Child Safety Week 2020 – safety makes sense!

The Children’s Burns Trust is once again partnering with the Child Accident Prevention Trust for Child Safety Week 2020.

Çocuk Güvenliği Haftası (1^st to 7^inci June 2020) is an annual campaign run by the Child Accident Prevention Trust (CAPT) to raise awareness of the risks of childhood accidents and how they can be prevented.

In response to COVID-19, CAPT is changing its focus in 2020 to provide families and practitioners with essential advice on keeping children safe in lockdown and as lockdown eases.

The Children’s Burns Trust, whose work is focused on children and their families, first partnered with CAPT on their vital awareness raising work in 2019.

This year, there will once again be a dedicated day during the week-long event to focus on raising awareness of the risks that lead to children being burned – specifically those relating to hot drink spills.

On Tuesday 2nd June the charity will be enhancing the Child Safety Week programme with a series of activities to highlight that the majority of burns and scalds that occur in children under the age of 5 are caused by hot liquids, such as tea and coffee spills.

Recent figures released from the Children’s Burns Trust show that in 2018 the NHS services treat more than 30 babies and toddlers with a hot drink burn every single day. This means that 60% of all under 3 paediatric burn attendances to Accident & Emergency Departments are due to a hot drink burn.

Paul Fuller, CBE QFSM DL Chairman of Trustees, Children’s Burns Trust and Chief Fire Officer, said:

“Child Safety Week is a vitally important campaign and we are proud to support it. As a charity we, together with our colleagues working across the burns community, see that as work and family life gets busier and busier, everyday dangers that can lead to burn and scald injuries may be overlooked.

We are delighted to be lending our support to Child Safety Week 2020 and helping the team at CAPT highlight the simple behaviour changes that can help keep children safe from harm. The dedicated day we are hosting will raise awareness that the greatest risk of burns and scalds to UK children occur as a result of everyday items like hot drinks “.

Katrina Phillips, Chief Executive, Child Accident Prevention Trust, said:

“We are so very pleased to have the support of the Children’s Burns Trust once again this year. It’s alarming to learn that, in just one week, over 200 babies and toddlers are treated for hot drink scalds. Parents may not appreciate how dangerous hot drinks can be or how far their child can reach. Working in partnership with our colleagues across the child safety community is vital. It means we can reach more families with essential safety messages and help them keep their children safe.  

We encourage anyone working with children and families to sign up for free safety campaigns, advice and resources www.capt.org.uk/sign-up. You’ll receive news and updates and can access free accident prevention resources to use with families and children.”

For further information about Children’s Burns Trust’s activity on Tuesday 2^nd June visit: https://www.cbtrust.org.uk/child-safety-week/

For more information about accident prevention go to www.capt.org.uk/safety-in-lockdown

Child Safety Week will be covered extensively on social media via @CBTOfficial and @ChildAccidentPreventionTrust, with the dedicated hashtags #childsafetyweek and #safetymakessense.