Flintshire Wanless Local Action Plan

Flintshire Wanless Local Action Plan

FLINTSHIRE WANLESS LOCAL ACTION PLAN

The Children’s Injury Prevention Project is a multi-partner initiative that was forwarded to the Wanless Group with the full support of the Flintshire Home Safety and Injury Prevention Group. It involves

  • FLHB (who have provided the financial resource to support it over its 12 month life, with Janet Ellis and the key contact person)
  • NE Wales NHS Trust (who are employing and providing line management for the project worker, office space for the worker as required, and ensuring links to health visitor staff
  • FCC – Children’s Services (providing links to the child safety equipment provision service that is part of SureStart, and links to other FCC hosted services
  • FLPHT (providing specialist professional advice and support regarding effective practice, evaluation and links to the wider ‘injury prevention’ agenda (including the drafting of the proposal agreed by the Wanless Group), and office space for the worker as required
  • Dangerpoint (providing the essential financial administration that enable the project to be realised, office space for the worker as required, and access to the facilities at the Dangerpoint base (including the training room and storage for project equipment)

Steering Group Members

Helen Griffiths / North East Wales NHS Trust
(Seconded to the project for twelve months) / Children’s Injury Prevention Nurse
Jackie James / National Public Health Service / Principal Health Development Specialist
Kath Swale / North East Wales NHS Trust / Community services Manager
Gill Harrison / Flintshire County Council
Education & Children’s service / Flintshire Partnership
Co-ordinator
Julie Evans / Dangerpoint / Dangerpoint Manager

Background of Project

The project is responding to issues identified within the Flintshire Health, Social Care and Well Being Strategy Needs Assessment (Stage 1, November 2003), and to the specific issues in the research report “Preventing unintentional injuries in Flintshire” (October 2005) which stated,

“An estimated 1 in 5 children (aged 0-15 years) attend hospital each year following injury; approximately half of these occur within the home setting and are potentially preventable. The majority of injury prevention activity focusing on families with children under 5 years takes place within the Sure Start areas”.

It supports the achievement of a key objective within the ‘Good Health’ Strategy, and the aims of Health Challenge Wales. It also supports agencies in Flintshire to achieve Key Action 2.38 in the Children, Young People and Maternity Services National Service Framework, which requires

“[the] promotion of home safety, including safety equipment loan schemes in deprived areas and safe storage and disposal of medicines”.

Aim of project

The aim of the project is to raise awareness of injury prevention within Flintshire to families/carers of children under the age of five. The catchment area will be Flintshire wide with particular focus on families from deprived areas. Aim to increase the profile of injury prevention with key workers, such as Health Visitors/Health Professionals. Provide Safety equipment for families within the Flintshire area, along with first aid training from an accredited source.

As well as give professional advice and guidance to Dangerpoint, safety centre at Talacre.

Recruitment

Following interview, Helen Griffiths was granted a seconded contract from North East Wales Trust for Twelve months commencing in June 2008. Helen Griffiths reports to Steering group for guidance and advice on regular basis.

Differences anticipated Key areas of work

  • Staff and others working with families/ young children are more confident about raising home safety/injury prevention issues.
  • Parents and other carers of children under 5 years have increased knowledge of home safety issues, and feel confident to administer first aid or access healthcare provision appropriately.
  • Increase uptake and use of appropriate home safety equipment in families with a child under 5 years
  • Improved working together across agencies and sectors to reduce serious unintentional injuries to children.

Activities undertaken within the remit of the Project

Increase staff confidence in discussing Home safety / Injury Prevention issues with families

  • Child Health Day- A fifteen minute presentation given to Flintshire and Wrexham Health professionals to launch the ‘Now I can crawl’ child safety equipment referral system. Staff had opportunity to visual equipment offered to parents in a display stand. I organised for Dangerpoint staff to be present to promote parents tour within the centre for Health visitors to view during their lunchtime break. Photographs were available of Dangerpoint scenarios, this displays how the centre could be a beneficial learning tool for Health professionals to use. Fire and Rescue Service personnel were present at the day to promote free fire safety check, along with stair gate/Fire guards offered by the Project.
  • Health Visitor visit to Dangerpoint-open day to promote the Parents tour for the Health Visitors to use as an educational tool.
  • Home start/ Flying Start professionals visited Dangerpoint- evaluations from the visit showed positive feedback.
  • Choking gadget demonstration within clinics to health professionals- a leaflet accompanied the demonstration information.
  • Safety education poster provision, produced by CAPT with additional information to support given to all Health Visitors to display within clinics.
  • Dangerpoint Scenarios- Script adapted for parents, training given to rangers within the centre to explain changes made.
  • North Wales Fire and Rescue Service - Fire and rescue service deliver equipment at the same time as free fire safety checks within the home of the parents. Fire and rescue also have the opportunity to signpost the service to health visitor if ever appropriate.
  • After meeting with Nursery Nurses within their team meeting, it was discussed and agreed that they were to be involved in Child safety week. Resources were purchased and delivered to all the clinics. A positive response was received from this, the resources such as posters, stickers, leaflets and a video that could be used in further sessions. They all expressed a need for it in future years.

