The LASER Project : An Overview
Developing good practice guidelines for teaching children about safety
The LASER (Learning About Safety by Experiencing Risk) Project began at RoSPA in April 1999. This three-year project, funded by the Department of Health, ultimately aims to establish good practice guidelines for interactive safety education schemes for children such as Crucial Crew or Junior Citizen. These 'LASER' schemes have proliferated throughout the whole of the UK since 1986 when the first Junior Citizen was established in London. Such initiatives now attract some of the greatest efforts in accident prevention education for 9-11 year old children.
What are LASER Schemes?
LASER schemes are very much a multi-agency collaboration and commonly involve the police, the fire brigade, the ambulance service, HM Coastguards, health promotion units, the utility companies (water, electricity, gas and telecommunications), rail companies, building companies, bus and truck companies, several departments of the local authority (e.g. road safety, environmental health, trading standards) and voluntary bodies such as St Johns Ambulance. This list is far from exhaustive and other agencies are often brought in to match local need. In a LASER scheme, each agency adopts its own 'scenario' with the aim of teaching the children about a particular aspect of safety. Emphasis is very much on the belief that children learn by doing, and the scenarios are made as interactive as possible. The children learn about safety by experiencing risky situations in safety, for example an unsafe kitchen, a smoke-filled bedroom or the scene of a road traffic accident. The scenarios typically last for ten minutes. The children are split into small groups of about six and move round the different scenarios in a carousel fashion.
The Growth of LASER Schemes
Throughout the 1990s the idea of LASER schemes spread like wildfire, and there are now around 200 such schemes in England alone operating under a plethora of different names, Crucial Crew and Junior Citizen being the most common. Other names include Safety Zone, Safety in Action, Safety Carousel and Operation Streetwise. Most of the schemes operate on a temporary basis. Typically the scheme will hire or be given a venue in the area such as a disused school, the town hall or a community centre. The scheme will then run two two-hour sessions each day for a period of two weeks. Sources of funding for LASER schemes is varied, usually from the agencies involved or from local sponsors. In recent years five permanent 'safety centres' have been set up. These centres act as a year-round interactive learning facility for the surrounding area.
The Need for the LASER Project
In March 1998 at a RoSPA 'Safety in Action' seminar, the 100 delegates recognised that despite the rapid growth of LASER schemes, and the resource implications this had for the various agencies involved, there was no established good practice or evaluation methodology. Scheme organisers feared that a lack of evaluation could indeed jeopardise the future of many of the schemes. The LASER Project was set up as a direct response to the findings of the seminar. Over three years the project has three broad aims:
- to set up a database and conduct an audit of all LASER schemes for children running throughout England
- to develop a common evaluation tool for all LASER schemes
- to produce some good practice guidelines for LASER schemes
The LASER Project employs one full-time Project Officer who is supported internally at RoSPA by a working group and externally by a national steering group comprised of representatives of the Department of Health, the police and fire service, educationalists and organisers of LASER schemes.
The Database
The database includes 178 LASER schemes. The database registration forms in themselves are a useful supply of information, providing data never collected before on the number of schemes and their geographical and seasonal distribution. The database will also facilitate information exchange and networking between scheme organisers both locally and nationally.
The Audit - Questionnaire
Detailed data about interactive safety education schemes for children has been collected by means of a questionnaire. This represents a consistent, simple and cost-effective means of collecting the necessary information. The questionnaire was piloted on 11 organisers of schemes, who filled in an additional form to evaluate the questionnaire and provide any comments. Organisers of temporary or mobile schemes were asked to complete the questionnaire using details from the last time they ran their scheme, rather than with details from future plans or past practice. This represents a more uniform method of data collection and enables us to obtain a 'snapshot' of the current situation.
The questionnaire collected quantitative data on schemes under the following sections:
- scheme details
- capacity
- scenarios
- information for schools
- staff
- evaluation
- resources
Finally there was space for organisers to add any additional comments about their scheme or about the LASER Project in general.
The questionnaire also asked organisers to include the following with their response:
- resources for teachers or pupils provided by the scheme
- existing evaluation reports of the scheme
- evaluation forms used by the scheme
A questionnaire was mailed out to all 178 schemes registered on the database, and a 72 per cent response rate was achieved.
The Audit - Visits
The LASER Project Officer also visited 48 sites to gain familiarity with schemes and their organisers, obtain a better understanding of how those particular schemes work, and collect detailed information at first-hand so that it would be possible to compare and contrast practice nation-wide.
The culmination of the first year's work on the LASER Project was the LASER Project Audit Report.
Evaluation
Work on the second aim of the LASER Project (to develop a common evaluation tool for all schemes) comprised four main parts:
- An audit of current evaluation practice. Evaluation materials and reports are being collated from all schemes.
- A literature review focusing on evaluation of safety education interventions.
- Consultation with practitioners, i.e. organisers of registered schemes.
- Consultation with the LASER Project Steering Group.
LASER Alliance and Accreditation
During the last phase of the Project a number of schemes joined together to form a voluntary Alliance. The Alliance recognised a need to spread good practice to all current and future schemes thus ensuring a minimum standard of service for the children. RoSPA and the Alliance lobbied for funds to support this aim. Funds were finally obtained in April 2005 and RoSPA has been commissioned by the Department of Health to undertake a programme of voluntary accreditation. The first centre to be accredited was in Bristol, in June 2007.
Contact Details
For further information about the LASER Project, please contact John Vallender: Tel: 0121 248 2114
Email: jvallender@rospa.com
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