Scheme success on child accidents

Nazia Sultana and her son on the scheme's 3,000th visit

The government's record on reducing the number of preventable accidents in children has been criticised in a report by the Audit Commission and the Healthcare Commission.

Since 2001, staff at the Action on Children's Accidents Project (ACAP) in East Lancashire have shown it is possible to cut the number of accidents among children.

A simple kit costing just a few pounds provided to parents taking part in SureStart programmes has reduced the number of children going to hospital by 660 last year compared to 2001 when the scheme was introduced, a fall of 21%.

Fireguards, safety gates, smoke alarms and safety catches on cupboards are all provided and fitted by staff on the scheme who also spend up to an hour with families to increase awareness of hazards.

Julie Carman, who heads the scheme, said the ACAP staff go in with a check-list of common causes of accidents in the local area.

"These are things like getting burnt with a cup of tea on the floor or hair straighteners that have been left on.

Savings

"It costs about £175 for the full package, but we charge the family £5.

"We have shown massive savings, with 663 fewer children going to A&E than when we began which is about 12 a week."

The scheme, run by East Lancashire Primary Care Trusts, calculate they have saved the NHS around £1.9m a year, but the real figure could be much higher as they cannot tell what accidents they have prevented.

"The cost of an average accident is £5,000 but for example a serious burn costs the NHS £250,000," Mrs Carman added.

Nazia Sultana, who was the 3,000th client to have the kit fitted, said the scheme had helped to make her home safer for her baby.

The project started small, but with the spread of SureStart programmes throughout the district, ACAP now visit 1,000 families a year.

Mrs Carman said parents involved in the scheme had reported accidents had been avoided, including one family who were woken by the smoke alarm when their house was set on fire by arsonists.

She called on such schemes to be funded nationally.

"Prevention is definitely better than cure, and we really do need to be looking at things that prevent people getting into A&E in the first place."