Active, healthy lives

We want to see children leading active, healthy lives, safe from the disabling effects of serious accidents.

We understand that experimenting and risk-taking are part of growing up. We have never advocated that children and young people should be ‘wrapped in cotton wool’.

Managing real risks

Our role is to help people understand the real risks to children’s safety and gain skills in managing those risks.

We look at the data on childhood accidents and raise awareness of what really kills, disables and seriously injures children and young people, so that prevention efforts are focused.

Rather than ‘wrapping children up in cotton wool’, we argue for the creation of safer environments, where children can live actively and develop healthily.

We help people understand child development in relation to accidents – for example, children have difficulty judging speed and distance until they are at least eight years-old. And we raise awareness of what we can all do to create more child-friendly environments.

What works

We place a strong emphasis on understanding what works – whether that is community education or child accident prevention – and we have built strong links with the UK’s leading researchers and independent experts. More about what works

Partners in prevention

We believe strongly in partnership working – building beneficial alliances with local and central government, the NHS, emergency services, universities, standards bodies, companies and other charities to achieve our objectives for children.