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Dear Andrew,

We’ve more choice for Christmas shopping than ever before, with Black Friday deals and bargains galore. But do we know if they’re safe, can we be sure? Might those bargains bring more than we bargained for?  

From exploding candles to gifts with easy access to powerful button batteries, to fake character toys with hazardous levels of chemicals and laser pointers that cause irreversible eye damage, the potential for serious accidents is real.

But before your Christmas cheer is snuffed out by fear, be reassured: The things to consider when buying for family and friends this year are relatively straightforward.   

Find out more about the the simple steps you can take to become a safety savvy shopper and avoid any nightmares before Christmas for your family this year!

Simple steps to a merry little Christmas

“Beware of products that are drastically cheaper and look at the packaging for the distributor's details and a CE mark.” - Chartered Trading Standard Institute 

• Take care choosing where you buy from
• Look out for quality marks
• Understand the links between accidents and child development

Dear Andrew,

In the mad rush to cross everyone off your Christmas list, safety may not be front of mind. And we tend to think that ‘if I can buy it, it must be safe’. But unfortunately that bargain you spot while you’re browsing the aisles or online may not always offer the protection you’d expect. 

Take care where you buy from

Remember that online marketplaces are just that – lots of different traders under one roof. You may be buying from a seller in the Far East, where safety standards for toys are very different to ours.

Real-life market traders and discount stores may also be importing from countries with very different safety standards too. Trading standards have seized toys that quickly fall apart, revealing sharp metal spikes and nails, or with cords and balls that could easily choke a young child.

Of course there are laws designed to make sure toys are safe. But trading standards can’t be everywhere, checking every car boot sale and pop-up shop. So you need to take care where you buy from. 

If your budget can stretch to it, head to reputable retailers on the high street or online, or to the websites of well-known brand names. And if you’re counting the pennies this Christmas, look out for things like CE marks and Lion Marks on toys.

Find out more about CE marks and Lion marks

Dear Andrew,

In the mad rush to cross everyone off your Christmas list, safety may not be front of mind. And we tend to think that ‘if I can buy it, it must be safe’. But unfortunately that bargain you spot while you’re browsing the aisles or online may not always offer the protection you’d expect. 

Take care where you buy from

Remember that online marketplaces are just that – lots of different traders under one roof. You may be buying from a seller in the Far East, where safety standards for toys are very different to ours.

Real-life market traders and discount stores may also be importing from countries with very different safety standards too. Trading standards have seized toys that quickly fall apart, revealing sharp metal spikes and nails, or with cords and balls that could easily choke a young child.

Of course there are laws designed to make sure toys are safe. But trading standards can’t be everywhere, checking every car boot sale and pop-up shop. So you need to take care where you buy from. 

If your budget can stretch to it, head to reputable retailers on the high street or online, or to the websites of well-known brand names. And if you’re counting the pennies this Christmas, look out for things like CE marks and Lion Marks on toys.

Find out more about CE marks and Lion marks

Dear Andrew,

By mid-morning on Christmas Day (at the latest…yawn!) many of us will find ourselves knee-deep in (hopefully recyclable) wrapping paper and overexcited children. But do we know what may be lurking below the sea of paper that could cause more misery than cheer this Christmas?

Everything is a toy when children are little. With all the excitement and busyness, it’s easy for little hands to find things that aren't meant for them and might be dangerous.

We give you the low-down on keeping Christmas unwrapping fun and avoiding the risks that are so easy to overlook in all the chaos.

Everything is a toy

Thirty years later, your mum is probably still telling that story of how, when you were little, you preferred playing with the box to the expensive Christmas present that came in it. While it might make us squirm, it’s a reminder that children see the world very differently to us. 



When you’re little, most things look like playthings, including that singing Santa and flashing Christmas wand. But they’re classed as festive novelties, not toys, so don’t follow the same safety standards and could actually be harmful.

For example, the button batteries that power many Christmas novelties may be easily accessible to curious little fingers. And powerful lithium coin cell batteries can seriously harm or even kill a child who swallows one.

Find out what else might lurk amongst the wrapping…

Dear Andrew,

This year’s Child Safety Week runs from Monday 1^st to Sunday 7^th June 2020.  The theme is Safety makes sense! – which is exactly what we aim to achieve. So make sure you register now to get the download links and updates. 

Families today have instant access to every conceivable piece of advice about bringing up children – google is the new guru grandparent.  The result is a massive pressure to ‘get it right’, to be the perfect parent or present the perfect family profile, and confusion about what actually makes a difference to children’s lives. 

“Many people mentioned the recent TV adverts about washing tablets/pods 
being stored up high but most didn’t know the reason for this advice
and were unaware of the serious injuries they can cause.”
First aid trainer, Hampshire

Child Safety Week 2020 aims to cut through the noise, to be the voice of reason on child safety for families, so that safety makes sense to them.  
 