Summary

Prior to this project, staff individually undertook various levels of home safety education in accordance with “The Birth to Five Document” which is given to all first time parents.

All health visitors work with parents though their individual hand held red books that explores child safety as in accordance to their development. Over 150 Health Professionals who attended the Child Health day welcomed the information about the ‘Now I can crawl’ project as a positive way of increasing awareness of the importance of using safety equipment and educational messages to reduce injuries in very young children.

Written evaluations were extremely positive. During the launch, health professionals described the project, as “clear to follow…., it would be beneficial to use within their current practices….”. A large majority felt that “many families living outside the Sure Start areas would also benefit from safety equipment provision”. Therefore, this scheme was a “timely response to an identified need”…... and was “welcomed as a valuable additional service for families…”

The extra posters and the availability of the choking gadget were a useful way to illustrate safety risks in order to promote safety amongst parents. Both of which were welcomed by all the health professionals as a useful working tool to demonstrate the risk.

Most people who attended had little prior knowledge of the role of Dangerpoint, and were pleased to learn more about the learning opportunities it could provide, feeling that it was a useful means of delivering a visual / experiential approach to safety education.

Increase home safety awareness and first aid knowledge of parents/carers of children aged less than 5 years

  • Dissemination of home safety information leaflets- sourced from CAPT. After in-depth look across the abundant market of safety literature for parents, three booklets were sourced, from Children’s accident prevention trust (CAPT).

Two booklets are to be used - I’m only a baby, but….

Now I can crawl, I can…

Both booklets are colourful, with bold cartoon images throughout the booklet, with a clear safety message on each page. The message that is shown on each page is clear, using none patronising text. These booklets could be used with the child as a learning exercise.

Parents also received an information booklet entitled ‘Keep your baby safe’ published by CAPT. This booklet looks at safety equipment needed for each developmental stage.

  • First aid training- extensive research was undertaken to provide training that was specifically tailored to meet the needs of parents/carers of children under the age of five. Red Cross was sourced to provide an accredited course entitled “Save a Life”. The day was timetabled to accommodate demands of parents i.e. within school time. For those with younger children a crèche was provided within the building, free of charge. Refreshments were also provided to parents. Evaluations were extremely positive from the days. Comments from the evaluations were very positive the course was friendly..., bilingual..., tailor made to their specific needs as parents...

Date of course / Venue / Attendance number / Children under the age of five / Crèche attendance
28th November 2007 / Dangerpoint / 11 / All had children under the age of five / 3
29th November 2007 / Dangerpoint / 10 / All had children under the age of five / 4
1st February 2008 / Dangerpoint / 2
(Weather Bad) / 2
6th March 2008 / Dangerpoint / 3 / All had children under the age of five
7th March 2008 / Dangerpoint / 8 / All had children under the age of five / 2
  • Child safety week- coordination, support and evaluation of a range of awareness raising events delivered by colleagues in health / social care / education settings / emergency services and voluntary agencies. All the local libraries were involved in placing Safety information posters across the county reaching a wider population of people. Many activities for child safety week were co-ordinated throughout the county. A copy of the delivery mechanism can be seen within the appendices.
  • Road safety involvement – links established with colleagues in Flintshire Road Safety Unit to encourage joined-up approach to injury prevention in both home/road settings. . Discussions have occurred from suggestions made by myself for financial provision from Flintshire Road Safety team to purchase toddlers reins/ pram reflectors. Quotations of costs including amounts required have been given to the department. A possibility for launching this could be during Road Safety week in October, targeting playgroups/ toddler groups. Alternatively, via Health Visitors at 2 ¼ year check. A decision has not been made.
  • Flintshire Trading Standards Department were given permission to copy ‘Buy Wise- Be Safe’ DVD. The Trading Standards Partnership in South West England produced this DVD. The Department of Trade and Industry funding supported the development of the initial DVD. The DVD was shown to Flintshire Trading Standards who agreed the value of its contents as well as the information booklet that supports the DVD. They agreed to reproduce it with permission sought from the original source. The project then purchased 600 at reduced cost to be used during Child Safety Week for delivery to antenatal parents who are preparing to purchase equipment for their forthcoming birth.
  • A link became established with Wrexham Maelor Hospital to show the safety DVD as a loop to antenatal parents in the waiting room of the clinic. The DVD will be given to expectant parents within Flintshire during Child Safety Week. The Midwifery team have the opportunity to use this safety information during the parent craft classes in the future. The DVD will be shown within future parent craft classes. Midwifery staff stated that is a ‘useful teaching aid to use....’ Enjoy the fact that it covers so much’ factual information in such a short manner…’ They did not have a teaching aid similar to this before, so welcomed this from the project. Therefore, a link was established because of the project.

