringgroup.

Councillor Carole Kavan-agh, executive member forenvironmental protectionsaid: “This is a wonderful ex-ample of just how useful andvital Crucial Crew is. Thisnews just underlines the im-portance of helping young-sters to take health and safe-ty very seriously while at thesame time providing a funand interesting event.”

The Get in Gear young drivercourse has been successful insecuring the support of‘Young Marmalade’, who pro-vide car insurance specificallyfor young drivers. They offerlow cost insurance, packagedtogether with a range of newor nearly new cars.

Nigel Lacy from YoungMarmalade said ”Additionaltraining is an integral partof the Young Marmaladescheme and Get in Gear canhelp new drivers to ensurethey are prepared for thosefirst solo journeys on theopen road. We offer aneasy, value for money wayfor young people to get be-hind the wheel of a safenew car.”

Buckinghamshire CountyCouncil developed the Get inGear course, which is de-signed for drivers who have

recently passed their drivingtest and aims to give themadvanced skills for driving intowns, motorways and onrural roads.

Since its launch lastSeptember more than 100young drivers have takenpart in the scheme. Thecourse consists of a theorysession which is an opportu-nity to discuss their driverrisk profile and what they cando to reduce the risk at thisvulnerable stage of their driv-ing.

Following the theory theyare contacted by anApproved Driving Instructorwho will take them out ontwo two hour drives. Thedrive covers the types ofroutes where novice driversare most likely to be involvedin a crash where they will bekilled or seriously injured.

6 SAFETY Education Autumn 2009

Coalition

Six self starters have a bold vision for the futureWhen the Child SafetyEducation Coalition waslaunched in February thisyear, it was clear that its boldvision would require a highly-motivated team of staff.

The coalition, launched byRoSPA and the NationalChildren’s Bureau and fundedby a £1.6million grant fromthe Department for Children,Schools and Families, aims topromote the provision ofhigh-quality practical safetyeducation in England.

But, how do you go aboutimplementing such an ambi-tious remit?

The answer is to appointsix bright self-starters as co-ordinators and give themfreedom to work in wayswhich best suit their own ex-perience and skills.

CSEC project managerJohn Vallender is delightedwith the enthusiasm and mixof skills brought by the newco-ordinators.

“These are people whohave the experience, dedica-tion and enthusiasm to pro-mote national safety educa-

tion in effective ways whichwill ultimately save lives andreduce unintended injuries tochildren and young people,”he says.

“The coalition is off to agreat start thanks to the initia-tive of this team and indeedeveryone who is playing theirpart in getting the project offthe ground.”

Meet the co-ordinators

Nicola Smith is relishing thechance to encourage learningabout risk through adventure.The Falkirk-born, Glaswegian-bred mother-of-two is drivenby a desire to help unwrap the“cotton wool generation”.And, with a strong back-ground in education, she isperfectly placed to do so.

Nicola explains: “As themother of two small boys I’macutely aware that people arewrapping children up in cot-ton wool these days. I feel

sometimes you get looked atas a bad mum for letting yourchildren climb a tree!

“I hate to think of childrennot getting opportunities tohave adventurous play and Ireally believe they learn bydoing – my type of teaching isthat you don’t actually learnanything by sitting on yourbum, you need to get outthere and do it.”

As a co-ordinator, Nicolanow has the opportunity tochallenge “cotton wool think-ing” in a number of settings.Her main responsibility is todevelop resources on CSEC’swebsite, especially interac-tive learning activities, or asNicola prefers to call them,“computer games”. Not thatshe intends to get to gripswith the world of gaming allby herself – Nicola will be ap-proaching universities withcomputer game researchunits to involve students indeveloping resources fortheir slightly younger con-temporaries.

Her remit also includessupporting local safety edu-cation provision and advisingeducation agencies by devel-oping teaching resourceswhich can be used through-out the curriculum.

