Personal Safety (Unintentional Injury)
Unintentional injury accounts for 1 in 16 of all childhood deaths and 1 in 7 of emergency hospital admissions in children. It is the main cause of death in boys aged 1 - 14 followed by cancer. In girls of the same age the main cause of death is cancer followed by unintentional injury. (ISD Scotland, Statistical Publication Notice of 15 December 2009 on Unintentional Injuries and The Registrar General's Annual report 2008)
For adults, unintentional injuries account for roughly 1 in 9 emergency hospital admissions and approximately 1 in 44 deaths (ISD Scotland, Statistical Publication Notice of 15 December 2009 on Unintentional Injuries)
Unintentional injury disproportionately affects the most vulnerable groups in society - notably children, older people and those living in areas of deprivation. The risk generally increases with increasing socio economic deprivation and therefore is a major contributor to health inequalities. Unintentional injury is a major cause of ill health and disability with considerable cost to the NHS, individuals, their families and society.
Our Work
The Scottish Government takes the issue of personal safety very seriously. We work closely with a range of agencies including the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, the Child Accident Prevention Trust, Scottish Accident Prevention Council and other agencies to reduce the number of accidental deaths and injuries in Scotland.
We have seen a continuing downward trend in the number of accidental deaths since the peak in the 1980s. The number of child deaths has nearly halved since 2001 from 40 to 23 in 2009. Adult deaths have fallen from 1849 in 1985 to 1283 in 2008. Equally, numbers of child emergency hospital admissions have fallen from 13,500 in 1998 to 8,500 in 2009 although adult emergency hospital admissions are largely unchanged over the same period. We are not complacent. Of course, these figures still represent too many individuals who are unnecessarily hurt or killed each year through accidents that are largely preventable.
The Scottish Government have been developing a range of policies which aim to provide a framework for accident and injury prevention. We also provide financial support for work on injury prevention and safety initiatives.
This includes the work of the Child Accident Prevention Trust (CAPT) and especially the role of Child Safety Week (20 - 26 June) in raising awareness of serious childhood accidents and how to prevent them. CAPT produce a range of free resources on child safety including practical ideas for local activities and useful resources and contacts. The Scottish Government has supported Child Safety Week over the last four years, investing £27,000 in 2011. The week encourages long-term partnerships for accident prevention between the fire and rescue services, statutory services and local community organisations.
We are also funding a campaign to warn families and carers of young children about the dangers of free-hanging, looped blind cords. In 2010 we funded a £3,000 campaign, initially launched in North Lanarkshire, to distribute 10,000 leaflets and 2,000 cleats for tying up blind cords. The campaign is being run in partnership with the Royal Society for Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA).
The campaign in now in the process of being rolled-out in 3 further local authority areas - Fife, South Lanarkshire and the Borders, and we are providing a further £8,000 of funding during 2011/12.