WIREDGOV

A twice-yearly outdoor safety education initiative, which teaches children how to manage risk, has been accredited by the LASER Alliance.

Representatives of Safety Zone, which takes place during the spring and autumn terms at the National Watersports Centre, Holme Pierrepont, Nottingham, were presented with a LASER Accreditation certificate by Cassius Francis, LASER Alliance co-ordinator, and Errol Taylor, RoSPA deputy chief executive, at the headquarters of Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service (NFRS) yesterday.

Safety Zone, a multi-agency event co-ordinated by NFRS, aims to teach children how to keep themselves and their friends and families safe by making the right decisions when exposed to risk. Each year, 2,500 children aged 10 and 11 work alongside professionals in a range of interactive scenarios that focus on topics such as the dangers of playing near sub-stations, how to avoid hazards on or near water, safe behaviour when using public transport and the impact of making hoax emergency calls.

The event has received the first bronze accreditation through the LASER Alliance’s new voluntary quality assurance programme for providers of practical safety education. LASER Accreditation enables practitioners to demonstrate their commitment to educational excellence and quality, and schools and other organisations can be confident that accredited events have been approved at a high level for use in LASER activities.

The LASER Alliance, which is hosted by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) and sponsored by the Gas Safety Trust, brings together organisations that believe in children and young people “learning about safety by experiencing risk” (from where the acronym “LASER” is drawn).

Cassius Francis said: “Children and young people develop important life skills by having opportunities to experience risks, and not by being wrapped in cotton wool. LASER schemes like Safety Zone put this philosophy into action. Through LASER Accreditation, we hope to highlight good practice and encourage high standards across all schemes and events.”

Dave Evans, crew manager at NFRS and the East Midlands representative at national LASER Alliance meetings, said: “LASER believes children should be ‘as safe as necessary, not as safe as possible’, acknowledging the fact that some degree of risk-taking is an important part of life. Being part of LASER and working closely with RoSPA has major benefits for NFRS and our partners, because of their knowledge and expertise in the area of child safety. Children’s safety knowledge has been found to increase by 10 per cent by participating in Safety Zone. A lot of hard work has gone into gaining the LASER Accreditation - it was important to us that our event was seen as a prime example of good practice and quality outdoor learning.”

The partner agencies involved in Safety Zone are Nottingham E-Learning, Nottinghamshire Police, St John Ambulance, NFRS, Western Power Distribution, East Midlands Ambulance Service, Nottingham City and Nottinghamshire County Road Safety Teams, NCT Buses, NET trams and the Injury Minimisation Programme for Schools (IMPS).

To find out more about the LASER Alliance visit www.lasersafety.org.uk. A training event will take place on September 11 to give safety education practitioners an opportunity to find out more about LASER Accreditation. See www.lasersafety.org.uk/events/ for details.