And, aware of the fact thatschools are only one partneramong many in safety edu-cation, Nicola will also beworking with uniformed or-ganisations, such as Girl-guiding UK and the ScoutAssociation. As a formerGuide and Brownie leaderherself, Nicola is well awareof the issues facing suchgroups.

“There’s plenty to keepme busy,” she laughs.

Jason Cole also joinedCSEC from aneducation back-ground, leavinghis previous roleas a primaryschool teacher.

Jason had aparticular focuson PE at hisschool in inner-city Birmingham,and he brings hisenthusiasm forthe active life tohis co-ordinator

By Carl Christopher

... the team listening to Jason, joined by John Vallender, project manager, (back right)and Ian Featherstone, LASER manager, centre

Jason Cole addressing his colleagues...

SAFETY Education Autumn 2009 7

Coalition

bold vision for the future

position, which will empha-sise partnership with sportsclubs.

Jason, originally from theForest of Dean, is already de-veloping partnerships with

national organisations,including the FootballFoundation, where he islooking at ways to en-gage teenagers throughthe KICKz programmewith activities whichwill include a focus onlife skills as well as safe-ty messages.

He also plans to pro-mote road awareness inschools by working withBirmingham City Coun-cil’s road safety team.

And despite onlybeing in post for justover a month, Jason isgetting stuck into im-proving safety educa-tion by developing an evalua-tion tool for Sandwell IMPS(injury minimisation pro-gramme for schools).

He says: “IMPS is a goodproject and I’m working withthem to develop worthwhileassessment tools, based onobservation as well as morecommon approaches whichdon’t always give enough in-formation about progress.”

Jason is confident that,with an accent on practicalobservation, the evaluationtool could also be transferredto other CSEC projects.

Kathy Shortt is a RoSPA“veteran”, and was previouslya valued member of the roadsafety team. Her experienceand skills in education andcoaching are informing herproject choices as a CSEC co-ordinator.

Having taught English as asecond language, coachedchildren with special needs,and taught in both main-stream and special needsschools, Kathy is well equip-ped for her first scheme withthe Birmingham PlaycareNetwork, a quality assurancegroup for childminders andpeople who work at children’scentres.

Over the course of six

months, starting this autumn,Kathy is taking on the chal-lenge of overseeing trainingsessions for 20 network affili-ates at a time covering vitalskills about burns and scalds,slips, trips and falls, and roadsafety.

“Becoming a CSEC co-ordi-nator seemed a logical stepfor me having worked mostrecently in road safety,” Kathysays. “This new position al-lows me to build on that ex-perience.”

Kathy, originally fromBoston, USA, is also lookinginto the possibility of a proj-ect involving college and uni-versity age young people.

“So many 16 and 17-year-olds need basic safety train-ing before they go off to liveindependently,” Kathy says.“Really basic things like cook-ing chips, or preventing anddealing with small fires, needto be addressed becausesafety awareness seems togo out the window for somestudents, especially in theirfirst years.”

In the meantime, preparingthe resources, training ses-sions and follow-up work-

shops for the PlaycareNetwork project is keepingKathy occupied.

Cassius Francis is anotherfamiliar face at RoSPA’sBirmingham headquarters.He joined RoSPA last Nov-ember as the charity’s firstever youth liaison officer, sobecoming a CSEC co-ordina-tor was a natural opportunityfor him to extend the sterlingwork he already carries out.Cassius, who describes histwo roles as complementary,is currently working on thedevelopment of CSEC’sYoung People’s AdvisoryGroup, but also has plenty of other projects in thepipeline, including the possi-bility of developing a second-ary school age curriculumwith Birmingham’s SafesideCentre.

However, the task of put-ting together the advisorygroup is more than enough tobe getting started with. Thegroup, which will advise theCSEC steering group andgather information fromyoung people, will be com-prised of children from fourareas around the country -

s...

Cassius Francis has two roles

Kathy Shorttleft andNicola Smithbelow

8 SAFETY Education Autumn 2009

Coalition

working with Salford Water-sports Centre and YouthAfloat to pilot differing ap-proaches to safety education.He is excited about getting togrips with youth develop-ment at the coal-face again.

