Researchers examine accidents among pre-school children

Researchers from the University of Nottingham are studying common accidents and injuries among children under 5 in order to develop preventative guidance.

Around 250,000 pre-school aged children are admitted to A&E;departments every year after being injured at home. Now researchers want to speak to the parents of these children to determine how common accidents, such as falls, scalds and poisoning, can be prevented.

Parents whose children have received emergency treatment for common injuries will be asked to complete a questionnaire about the accident and the normal safety practices they follow at home.

This information will then be used to support the Keeping Children Safe project, a five-year study being conducted in partnership with the Child Accident Prevention Trust. The aim is to develop a set of guidelines to help reduce the number of young children requiring emergency hospital treatment each year.

Researchers are visiting hospitals in Nottingham, Derby, Norwich, Newcastle and Bristol as they are particularly interested in speaking to families from inner-city areas. Figures indicate that these families usually experience a higher rate of home-based accidents. They are also asking GP’s to forward questionnaires to parents of children who have not ever been taken to hospital with an injury so they may act as a control group.

The university first made its request to parents last month, just before the Child Accident Prevention Trust’s National Child Safety Week began on 20th June. The annual campaign is for anyone working with families or children and aims to raise awareness of the number of serious or fatal accidents that happen to children each year and how these can be prevented.

Denise Kendrick, lead author professor of the University’s Division of Primary Care, said: “A large number of children are brought into casualty departments every year seriously or even fatally injured as a result of an accident in the home.

“We are keen to devise guidelines on the best ways of preventing these types of injuries [...]. We want to learn from parents, from all walks of life, about what they do to keep their children safe, so we can work out which safety activities work best.”

First Response Training offers a Health & Safety for Child Carers training course for anyone involved in childcare, or indeed for parents, which aims to inform delegates of their health and safety obligations.

Mike Mulcahy, Curriculum Consultant for First Response, says: “People who work with children assume responsibilities for their health and safety and need to ensure that they do not expose the children in their care to unnecessary risks but, at the same time, it is not beneficial to a child to restrict them too much or wrap them in cotton wool.

"Our Health & Safety for Child Carers course provides clear guidance on health and safety legislation and covers risk assessments, accident prevention and hazard spotting. In addition to this, we also offer a Risk Assessment for Care course which is for anyone involved in health and social care and covers the risk assessment process in greater detail.”

For further information on these courses, or any of our courses aimed at those who work with children, please contact us today on free phone 0800 310 2300.