The two-year national home safety equipment scheme, funded by the DCSF, has been set up to help reduce accidental deaths and injuries among children in disadvantaged areas. It is estimated that half a million under-fives end up in hospital every year as a result of accidents at home.
The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) will work with partners including children's centres and early years settings to deliver the scheme, which aims to help parents in England make their homes safer by lending them equipment, such as safety gates, fireguards and window locks. It will also help parents understand the causes of accidents at home and advise on how to prevent them.
The charity will distribute equipment through existing local home safety schemes, set up new schemes and run safety training.
According to RoSPA, children of parents who are long-term unemployed or who have never worked are 13 times more likely to die as a result of unintentional injury and 37 times more likely to die from exposure to smoke, fire or flames than children of parents in higher managerial or professional jobs.
The charity said it hoped that the scheme would help parents of children in disadvantaged areas access vital safety equipment.
RoSPA is also holding regional workshops across the country to find out what services in the area would need to expand home safety schemes and to identify gaps in training.
Information workshops will run from March to May 2009. Once they have been trained, scheme providers will visit vulnerable families and assess what home safety equipment they need. Schemes will aim to educate five times as many families as receive equipment, and home safety training will be available to all parents with children under five, not just those on benefits.
Sheila Merrill, RoSPA home safety manager for England, said, 'Home is where young children are at the greatest risk of being injured in an accident.
'No family can hope to completely "child-proof" its home - children change constantly in their abilities and what's more, they need to learn about safety through challenges that support their healthy development. But there are some things parents can do to make their homes as safe as necessary, without going over the top.
'Various items of safety equipment can be introduced at the stages of a child's life when they are needed most. This new scheme will benefit thousands of families whose circumstances have, until now, prevented them from installing this equipment.'
Further information
Early years settings can sign up for free home safety workshops in their local area. Visit www.rospa.com/nhses/how.htm