“The opportunity to be-come directly involved in out-door education as a CSEC co-ordinator was a big carrot forme,” Craig says.

“The CSEC role gives methe chance to continue help-ing young people develop inareas like personal confi-dence - which is what I al-ways enjoyed about being aninstructor - albeit that I’ll behelping in a different waynow.

“Outdoor experiences allowyoung people to develop riskawareness, and althoughthere’s a lot of focus on safetyat clubs, it is usually to dowith the activity itself. I’d liketo see it extended to includethings like getting to and

from the club.“Clubs are an outlet that a

lot of young people are tap-ping into, and if we can getclubs and governing bodieson board with the safety mes-sages around more than justthe activities themselves,we’re going to reach a mas-sive audience.”

He adds: “Not only that, butthere are a lot of transferrableskills in outdoor activitieswhich are useful for safety ineveryday life, and that’s amessage we’re interested ingetting across.”

Finally, London-based Chris-tine Tame will be investigatingsafety education in several ofthe capital’s boroughs, whileat the same time consideringthe potential for working withorganisations and agenciessupporting young mothers’groups for girls aged 14 andover.

Christine has served on thevery frontline of home safetyand education in the past,with roles as a Metropolitan

Police constable, specialneeds support worker, chil-dren’s centre coordinatorand accident prevention offi-cer. In fact, she was in one ofthe first waves of female po-lice cadets to be integratedinto the Met’s all-male cadetcorps in the 1970s - clearly awoman who likes a chal-lenge.

“I really am enjoying mywork with CSEC,” Christinesays with enthusiasm. “Atthe moment, I’m looking atwhat safety education andresources are available forchildren in some of theLondon boroughs and pon-dering how CSEC can get in-volved in filling in the gaps.”

In addition, Christine iskeen to see whether CSECcan help establish the con-cept of home safety with newmums and their parents orcarers.

She says: “Having workedin children’s centres I’ve seenan increase in the number ofyoung mums. I noticed theycan sometimes find it hard totake up the offers of supportwhich are open to all parentsbecause they feel it might notapply to them as youngerparents.

“Of course, there are al-ready lots of organisationsworking with this group, butit would be good to see ifCSEC can deliver practicalsafety education to those or-ganisations as well as thegirls themselves.”

With such a broad range ofapproaches to CSEC’s work,John Vallender is already see-ing positive outcomes for thefirst wave of partnerships.

“I’m very much looking for-ward to seeing how the co-ordinators’ projects takeshape,” he adds.

Birmingham, Halifax,London and Runcorn– Cassius will beworking specificallywith the group fromBirmingham.

Once compositionis finalised, Cassiuswill be supporting thedelivery of the spe-cialised residentialtraining being put to-gether by the NationalChildren’s Bureau toequip the children forthe other aspects oftheir role, includingpresenting the viewsof young people onsafety education andcontributing to a reduction inunintended injuries amongtheir peers.

As a long-time youth work-er, Cassius becomes animatedas he talks about the chance toempower young people tomake a difference for them-selves in such a crucial area.

“I really appreciate thecrystallised vision of CSEC,”he says. “It’s about practicalsafety education so that wecan enable young people tobe equipped to reduce thenumber of unintentional in-juries they or their peers maythey suffer.”

Craig Keegan will be apply-ing the lessons learned fromhis years in the outdoor pur-suits and sports developmentsectors to a number of CSECprojects. The Chester man islooking into forming a pack-age of safety education re-sources for coaches andclubs with the British CanoeUnion.

In addition to seeking part-nerships with governing bod-ies of different sports, he is

Six have freedom to workfor coalition in own ways

Christine Tame and Craig Keegan enjoy the lecture

SAFETY Education Autumn 2009 9

Teenagers

Rohan speaks up for driversance company could stillquote him £5,000 to providehim with annual cover.

