Foreword
“Taking risks is part of childhood”
A new government consultation aims to raise awareness of the real risks that are faced by children – and how we can all help to keep them safe. By Kevin Brennan MP
 Kevin Brennan |
Keeping children and young people safe is a top priority, and the responsibility of us all, but we also need to make sure that we are not “wrapping children up in cotton wool”. Last July, i was appointed parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the new department of children, Schools and Families with responsibility for safeguarding children. The creation of the new department will help the government to sharpen its focus on what really matters – making sure that every child can be safe, happy and successful.
The new Secretary of State, ed Balls, announced a consultation,“Staying Safe”, which seeks out your views on how to keep children safe. We want to use this consultation to raise awareness of how we can all help to keep children and young people safe, and to trigger a national debate about the real nature of the risks faced by children and young people.
We will also be looking at areas where we think we could be doing more to improve children’s safety. This is a consultation where everyone’s views count – parents, teachers, children and young people, neighbours – because children’s safety should be everyone’s responsibility.
Children and young people are safer now than ever before, but that is not always the public perception. They are less likely to die from injuries; many childhood diseases are now cureable; and by 2006 the number of children killed or seriously injured in road accidents had fallen by over 50% since 1997.
But today’s world is a much more complicated place, and children face new kinds of risks associated with technological and social change and the fast pace of modern life. Many children enjoy opportunities that were unimaginable just a generation ago, to travel and communicate with mobile phones and the internet can open up opportunities for learning and friendship, but inevitably there are new risks too. The compulsion of computer games can stop children from running around and playing, inadvertently encouraging children to become unfit and obese.
 We need to encourage kids to play and flourish in a safe environment, not permanently cooped up inside |
Mobile phones and the internet permit cyber bullying, in tandem with innocent and fun contact between friends. New technology is part of our lives and it is here to stay, but instead of banning the internet and phones, we must be alert to the dangers and support children and parents in learning to deal with them.
“Staying Safe” talks about home safety, internet savvyness, safety in sport, reducing traffic accidents, and the need to protect children from abuse and neglect. In this consultation, we want to encourage a more balanced debate about risk. Stories about playing conkers wearing goggles create entertaining news clips, but are nothing to do with the real risks children face. We are launching a new communications campaign to encourage parents to let their children play outside in safe environments – play is so vital for children’s development. it is shocking that more than one third of children never play outside.
We need to find out from parents why that is and help them address those concerns. Raising a generation of battery-farmed kids will do nothing for their wellbeing. We need to encourage kids who play and flourish in a safe environment, not permanently cooped up inside. Keeping children and young people safe does not mean children never take any risks. Taking educated risks is part of childhood and that should be encouraged. Children need to explore and learn so that they can understand the challenges in the world around them, and learn how to stay safe themselves.
Social inequality still plays too large a part in our children’s safety. Children of parents who have never worked or who have been unemployed for a long time are 13 times more likely to die from unintentional injury and 37 times more likely to die from smoke exposure, fire or flames. Children in the 10% most deprived areas are three times more likely to be hit by a car than children in the 10% least deprived areas. These are stark facts, but we must tackle them head on.
Identifying the real risks and practical ways of handling them is where I want to see that constructive, meaningful debate. The polarised debate in the media does much to raise the blood pressure, but little to improve a child’s safety.
In providing the security that children need, none of us – parents or government – should ever lose sight of their need to grow and to boldly go where many children have gone before: beyond their own front doorstep.
For more information, visit:
www.everychildmatters.gov.uk/stayingsafe
