Delivery of a national home safety equipment scheme in England: a survey of local scheme leaders

Abstract

Unintentional home injuries sustained by preschool children are a major cause of morbidity in the UK. Home safety equipment schemes may reduce home injury rates. In 2009, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents was appointed as central coordinator of a two-year, £18m national home safety equipment scheme in England. This paper reports the findings from a national survey of all scheme leaders responsible for local scheme delivery. A questionnaire mailed to all local scheme leaders sought details of how the schemes were operated locally; barriers and facilitators to scheme implementation; evaluation of the local scheme and its sustainability. A response rate of 73% was achieved. Health visitors and family support workers played a key role in both the identification of eligible families and performing home safety checks. The majority of local scheme leaders (94.6%) reported that they thought their local scheme had been successful in including those families considered 'harder to engage'. Many scheme leaders (72.4%) reported that they had evaluated the provision of safety equipment in their scheme and over half (56.6%) stated that they would not be able to continue the scheme once funding ceased. Local schemes need support to effectively evaluate their scheme and to seek sustainability funding to ensure the future of the scheme. There remains a lack of evidence of whether the provision of home safety equipment reduces injuries in preschool children.