Children in Wales is working to develop a Child Safety Strategy for Wales. This project is funded by Health Challenge Wales, Welsh Assembly Government and is supported by many organisations across Wales and the members of the CHAPPIE Network (Child Accident Prevention Practice & Information Exchange).

The Child Safety Strategy for Wales will aim to:

• Improve the health and well-being of children in Wales
• Prevent or reduce the severity of avoidable injuries
• Reduce health inequalities across Wales
• Underpin and present approaches to support Welsh Assembly Government policies to achieve the stated injury and death reduction targets
• Promote the geographical equity for accident prevention
• Identify evidence based good practice interventions
• Coordinate accident and unintentional injury preventions across Wales

A steering group, coordinated by Children in Wales, has been formed to provide expert advice and guidance for firstly, the development of the Child Safety Strategy and then secondly, the effective implementation of the Strategy – an action plan.

The steering group produced a consultation briefing paper. This document outlined the recommendations for an action plan, the type of interventions that should be adopted and the policy context within which these recommendations will work. The consultation process ran for a period of six months, closing on 12 September 2008. During this process, we consulted with children and young people, parents and carers, practitioners, statutory, voluntary and community organisations.

We are also working in partnership with the European Child Safety Alliance, UNICEF and WHO to prevent accidents and unintentional injuries across Europe. The European Child Safety Action Plan initiative aims to enhance child safety within the 33 participating countries in the EU.  This large-scale initiative runs alongside our work towards a Child Safety Strategy and Action Plan for Wales.

Based on the responses gathered during the consultation period, the final document, that we will be taking forward is now available to download below.

Working Towards a Child Safety Strategy for Wales

If you would like further information on the development of the Strategy or to learn how your organisation can support it, please contact: Karen.Mcfarlane@childreninwales.org.uk

Launch of the European Report on Child Safety in Wales

24 countries in Europe have been involved in a project to reduce child accidents and injuries. Through the project each country is given a "Child Safety Report Card" which rates their performance in a range of areas, such as passenger safety, fall prevention, burn and scald prevention and so on, as well as an overall score compared to the other countries taking part.  Wales’ overall score ranked it 21^st out of the 24. The documents are available to download below:

• Wales Country Profile
• Wales Report Card
• Working Towards a Child Safety Strategy for Wales
• European Summary Report Card
• Children in Wales Press Release