- The use of goods within the home and garden should be a relatively risk free operation. Similarly, simple remedial repairs to furniture, furnishings and the fabric of any house should ensure a safer and, hopefully, more attractive environment. The purpose of the service is to promote a safer home environment and, in the case of children, provide free hire of equipment that reduces the risk of harm.
- Everyone would like to think that risk from harm occurs out-of-doors and that once inside a home that you are safe. Unfortunately, statistics from the DTI Consumer Safety Unit and the Royal Society for Prevention of Accidents (ROSPA) show that more UK citizens die in home accidents (3,974 for 1999) than on our roads (3,423 for 1999).
- Traditionally, the safety of goods has been subject to an enforcement regime aimed at production and distribution levels and enacted via Trading Standards Departments. The safety of persons within their own home was not seen as an area for legislation nor of great government concern.
- Council's began to address safety within the home in an ad-hoc way and North Lanarkshire Council is one of few Scottish Local Authorities to employ staff dedicated to the provision of advice and information to the community; the aim of which is to lessen the risk of home accidents.
- The Home Safety teams remit is to try and prevent home accidents yet still learn from those that occur. This is done at a local and national level. The information accumulated as a direct result of the national and local liaison has a positive impact on the service provision and development.
- Consequently, it has been the policy of the service to promote safety in the home and garden via community education viz. presentations to Mother and toddler groups, School groups, Youth groups and those in "the third-age". Delivery is via a number of mediums and is serviced from within the service's Special Projects Team at Motherwell.
- Community Education can be delivered to targeted audiences and indeed the necessary resource materials provided to teachers to produce a cross curricular approach.
- The Trading Standards Service is uniquely placed to provide the community education alluded to above. The expertise and intelligence accumulated as a direct result of both the provisions of home safety advice and the statutory obligations placed upon other areas of the service, produce a resource which can be tapped to serve this end.
- To supplement the community safety education role the Home Safety Officers can conduct home safety audits within North Lanarkshire homes. Householders are informed of any potential hazards within their own home setting and advised of how to negate or lessen the risk of harm. Some basic checks on the in-house electrical supply are also carried out.
- In homes that have pre-school aged children the service can offer, normally via Health Visitor or Social Work referrals, a free loan of child safety equipment. The equipment ranges from electrical socket guards and cupboard catches to stair gates and fireguards. Unfortunately, this scheme has, to date, no dedicated funding and is reliant on sponsorship and donation.
- The majority of Home Safety operations are project based and these projects help deliver in a number of corporate themes whilst providing a positive public relations role for the Council.
Further information on the Home Safety Service can be viewed under Living Here, Consumer Issues or by clicking on the hyperlink.
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