PACTS PUBLISHES PAPER ON CHILD RISK
The Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety has today published a paper calling for a more co-ordinated approach to the safety of children and young people.
The paper entitled “Perceptions and Realities” and published jointly with seven organisations working in the child safety field can be downloaded from PACTS website: www.pacts.org.uk
The conclusions of the report build on work presented at a PACTS seminar by Professor Colin Pritchard of Bournemouth University. At the seminar, Professor Pritchard highlighted the disparity between the success in reducing child killing in the United Kingdom (30 years ago the UK was the fourth highest in the Western world; now it is the 3rd lowest) compared to the continuing cumulative death and injury toll arising from road traffic.
Commenting on the report, Robert Gifford, Executive Director of PACTS, said “In times of economic uncertainty, it is all too easy to engage in special pleading. However, it is important to recognise that road traffic accidents represent the biggest single cause of non-natural death among children and young people aged 1 to 19.
They represent a particularly high risk for males aged 14 to 19.“Tackling this imbalance requires a co-ordinated approach. This can be done through better application of policy such as the Total Place initiative, through more effective structures, through joint appointments for child safeguarding (as in Bradford) and specific interventions such as 20mph zones.
“Our overwhelming priority must be to protect our children and young people. Reducing risk to them on the roads should be a key part of the child safeguarding agenda. A death on the road is far more common than death through domestic abuse.”
To download the report please click here
