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SAPC AGM

The SAPC Annual General Meeting was held on 14 November. The main items on the agenda were the election of Office Bearers and the changes to the Constitution.

There were two nominations for the Presidency, Cllr Charlie Gilbert (East Renfrewshire) and Mr Brian Topping (Fraserburgh & District Community Safety Group), and both candidates were given the opportunity to say a few words. Once the ballot papers were counted, Mr Topping was elected and will serve for a period of four years.

President Brian Topping

There were also two nominations for the post of Vice President, Cllr John Allan (South Ayrshire) and Cllr George Kay (Fife). Cllr Kay was not able to attend the AGM but Cllr Allan said a few words and was elected to the post. Mr David Radford was re-elected as Treasurer.

As you may recall Tony Graham presented the review of the SAPC at last years AGM and it was decided to set up a working group to look at changing our structure and Constitution. The group had produced a new constitution and this was adopted by the AGM. The changes to the Constitution included the definitions of types membership and what each of these permits.

Full members would be those organisations that pay a yearly subscription, they would be entitled to send representative to each of the Principal Committees and would have a vote at the AGM. Associate membership would be given to those organisations that can provide expertise to the Principal Committees, they would not pay a subscription fee and therefore not vote at an AGM. There is also a provision for co-opting individuals to attend the Committees.

The Constitution was changed to allow the formation of a Committee Forum which will be held twice a year and where all members of the SAPC can discuss cross-cutting matters. There were a number of other changes to clarify matters and to update the language.

New Secretary

Mr Willie Wills has taken over as the new Secretary to the SAPC. The position of Secretary is held by the Road Safety Manager of RoSPA in Scotland. The previous Secretary, Elizabeth Lumsden, moved to Home Injury Prevention Manager. Willie took up his post with RoSPA on 16 November having previously spent 30 years with Lothian & Borders Police.

implemented there was a fall in the pedestrian casualty rates of 53% and cyclist casualty rates also fell by 52%. A programme for secondary 1 pupils has been developed.

Bob Calvert and Martin Rae gave a joint presentation on leisure safety and encouraged discussion on what the SAPC role should be.

John Richardson, from Care & Repair Edinburgh, talked about home safety checks scheme which aims to enable older people to remain in their homes living independently by carrying out repairs and offering advice.

Philippa Cochrane, from Sustrans, talked about the benefits of physical activity for children. Parents need to be sensible and allow their children to learn from taking some controlled risks.

Dr Tom Beattie, Edinburgh Sick Children’s Hospital, talked about the consequences of accidental injuries. There are peaks in numbers of accidents for both pre-school age children and over 11 years olds. More males attend hospital with accidental injuries than females. All agreed there is a need for consistent national data collection. There are no figures collected for those seen by their GP.

A Question Time session closed the first day and delegates were able to ask questions of Christopher Harvie MSP, Jim Tolson MSP, and Cllr John Patrick.

Eleanor Thomson, East Renfrewshire Council, talked about opportunities for combining prevention, diversion and enforcement within Community Safety:

Anita Jefferies, from Edinburgh Leisure (where she promotes physical activity for older people) discussed the Ageing Well Roadshow‘s “Safe as Houses” play as a means of disseminating safety messages. Feedback from the audience is positive.

Ben Devlin from the IAM talked about their Young Driver Network. The aim is to encourage young drivers to take the IAM advanced driving course.

Peter Wade described how the National Water Safety Forum has set up an Information Group to look at gathering drowning statistics from across the UK. This has followed on from the research into drowning statistics carried out by the SAPC.

Brian Jaffrey informed delegates about the statistical information collected by the Scottish Ambulance Service.

Errol Taylor, RoSPA’s Deputy Chief Executive gave an outline of RoSPA priority issues and stated Scotland is leading the way in several areas.

Jackie Ryan, the Project Co-ordinator for the East End Child Safety Project, explained that the project was about delivering home safety advice directly to those with the greatest need. This was achieved by training local volunteers to carry out home visits within the community.

Jim Dale talked about the ending of hypothecation for safety cameras and the future plans. The Programme Office has been restructured but it remains an accident reduction initiative. It aims to have a consistent application of the safety cameras guidelines across Scotland.

Michael McDonnell, from Road Safety Scotland, discussed how the lessons from road safety could be transferred to other areas of safety promotion. The methodology includes working in partnership, adopting a science-based approach, evaluating projects, ensuring adequate resources and learning from success and failure.

Calendar of Events

The following list gives the proposed dates of forthcoming meetings of the Council for next year.

Annual Conference

Home Safety Committee

There was discussion of the consultation from the DfT on making it compulsory for children to wear seat belts on buses. It was decided the Committee respond to the consultation saying it should be made compulsory for belts to be fitted on buses before any requirement for them to be worn is brought in.

Bill Smith has been elected Chair of the National Road Safety Committee. The next meeting will be held in Aberdeen.

Water & Leisure Safety Committee

The Water and Leisure Safety Committee met on 24th October 2007 and despite the adjourned AGM decided to conduct the election of office bearers. Iain Campbell, Maritime & Coastguard Agency, was voted into the Chair with Cllr Donald Nicholson, Comhairle Nan Eilean Siar, as the Vice Chair and Bill Petherick, East Ayrshire Council, taking on the role of Secretary. The committee extended their thanks to the outgoing office bearers, Janet Castro, Bob Calvert and Melville Mitchell for their valued contributions to the SAPC.

The committee discussed the future of the Water and Leisure Safety Committee and it was generally agreed that there was a need to develop a strategic plan spanning the next 5 years. In order to progress this it was decided that the next meeting of the Water & Leisure Safety Committee is going to be different!

The meeting will be held from 1200 on 8th January 2008 until 1300 on 9th January, at the Risk Factory in Edinburgh. Overnight accommodation is available for those who need to travel. All members have been invited to take part not just those who sit on the Water and Leisure Safety Committee. If you have not received the information please get in touch. Your opinion, experience and insight are valued if you have a passion, concern and commitment for improving the safety of the people of Scotland.

Launch of the Child Safety Strateg

Scotland’s Child Safety Strategy, which will be officially unveiled on 6 December, covers all types of accidents, including those on the road, in the home and at leisure. It outlines the current unintentional injury problem, what children and young people think about accidents, and recommends key approaches and action needed to improve the situation.

Unintentional injury is second only to cancer as a cause of death for under-15s in Scotland and is the most common cause of emergency hospital admissions for them. Every year in Scotland, one in five children attends an Accident and Emergency department following an unintentional injury. In 2005/06 10,000 children were admitted to hospital as a result of injuries. It is estimated that in Scotland, children’s accidents cost the NHS £40million and society generally around £400million every year.

The SAPC is a member of the Child Safety Action Plan for Scotland Steering Group who put together the strategy as part of the European Project. The strategy, says the focus should be on preventing the accidents that result in death, serious or long-lasting injury, as well as those that are most numerous. It also says that prevention programmes should be based on sound knowledge of what works, and that the difference between the injury death rates of the poorest and wealthiest families has to be reduced “as a matter of urgency”.

Clear leadership from the Scottish Government is recommended, including through the production of a detailed plan of action for reducing injuries to children. It is recommended that the action plan is developed by the end of 2008, setting out priority injury issues and identifying clear lines of responsibility.