Summary

All home safety information leaflets were shown to mother and toddler groups for feedback. All agreed that they were of a high standard and would they would use them. The groups found them to be of benefit, they particularly enjoyed the layout and picture message. Majority of parents expressed that they would possibly read them with their babies.

The DVD was shown to a postnatal group who evaluated the importance for the DVD to be shown during the antenatal period and not postnatal. They concluded that during the antenatal period of pregnancy, more focus is made upon purchasing equipment for the baby, once baby is born all equipment has been bought.

From review of the First aid courses content and length, I believe it should remain the same-provided by an accredited company such as Red Cross. A majority of the parents believed that the course met all their specific needs delivered in a short, clear concise manner.

Giving them the individual confidence to administer first aid within the future should it be required of them. Therefore, achieving the initial goal set out. Crèche facilities were an added bonus for the parents to allow the time to attend the course. They also liked that the crèche was available within the same building as they were, enabling them to go to the children quickly if they were distressed at all. Also able to go and breast-feed their baby if required.

Dangerpoint in my opinion proved to be an ideal location for the First aid courses, with facilities already in place to facilitate the course, such as conference centre with additional rooms for the crèche and having lunch. It enabled the parents to visit the centre following the course. This I feel it is invaluable to parents to visualise the centre, viewing possible/potential hazards within the home.

Home safety equipment provision

  • Safety equipment research -As part of the research performed, met with Diane Hudson, Paediatric Liaison Nurse at Wrexham Maelor Hospital. The aim of this was to establish if any reoccurring injuries presented themselves to accident and emergency departments. I felt this was a useful exercise for the development of safety equipment provision in order to demonstrate such scenes within Dangerpoint. A good example of this was on average 3-5 cases of children attend A&E department weekly with ingesting Washing Liquitabs. By placing a box within the kitchen area of Dangerpoint, this has highlighted the dangers and used as part of the script that rangers teach parents when visiting the centre.

Following extensive discussion with the Paediatric Nurse at Maelor Hospital, it became clear that at present there is no statistical data at present could be easily accessed to discover the ‘cause’ of accidents attending A&E department. Paperwork displays that a child has had an accidental injury; it would only be by further reading of personal records would you be able to discover the cause of the injury.

  • Met with Sure start co-ordinator Sam Gratebanks who signposted me to the equipment that is currently used at Sure Start supplied. She also gave me the contact details of the manufacturers they used- Kidrapt, which gave a reliable service.
  • A link was established with KIDRAPT, and a service agreement was established between the project and the company.
  • Obtained birth statistics of the Flintshire County for the last two years to calculate the amount of equipment that would be needed for the project.
  • Referral system established for Health visitors to refer families with children under the age of two that would be unable to purchase safety equipment themselves. Referrals are sent to Sure start who then send on referral details to NWRS, they deliver the equipment to the home at an arranged time of delivery. Alternatively equipment can be fitted by work opportunities.
  • Choking gadget sourced from Kidrapt- Provided manufacturer instructions for use. The choking gadget was used following information given to me by A&E staff. It was stated that each week there was on average five admissions to the department with choking incident. The choking gadget In my opinion was an ideal way of demonstrating how easy it is for a infant under the age of three to swallow items of food, items left around the house. They incorporated the N.E.Wales trust logo on the leaflet.
  • Storage of safety packs was initially within Dangerpoint, but for sustainability of the project; links were made with the Flintshire county council storage depot at Buckley. A storage and delivery system was set up for Health Professionals to easily access. The steering group agreed upon a service level agreement.

Summary

Sourcing of the equipment was made relatively easy due to the assistance of Sure start. Following a meeting with Sure start co-ordinator , Sam Greatbanks felt that Kidrapt were a recommended company that could be relied upon to deliver on time.