Death

Accidental injury is one of the biggest killers of children in the UK. It is second only to cancer. In 2007, 264 children and young people aged under 15 years died in accidents – more than five every week. (In England and Wales, there were 223 deaths, in Scotland 20, and in Northern Ireland 21.)

Serious injury

Accidents put more children in hospital in the UK than any other cause. Last year, 120,000 children and young people were hospitalised – over 2,000 children each week.

Life-changing injuries

Some children are left permanently disabled or disfigured by accidents:

1. Spreading knowledge and changing behaviour
2. Supporting staff in local communities
3. Children who suffer severe head injuries – for example in road accidents – will be left with permanent brain damage.

Children at greatest risk

“Unintentional injury represents a significant burden to the NHS, to local government and to the families and individuals affected by it”

Better safe than sorry, Audit Commission and Healthcare Commission, February 2007

Caring for a child who has been seriously injured can stop a parent from returning to education or work. It can plunge an already disadvantaged family further into poverty.

The NHS spends millions of pounds each year treating preventable childhood accidents. The Audit Commission reports that the cost of childhood visits to A&E alone is £146 million. It can cost as much as £250,000 to treat one severe bathwater scald.

All just common sense?

Parents

“I learnt that the things I would have done could have put my baby in danger”

Accident prevention is often seen as common sense. Yet few parents know that a sparkler burns 10 times hotter than a kettle of boiling water. Or that a mug of coffee will scald a baby 15 minutes after it has been made.

And parents with poor literacy lack accessible information on what they can do to make their children safer.

Staff

Frontline staff who support families in their local communities may lack knowledge about:

• the links between child development and children’s accidents
• the main causes of serious childhood accidents
• what works in preventing them.

Decision makers

Decision makers – who have so many issues to cover – need specialist advice and guidance to plan and deliver effective accident prevention programmes. They need information based on evidence of what really works.

Find out what we do to tackle these problems and make a difference to children and families.