Between June and Decem-ber Rohan will be workingwith RoSPA’s road safety de-partment to conduct researchamong young male drivers,pilot a driver safety pro-gramme and speak to insur-ance companies.

When asked what hehoped to get out of the 10-day placement Rohan re-sponded, “I hope my offer to

support inexperienced driv-ers will promote positive ac-tions and in turn help youngmale drivers to get fairer in-surance premiums”.

If you would like to knowmore or are in a position to offer Rohan advice to develop his project pleasecontact his placement super-visor, Cassius Francis atcfrancis@rospa.com

To find out more aboutChangemakers log on to http://www.changemakers.org.uk/

Rohan Bennett has been ap-pointed as RoSPA’s secondyoung advocate on theChangemakers Future Lead-ers programme. This followsa successful placement androad safety research projectby Alysha Ong last year.

Established as a charity in1994, Changemakers advo-cates the young person ledapproach to action and learn-ing to policy makers and funders, and supports organ-isations to develop good

practice. This aim is based onthe proven experience thatgiving young people high lev-els of ownership of their ac-tion and learning is highlymotivating for young peopleand the adults and organisa-tions supporting them.

Rohan is 20 years old andhas been driving since hewas 17, he considers himselfto be a ‘good’ driver, but isconcerned that even thoughhe has never had an accidentor made a claim, an insur-

The idea of the RoSPA YouthNetwork started with a needto engage with young peopleand involve them in develop-ing more effective strategiesin safety and risk education.

Our hope is that the YouthNetwork will allow us to con-sult with a range of youngpeople about striking theright balance between safetyand risk. We also want to hearfrom young people aboutcampaigns which they havedeveloped themselves andthe hope is that they will beinspired to prompt us into ini-tiating projects which we candevelop together.

So, what kind of young per-son do we want to join theyouth network? As you willsee in my diagram, I havecrudely categorised fourtypes of young person in re-lation to risk competence -• Unconscious incompe-

tence probably won’t havemuch interest in joining thenetwork (or anything else),but are perhaps the teen-agers who we would bemost concerned aboutfrom a safety point of view

• Conscious incompetencefor me is probably thelargest group of youngpeople and therefore po-tentially the most influen-tial. Incompetence here isnot meant disrespectfully,but is a reflection of the fact

that a lack of experienceand maturity can lead tounnecessary accidents

• Conscious competence areprobably young peoplewho may have participatedin a uniformed group,taken part in a formal chal-lenge like the Duke of Edin-burgh scheme and/or is atrained volunteer with St

John’s Ambulance• Unconscious competence

is the smallest group. Theseare your characters likeMark Perham (aged 16 atthe time of writing attempt-ing to sail solo around theworld) who have to makevery calculated risk man-agement decisions withoutthinking about it.

Getting young people talkingBy Cassius Francis If you know a teenager

aged 14-19 who could benefitfrom and/or contribute theirskills and expertise to theRoSPA Youth Network pleaseask them to join our Face-book group which can be ac-cessed via our new websitewww.teen safetyandrisk.comIf you have any question oryou would like to know moreplease call 0121 248 2025 oremail tsr@rospa.com

This has been adapted from Individual behaviour change model by Weinstein & Sandman (2002)

10 SAFETY Education Autumn 2009

Young drivers

RoSPA has recently pub-lished a report of a majorstudy designed to get a bet-ter understanding of the risksfaced, and created, by young(17-24 years) drivers at work.

It is already known thatdrivers are at a higher risk ofbeing involved in an accidentafter passing their test, notjust in the first weeks andmonths but several yearsafter. Drivers using the roadfor work are also a high riskgroup with the types of jour-neys they undertake andwork pressures being tworeasons why this is a riskybusiness.

Both young drivers and at-work drivers were identifiedas priority groups in the sec-ond three-year review of the

Government’s road safetystrategy.

This project was thereforeto research the intersectionbetween these two, how wellemployers cope and exam-ples of how employers weremanaging this risk. To do this,views of employers weresought using a questionnaireand more in-depth inter-views, and a series of focusgroups were also run withyounger drivers themselves.

