As you may or may not know, Child Safety Week is the CAPT’s (Child Accident Prevention Trust) flagship community education campaign, which aims to raise awareness of accidents that injure or kill children and how to prevent them.
Rather than wrapping up children in cotton wool, the CAPT wants Child Safety Week to help families make informed decisions when it comes to protecting their kids. To do this, it promotes practical safety messages through the media in addition to supporting thousands of community groups, nurseries, centres, and schools with events across the country.
Even though one in ten parents have made their children safer from serious accidents as a direct result of Child Safety Week, the CAPT’s mission continues to strive for greater awareness.
Strategy Education is a big believer in Child Safety Week and will once again be supporting it this year. Here is what you need to know about the campaign.
Sharing is caring with Child Safety Week 2017
This year’s Child Safety Week will take place from Monday 5th to Sunday 11th June 2017. Every year, the campaign has a different theme and this time around it is ’Safe Children: Sharing is Caring.’
As the CAPT explains: “We are asking friends, families, communities and professionals to show they care by playing their part in keeping children safe and sharing their experience and knowledge – not just about the horrors of accidents, but also the really practical, simple things they do to prevent them.
“We all have a part to play in sharing the responsibility for preventing accidents among children, and we know that nothing is more powerful than the voice of experience.”
The 2017 Child Safety Week Action Pack, which is said to contain information for parents, activity ideas, as well as hints and tips for a successful event, will be available soon. Until then, the CAPT recommends you look at the 2016 version for early inspiration.
How has Child Safety Week helped in the past?
Over the years, Child Safety Week has looked at a number of issues that families might not have given much thought to previously. Examples of past themes include:
- ‘Turn Off Technology’ – Highlighting the dangers of being distracted by technology. Research has shown that children falling from playground equipment or being injured in a car accident are because of parents looking at their mobile phones.
- ‘Teatime Terrors’ – Yet again, road traffic accidents cause injury because of parents rushing home from school or nursery. Other examples included drowning and bath water scalds.
- ‘Be a Safety Hero’ – With this campaign, the CAPT celebrated the things that people do to prevent children suffering serious harm, making them Safety Heroes.
- ‘Morning Mayhem’ – Once more, the CAPT looked to its Safety Heroes for advice on how parents could cope with chaotic mornings when kids are in a rush to get ready for school and where parents may overlook or ignore the importance of safety.
If you cannot wait until Child Safety Week to make a difference, why not text CAPT16 £3 to 70070 and contribute to the CAPT’s future work.