Preventing unintentional injuries
among under-15s: recommendations
for local multi-agency partnerships
Implementing NICE guidance
2010
NICE public health guidance 29, 30 and 31
What this presentation covers
Background
Scope
Recommendations
Costs and savings
Discussion
Find out more
Background
• The phrase ‘unintentional injuries’ (rather than
‘accidents’ ) is used as most injuries and their
causes are predictable and preventable
• Unintentional injury is a leading cause of death
and injury among children and young people
• Children and young people from lower
socioeconomic groups are more likely to be
affected by unintentional injuries
Scope
The three pieces of guidance focus on:
• Broad, strategic prevention activities
• Home safety assessments and the
supply and installation of safety kit
• Making routes safer through speed
limits and engineering measures
Recommendations
• Planning and coordination
• Home safety
• Outdoor play and leisure
• Road safety
Planning and coordination
• Ensure local plans commit to preventing
unintentional injuries among under-15s, with
a focus on those who are most at risk
• Ensure there is a trained child and young person
injury prevention coordinator in each locality
• Provide a wider childcare workforce with access
to injury prevention training
Home safety
• Include home safety assessments and education
in local plans
• Consider having local agreements with housing
associations and landlords on installing
permanent home safety equipment
• Establish multi-sector partnerships or support
existing ones to collect information carry out
assessments and promote home safety
Home safety:
households at greatest risk
• Identify and prioritise households most at risk and
offer home assessments
• Ensure the assessment, supply and installation of
equipment is tailored to need and includes the
provision of information and advice
• Provide practitioners who visit children and young
people at home with mechanisms for sharing
information
• Ensure practitioners adhere to good practice on
maintaining the confidentiality and security of
personal information
Outdoor play and leisure
• Ensure a prevention policy is in place which
balances fun, physical activity and learning
• Provide education, information and advice on
the use of equipment to manage risk
• Encourage cycle training and promote the use
of correctly fitted and fastened cycle helmets
• Conduct local injury prevention campaigns for
all events where fireworks may be used
Road safety: partnerships
• Maintain road safety partnerships to help plan,
coordinate and manage road safety activities
• Ensure a senior public health person leads – and
is responsible for – health sector involvement
• Ensure local child safety reviews are carried out
at least every 3 years
• Ensure consistency within local child safety
policies, local plans and strategies
Road safety: speed reduction
• Introduce engineering measures to reduce speed in
streets that are primarily residential or where
pedestrian and cyclist movements are high
• Consider changing speed limits and introducing
appropriate engineering measures to:
- reduce speeds on rural roads
- provide safer routes commonly used by
children and young people
Costs per 150,000 population
Recommendations with significant costs
Costs
(£ per year)
Coordination of unintentional injury prevention
activities
40,000
Delivery of home safety assessments and
installation of home safety equipment
42,000
Estimated cost of implementation
82,000
Savings per 150,000 population
Preventing 10% of unintentional injuries among
under-15s could:
• save up to £80,000 by reducing emergency
department visits and hospital admissions
• lead to savings for GPs
• lead to savings for the ambulance, police and
fire and rescue services
Discussion
• How can we improve the way we coordinate our
work to prevent unintentional injuries among
under-15s?
• How do we meet the needs of the most
vulnerable under-15s in this respect?
• How does our injury prevention training link to
– and support – the wider child health remit?
Find out more
Visit www.nice.org.uk/PH29, www.nice.org.uk/PH30
and www.nice.org.uk/PH31 for:
•
•
•
•
the guidance
a quick reference guide
a costing report and template
three self-assessment tools
(one for each piece of guidance)