Saving lives and reducing injuries by...INFLUENCING AND INFORMING
Maintaining the profile of accident prevention
Why? Persuading the public, professionals and policy makers of the rationale for accident prevention and sharing advice is crucial if there are to be co-ordinated efforts to reduce the number of people killed and injured.
Staff from across RoSPA responded to the huge demand for blind cord safety packs.
What we did: One of the most significant developments of the year was the appointment of our first campaigns manager to work with our policy teams on some key campaigns, including public health, blind cord safety and lighter evenings. This new capacity enabled us to enhance our lobbying activities, partner with a greater number of organisations that share our aims and communicate more regularly and effectively with our supporters. An example of the success of our more streamlined approach was that nearly 2,000 people registered their support for our blind cord safety campaign in the five months after comprehensive campaign pages went live on our website.
At Westminster, the All Party Parliamentary Group on Accident Prevention, chaired by our President Lord Jordan of Bournville and for which we provide the secretariat, continued to meet. Among the issues discussed were the public health White Paper, Lord Young’s review of health and safety, the value of data collection and the Daylight Saving Bill.
On a European level, we were delighted to become the new host of the European Child Safety Alliance (ECSA), of which we have been a member since its inception in 2000, and we look forward to the joint collaboration strengthening action for child safety in the UK and Europe.
In the global arena, we had the opportunity to tell safety practitioners and academics from around the world about the success of Safe At Home, the Child Safety Education Coalition, the National Water Safety Forum and community safety activities in Scotland through presentations and posters at the 10th World Conference on Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion, which was held in London.
With the RoSPA website continuing to be our main "shop window”, we were delighted that it received 3.5million visits during the year, and that the various documents it hosts were downloaded 900,000 times. Innovations and additions to the site included greater use of film to support our campaigns and the development of new online facilities for donations and RoSPA membership applications. An online registration function for the RoSPA Awards was also introduced. We enhanced our presence in the social media sphere, making increased use of our presence on Facebook and Twitter and introducing two blogs - Safety Gone Sane, which covers accident prevention in general, and RoADAR Bloggers, for members of RoSPA Advanced Drivers and Riders. During the year, we also continued to maintain 17 satellite websites, including completely re-designing and re-building the National Water Safety Forum website, and two new sites were created from scratch - one for ECSA and one for the road safety evaluation project.
Our Infocentre responded to thousands of enquiries.
Once again, our Infocentre provided an invaluable service, dealing with 3,500 enquiries from RoSPA members seeking advice about health and safety management and also other individuals and organisations looking for background information about accident prevention.
Our fortnightly Safety Connections e-bulletin remained popular, being received by tens of thousands of people, and our journals covering occupational safety and health (OS&H Journal and Safety Express), home and leisure safety (Staying Alive), road safety (Care on the Road) and safety education (Safety Education) remained an important source of information for professionals. We also remained a popular port of call for journalists from all sections of the media.
Sharing best practice and information
Why? Events give professionals the opportunity to keep up-to-date with current issues and offer advice and inspiration about accident and ill health prevention.
"It was a very relevant, practical and succinct event; really found it useful. Did more in 3 hours than you often do in a day."
Delegate, Meet the Experts - Effective Training
What we did: We responded to the financial and associated time pressures faced by many of our stakeholders by devising a finely-targeted events programme that would enable them to gain the most benefit from time out of the office. Our annual Road Safety Congress was reduced to a one-day seminar focused solely on coping during a time of limited public spending. We launched a series of one day conferences, entitled "From Industry, For Industry", with events specifically for those seeking information about construction and facilities management, and we introduced our "Meet the Experts” series with half-day seminars covering worker involvement, effective training and work-related road safety. Among our other events was a conference for the waste management industry and in partnership with The Age Employment Network, we hosted a conference which investigated the pitfalls and opportunities that UK employers and the growing number of older employees face. We also organised the seminar programmes for DFA Media’s Drives and Controls/Plant and Works Exhibition and International Fluid Power (IFPEX)/Air-Tech Exhibition.
"Lots of initiatives to take back to the workplace."
Delegate, From Industry, For Industry - Construction Health and Safety
"Core health and safety involvement" was our theme at Safety and Health Expo, for which we were once again an official show partner, and our stand featured an eco-driving simulator and training course taster sessions.
Enhancing RoSPA membership
Why? We are privileged to be a society of members who are dedicated to reducing accidents through the education of others.
What we did: We were delighted that a variety of new members joined us and also that many well-known organisations renewed their corporate membership. These included:
New members:
- Coca Cola Enterprises
- DHL Excel Supply Chain
- Lavendon Group Plc
- Marriot Hotels International
- Multiple Sclerosis Society
- Nampak Plastics Europe
- Premier Foods Group
- PSA Peugeot Citroen Automobiles UK Ltd
- St John Ambulance
Well-known corporate members include:
- Bilfinger Berger
- The Co-operative Group
- Hoare Lee Ltd
- National Express Ltd
- Pinewood Studios
- Sellafield UK
- Tesco.com
We expanded our range of member benefits by launching The Voice - a fortnightly members’-only e-bulletin, containing member news, special offers and health and safety updates. We also enhanced the service received by new members during their first year of membership.
Promoting safety and risk education
Why? By encouraging children and young people to get involved in accident prevention, and promoting a better understanding of risk, we aim to equip people with the skills to make informed decisions about safety.
"As a younger member of the community, I have had the chance to step into the shoes of RoSPA staff, and from looking at water activities from both perspectives I know that RoSPA is not trying to take away childhood risks. The message being portrayed is to have fun but think through the possible consequences of your actions."
Sabrin Choudhury, a Sutton Girls student, who joined us for a two-week work experience placement
Representatives of the Young Advisers Charity looked at our youth
participation strategy.
What we did: Our youth participation strategy came under the spotlight when a group of young people visited our Birmingham head-quarters to find out how we were already working with young people and discuss how this could be taken forward. Drawn from across the country, they represented the Young Advisers Charity, which advises decision-makers on how to engage young people in community life. Among the ideas they suggested were more partnerships with other organisations and greater use of social media to get young people actively involved in our mission to save lives and reduce injuries.
We continued our successful association with the Changemakers Foundation, through which "young advocates” aged 18-25 join us for 10 days over a six-month period. We also trained more RoSPA employees to become work experience facilitators, increasing our capacity to host school-age students for two-week placements.
RoSPA/BNFL Scholarship
Two new research projects received funding from the RoSPA/BNFL Scholarship Scheme. The scheme supports research that could have a real impact on improving safety in the UK and overseas.
The two successful projects in 2010 were:
Perceptual judgments by elderly road users when observing vehicle approach
Dr Damian Poulter and Professor John Wann, Action Research Laboratory, Royal Holloway, University of London
Awarded £20,000.
Child Injury Prevention Impact Statement Investigation and Development Project
Joanne Vincenten and Morag MacKay, European Child Safety Alliance
Awarded £20,000.
Funding also continued for a three-year PhD study:
The scale and impact of child injuries in Nepal
Puspa Raj Pant, Centre for Child and Adolescent Health, University of the West of England
Awarded £65,000 over three years (2009-12).
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