Keeping Children Safe at Home in Blackburn with Darwen

Healthwatch Blackburn with Darwen wanted to understand why the local area had a significantly high number of children attending hospital and being admitted as a result of unintentional and deliberate injuries.  The objective of the survey was to understand where there are any gaps in knowledge or behaviours amongst parents, what information they are accessing or otherwise around child safety and whether additional training and targeted messaging is required to increase awareness of child safety in the home amongst parents of 0–5-year-olds in Blackburn with Darwen.  They received 112 responses.

Parents in Blackburn with Darwen felt that the most common incidents in the home were falls, collision with objects in the home and injuries as a result of contact with heat/ hot surfaces, fairly consistent with themes from hospital attendance/admission data. Although parents were able to identify most hazards in the home, there were not many who felt that windows which they were unable to open constituted a hazard whereas this could pose a serious fire escape risk therefore increased awareness raising of fire safety would be beneficial. There was also a lack of understanding of the benefit of some home safety modifications such as blind cords, highlighting the need for increased education. 

People stated that they would turn to family and friends for information about keeping their child safe, as much as would consult the NHS website or turn to a healthcare professional due to their lived experience. As such, it is important that knowledge amongst residents of child safety is up to date and correct if they are sharing this advice with others. 

There was a lack of awareness amongst parents of the Child Accident Prevention Trust resources which are a fantastic visual set of advice and educational resources therefore improved messaging on social media and via midwives and health visitors would help increase parents’ awareness of high quality trusted resources on child safety. One of the key gaps in knowledge for parents was around the appropriate source of care for their children’s symptoms with lack of knowledge about when self-care is appropriate instead of seeking health professional advice and in particular going to the hospital. Increased promotion of the Health-wise booklet on child health would help address this lack of awareness