Working with the DSA,RoSPA also investigatedwhether employers wouldrecognise and make use of a“driving for work qualifica-tion” when recruiting or man-

aging young staff who driveas part of their job, and if so,what should be included insuch a qualification or train-ing programme.

This builds on a suggestionraised by the DSA in their re-cent Learning to Drive con-sultation and could providean early opportunity to deliv-er further training to youngdrivers.

Training delivered to em-ployees during work time canalso have an influence ontheir safety outside of work,and there is the potential for aqualification to have an influ-ence on outside of work acci-dents.

The questionnaire was onthe RoSPA website for 13weeks and yielded a very re-spectable 407 responsesfrom a wide variety of organ-isations, both large andsmall. The range of industrysectors and journey purposeswas also wide.

The in-depth interviewsand young drivers’ focusgroups provided further op-portunity for participants toexpand their views and intro-duce other road safety issuesthey felt worthy of attention.All were invited to rate thecurrent system of trainingand testing, to identify areasof inadequacy and to suggestimprovements.

There was widespreadagreement that the presentstructure for driver trainingand testing did not fully pre-pare young people to take onthe responsibilities of drivingfor work and was lacking in anumber of important areas.

Sixty per cent of respon-dents to the questionnaireand 87 per cent of those in-terviewed were of the viewthat the current system ofdriver training and testingwas “not at all or not very”adequate in preparing youngdrivers to drive for work.Employers frequently citedthe differences in the types ofjourney they undertake dur-ing training and for work asthe reason why.

One frequently repeatedconcern was young drivers’lack of experience in drivingmore than one type of vehi-cle.

Passing the basic drivingtest allows an individual todrive cars and light vans butmost learners do not have ex-perience of the latter. As aconsequence, young driversfound larger vehicles, such ascompany vans, difficult tohandle and manoeuvre.

Young drivers themselves

Tackling problem of young drivers at workBy Kathy Shortt and Duncan Vernon

Young drivers taking part in a classroom based activity

SAFETY Education Autumn 2009 11

had a chance to have theirsay through the focusgroups. They were very hon-est in their appraisal of theirown driving and that of theirpeers, recognising that theywere all in need of more prac-tical experience on the road.They were receptive to theidea of further training if thiscould be shown to be of ben-efit, either in terms of careerdevelopment or financiallythrough reduced insurancepremiums.

Although many question-naire respondents said thatchanges should be made todriver training and testing tomake it more relevant to em-ployers needs there was alsostrong support among themfor a post-test driving forwork qualification. Accidentreduction and compliancewith health and safety legisla-tion were the two main rea-sons why employers wouldfind post-test training useful.

The employers did not seethe test as the end of the

training process or a guaran-tee an employee was compe-tent to drive at the requiredlevel of safety and many cur-rently run their own systemsof post-test training for em-ployees to build on the skillsfrom the learner training andto keep drivers in the ‘train-ing loop’.

Some employers had othersystems which made youngdrivers safe on the road. Oneexample of this was appren-ticeship schemes run bysome employers, whichyounger employees wouldgo through while learning forthe job.

These generally placed lesspressure on apprentices toget a large number of jobsdone throughout a day andgave a more managed intro-

duction to at-work driving.‘Buddying systems’ whereyounger and older driverswere paired for journeyswere also identified by em-ployers as a way of introduc-ing young drivers to at-workdriving.

Not surprisingly, a numberof the interviewees said they

thought that young driversalso required more practicalexperience after the test, ei-ther to apply some of theskills they had learnt to a dif-ferent environment, or tolearn new skills specific to at-work driving.

While recognising that ex-perience comes with time,practice and opportunity,they identified several situa-tions where further trainingcould compensate for lack ofexperience, such as motor-way driving, hazard percep-

tion skills, driving in adverseweather conditions and driv-ing at night.

The young drivers at workproject has shown that em-ployers have identified aneed for driver education be-yond the basic system oftraining and testing whichwill help young people totake on the responsibilities ofdriving for work.

