Bring safety home and help reduce accidents at RoSPA’s annual conference

Bringing safety home to help reduce injuries will be the message at an annual conference being held by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) later this year.

The 2014 RoSPA Home Safety Congress, titled Delivering What Works: Improving Public Health by Reducing Accidents, will explore new home safety data as well as strategic approaches and good practice in home safety, when it is held in Birmingham on Wednesday, November 5.

The conference will be a chance for practitioners in the public health and injury prevention field to find out more about the innovative approaches emerging within the public health arena, and will cover areas including home safety solutions, opportunities on how to get public health recognition, availability and importance of good quality injury data and strategic approaches to home injury prevention.

There will also be discussions on the value of home safety promotion, as well as improving quality of life through home safety and education.

Presentations will include RoSPA’s chief executive Tom Mullarkey, who will discuss home and leisure accidents in the context of public health, while deputy chief executive Errol Taylor will give insights from new A&E data.

Other speakers include David Kidney, chief executive of the UK Public Health Register (UKPHR), Claire Haworth, accident prevention manager at Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council and Morag MacKay, project leader at the European Child Safety Alliance.

Sheila Merrill, RoSPA’s public health adviser, said: “This year’s RoSPA Home Safety Congress is all about bringing safety home. Home accidents tragically ruin and take lives, whilst generating huge costs for the NHS in patient care.

“Preventing accidental injury in the home is proven to be both low cost and high impact, and is often easy to deliver through existing frameworks and activities.

“We will be highlighting the impact of new innovative approaches emerging within the public health arena from the UK and Europe, investigating new home safety data and highlighting how the new public health workforce can gain recognition within the public health arena.

“This conference will be a particularly useful learning opportunity for practitioners working across the fields of public health and injury prevention.”

Speakers and posters are also being sought for the event, which will be held at Thestudio, in Canon Street, Birmingham, and RoSPA would welcome abstracts on topics including effective methods for evaluating home safety solutions, availability and importance of good quality injury data and strategic approaches to home injury prevention.

Further suggestions for abstracts include the value of home safety promotion and improving quality of life through home safety and education.

Papers detailing suggestions for presentations at the conference need to be submitted to RoSPA by September 21.
Abstracts, of not more than 500 words, should include the presenter’s name, job title and contact details, title of abstract, background, aim, actions undertaken and conclusions or recommendations. They should be submitted to smerrill@rospa.com.
To find out more about the event visit www.rospa.com/events/home/