Working together, we can help families know what they really need to do to protect their children and how to do it – and where the things they’re already doing are good enough.  
 
Child Safety Week 2020 gives you everything you need to do this. In addition it provides a platform for visibly profiling the work you do for and with families.  

So get the dates in your diary now. And, if you work with others, discuss it at your next team meeting, so you and your colleagues can kickstart your thinking and planning. 

To really make the most of Child Safety Week 2020, now is a good time to start thinking about where it fits into your plans for the year and colleagues or partners you may need to engage. 

3 things to do now:

• If you have colleagues you’d like to involve in Child Safety Week, forward this email to them and encourage them to register using this link www.capt.org.uk/csw-sign-up. That way they’ll get their own campaign resources in the spring. 
   
• Contact potential partner organisations who may work with families you want to reach or who may be able to come to speak to your families.  Check out the partnership working page of the 2019 action pack for hints on who you could partner with. 
   
• If you have any end of year budget you could use it to stock up on CAPT resources to make delivering child safety messages child’s play.  It’s easy to see what’s available in the CAPT Shop.

We can’t wait to bring you more to help you gear up for Child Safety Week 2020.  We will be in touch as soon as the brand new action pack, poster and downloads are ready for you.

For more information and inspiration visit the Child Safety Week section of the website. 

Thank you!

Child Safety Week team

Families in danger from powerful fireworks as they do their own displays

Dear Andrew,

Three weeks in and we're already hearing how lockdown is increasing serious accidental injury to children, most notably from burns. 

During this time of uncertainty and flux, we will do everything we can to support you and the families you are working with, and to keep children out of hospital while the NHS battles Covid-19.

We know you are working very differently with children and families. Some of you have been redeployed to support the frontline. Many of you are adapting to working remotely. 

In response, we are adapting and reshaping the support we are offering you:
 

Shareable safety advice:

• We are developing free, easy-to-share safety advice for families on key risks to children. 
   
• We will be posting regularly on social media and emailing newsletters, highlighting risks that are heightened during lockdown and providing links to simple safety downloads.
   
• We will need your help to share this advice on your social channels and with colleagues.

Child Safety Week:

Our current thinking is that:

• Child Safety Week will still run from 1 to 7 June but - unless lockdown has been lifted and things have returned to normal - with a different emphasis to previous years.


• Our new emphasis will be on social media to reach as many parents as possible, simple safety activities you can run remotely and sharing the parents pack as widely as possible. 


• We are redeveloping the Child Safety Week action pack as a year-round resource, so that, once lockdown is lifted, you can use it to run face-to-face safety activities in your local communities.

Tell us what you need

For us to be truly responsive to your needs, we need to understand your concerns, the barriers you may be facing and the opportunities you still have to help keep children safe. 

If you have five minutes, please send a brief reply to this email with your thoughts. We will shape the support we offer you, including Child Safety Week, according to your needs and those of the families you support.

We appreciate that lockdown and remote working can feel very isolating.  We are all working in very different circumstances to just a few weeks ago. 

Our small team here at CAPT will do everything we can to help you. 

And remember, you are part of a 15,000-strong network of CAPT stakeholders across the UK. Working together, we can reach millions of families and help children stay safe during lockdown.
 
Katrina Phillips, Chief Executive
Child Accident Prevention Trust

Dear Andrew,

Doctors are seeing an influx of children with burns linked to steam inhalation as parents incorrectly believe it helps cure Covid-19. So we're raising awareness of this danger, alongside other burns risks during lockdown including hot drinks, bath water scalds and burns from cooking.

We've pulled together lots of family-friendly content on preventing burns during lockdown, including articles, social media posts, a fact sheet, first aid advice, an activity sheet and an illustration. These are all free for you to use and share with local families.

Don't forget our Parents Pack too, crammed with useful advice, including all our fact sheets.

Please read our advice and share it far and wide.

Last week's email on preventing poisoning was opened over 10,500 times as it spread out through all your networks. Our essential top tips was shared even more widely, with over 14,700 opens! We know you're hugely busy, so we can't thank you enough.

Child Safety Week 2020

A reminder that the pandemic has changed our plans for Child Safety Week 2020: 

• We're sharing essential safety advice now to help parents under pressure.
• We've adapted our Parents Pack as a resource for lockdown and beyond.
• We'll be going all out on social media during the Week itself. So get ready to join us on Facebook and Twitter.
• And we're adapting the Child Safety Week Action Pack as a year-round resource that you can use to run face-to-face activities and events once that's possible again. 

As always, stay safe and thank you for helping to protect children from serious accidents at this very difficult time. 

Organised events cancelled and
display fireworks on sale to unsuspecting parents

Dear Andrew,

If you've been out walking recently, you'll have noticed changes in how we are using roads and pavements. Social distancing may mean having to step off the pavement. Families are out on bikes with cobwebs still intact. But emptier roads can see cars going at mind-boggling speeds. 