The second phase of theproject will develop, trial andevaluate a workshop foryoung drivers covering thekey areas flagged up by theresearch, and an online guidefor employers and managerson how to run the workshopsand use the materials withintheir own organisations.

You can view the wholeYoung Drivers at Work Reportat http://www.rospa.com/RoadSafety/youngdriversatwork

RoSPA will be looking torun some trials of the work-shop developed for the nextphase of the project. If youwant to find out more or howto take part then please con-tact Duncan Vernon on dver-non@rospa.com

g drivers at work

Post-test training for employees to buildon the skills from the learner training

Young drivers

Apprentices take part in the "Wasted Lives" campaign during the first six months of employment

12 SAFETY Education Autumn 2009

News extra

I School parkingtops agenda

I Teenagers target of stark messages

Banners to encourage par-ents to think about whereand how they park aroundNew Inn Primary School inWales have been put on dis-play.

Children at New InnPrimary School took part in acompetition lead by theTorfaen Road Safety Teamand Gwent Police force. Theywere asked to design a ban-ner to be displayed outsidethe school to help make par-ents think about their parkingand make it safer for childrenentering the school.

More than 130 children en-tered the competition makingchoosing the best a difficulttask. Finally, the entries were

whittled down to just twowinners and two runners up.

Hollie Morgan and FionaDodge were the winners.Hollie’s banner will be dis-played at the front of theschool on the fence as youenter the car park and Fiona’son Hillcrest at the back.Torfaen County BoroughCouncil funded the produc-tion of the banners.

Alun Jones, head teacher atNew Inn Primary, said,“Keeping our children safe isvitally important and we arevery grateful to everyone whohas helped to bring safe park-ing to everyone’s attention.The children are delighted tosee their work on show and

A stark road safety campaignfrom Transport for Londonurges teenagers ‘Think! Lookout for your mates’

Transport for London haslaunched its latest advertisingcampaign aimed at encour-aging road safety among thecapital’s teenagers.

The new ‘Don’t let your

friendship die on the road’theme is based on the insightthat friendship is one of themost important things inyoung people’s lives.

Stark posters show youngactors who appear to be lyingagainst a wall, however, asecond glance reveals themto be actually lying on theroad as a result of a road col-lision. The message is a clearcall to action, ‘Think! Lookout for your mates’.

Young teenagers are morelikely to be involved in a roadcollision than any other agegroup. Boys and young peo-ple from deprived back-grounds are particularly vul-nerable. Posters will beplaced in close proximity toschools and in areas of highfootfall across London.Figures from 2007 show thatincidents are more likely tooccur between 3pm and5pm.

In addition to the poster ad-verts, a moving radio advertdramatises the effects ofyoung loss as a teenagerreads a eulogy for a bestfriend at their funeral. A se-ries of online banners will ap-pear on popular websites in-cluding Bebo and MSN mes-senger.

Chris Lines, head of the TfLLondon road safety unit, said:“Every day a teenager iskilled or seriously injured onLondon roads. While thisnumber is steadily falling,one injury is still one toomany,

“This year Transport forLondon is spending £57m onfurther safety measures onthe capital’s roads. These ad-verts serve as a stark re-minder to young people ofthe importance of taking carewhen using or nearby

London roads.”The teen road safety initia-

tive is part of a long-term TfLroad safety campaign whichcontinues to work to reducethe number of young roadusers who are killed or are se-riously injured in the capital.

For more information go towww.tfl.gov.uk

being put to good purpose.”Councillor John Cunning-

ham, executive member foroperational services, praisedthe pupils’ work. “Their strik-ing designs will help raiseawareness about an impor-tant issue,” he said. “I wouldlike to congratulate the girls

and all the pupils at theschool for their efforts.”

School gate parking is ahuge issue for many schoolsacross the area, with manytrying to find ways to encour-age parents to park furtheraway and walk into school, oreven leave the car at home.