It can be hard for families to navigate this new normal and keep their children safe. 

Free road safety resources

So we've pulled together lots of helpful content on road safety, including articles, social media posts, a fact sheet, an activity sheet and an illustration. 

These are all free for you to use and share with local families.

We've also prepared a Parents Pack crammed with useful advice, including all our fact sheets. Please read our advice and share it far and wide to help protect children.

What's happening during Child Safety Week 2020

Our focus next week will be on social sharing - with lots of engaging posts and tweets for you to share. We're kicking off on Monday 1 June with a focus on poisoning. We've even persuaded a celebrity mum to take her first taste of Bitrex!

• Follow, follow, follow on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram

We are in awe of the perseverance, determination and creativity we are hearing about from practitioners working to support families.  Please keep doing what you're doing, it's so important at this time.

Dear Andrew,

One thing we can say about Child Safety Week and the lockdown weeks before is: We all did our best and our best was pretty spectacular given such difficult circumstances.

We all felt the pull to support families struggling to cope and keep their children safe. The energy and commitment from practitioners has been heart-warming to say the least. 

The response to all the new, free downloadable resources we created for lockdown and Child Safety Week has been hugely positive.

So the team here at CAPT would like to take a moment to salute and thank you. 

What next?

As lockdown eases, we know that means more shifting sands for your work to support families.  How you operate and engage with families may change over the coming weeks.  You may have plans in place or be making adjustments as things become clearer.

We're a small charity and time and money is tight. But we want to make sure we support you in the best way we can.

That means we need five minutes of your time to answer FIVE QUESTIONS about what will be most helpful to you over the next few months. 

Please keep doing what you're doing, we're right behind you!
 
The CAPT team

Would you know how to spot a dangerous toy online?

Dangers include:

• Magnets so strong they can burn through a child's gut if swallowed
• Long cords that can strangle a child
• Small parts that can choke or suffocate a child
• Easy access to button batteries that can get stuck in a child's food pipe, causing internal bleeding and even death.

>> Take me to the free Christmas toys safety guide

Dear Andrew,

Thankfully, some things are simple and this year Child Safety Week is one of them. No matter what challenges you may be facing in supporting families, you can be sure of a win in Child Safety Week 2020.

We've got a host of engaging social content for you to share with families, kicking off with popular TV presenter Jean Johansson from Channel 4's A Place in the Sun and BBC's The One Show. 

Jean is showing her support for Child Safety Week by tasting the bitterest substance on earth, Bitrex. She is braving the disgusting taste to raise awareness of the heightened risk of poisoning from all our cleaning and sanitising products, and how Bitrex helps ensure children don't swallow products. 

You can see the film here and simply share the post with families you work with. 

All week there will be engaging and essential posts on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Simply follow on your preferred platform and share with families. 

Want to do more?

• The Parents Pack is here and free for families so please share far and wide.
   
• We've created lots of new content for parents under pressure during the pandemic. It's available here for you to use on your own communication channels.

Our ask of you

It has been wonderful to see how well you have risen to the challenge of supporting families in these difficult times. 
One ask we have of you is for you to share any feedback you get from families about child safety.  

It helps to make sure that what we're doing works for you and local families. And this helps to keep our funding streams active, enabling us to continue to support you to keep children safe. 

Please share any reporting, feedback or comments with Pam at pam.prentice@capt.org.uk.

Wishing you a great Child Safety Week and thank you for all you do to keep children safe.

Dear Andrew,

Now that many of us are emerging from the shock of change to find ways of living with the new normal, families may be in a better position to take on board essential advice about child safety.

Here at CAPT, we have been listening to what you have been telling us (please keep doing that!) and reviewing the essential changes that families can make to make the biggest difference to their children's safety during lockdown.

You've told us:

• Families need short, simple, practical advice to keep children safe during lockdown.
   
• Practitioners supporting families need reliable, targeted advice that is super easy to share. 

• We are creating new content that you can use in your communications with families, whether you are doing that via your website, by email, newsletter, Facebook page or Twitter.  
   
• We're also creating content that you can share with your colleagues or members, so they can access advice to share with their families.
   
• We're adapting the Child Safety Week Parents' Pack, so it becomes a safety resource for families in lockdown.
   
• We're reworking the Child Safety Week Action Pack as a year-round resource, so you can use it in your face-to-face work with families once lockdown is lifted.
   

We kick off with advice about what to keep out of reach in the home and the main things to think about when out of the home.
  
More topics will follow to build on this essential advice. We will email you each time there is new shareable content and when the new Parents Pack is ready.

From all in the CAPT team, we appreciate everything you are doing to keep families safe and hope you keep safe and well too.