39 (39) HOME SAFETY EQUIPMENT HELP FOR VULNERABLE
FAMILIES – The Service Director Neighbourhood and
Environment submitted a report seeking to advise the Cabinet Member
of new funding being provided by the Department of Children,
Schools and Families for home safety equipment for families on low
incomes and to determine how this will be administered.
In December 2007,the Children’s Plan: Building Brighter
Futures was published by the Department for Children, Schools and
Families. One of its proposals was to fund a new home safety
equipment scheme to prevent accidents to young children in the
home. Children of parents of lower income backgrounds were at
higher risk of accidental injury and children under the age of five
were particularly vulnerable to everyday accidents at home.
The council already employed a Home Safety Officer within the
Health Improvement team who had operated a successful subsidised
home safety equipment for sale scheme for many years. Parents of
young children were referred to the scheme by Health Visitors,
Children’s Centres and Social Services Departments based on
their financial need.
The Government was providing a total of £18 million over
three years to councils to provide home safety equipment
(stairgates, fireguards, smoke alarms, socket covers) to help the
most vulnerable families keep their children safe from accidental
injuries at home. The funding would be distributed to local
Children’s Services authorities. There were no details
available at the present time on the formula for allocating the
resources but these were expected imminently. If the funding was
allocated on a population size basis, North Lincolnshire Council
could expect to receive in the region of £45,000 over three
years.
It was proposed to transfer the funding to the Home Safety
section of Neighbourhood and Environmental Services who would
administer the scheme.
Resolved – (a) That the Neighbourhood,
Environmental and Communities Cabinet Member approves the
administration of the funding from the Department of Children,
Schools and Families for home safety equipment as set out in the
report, and (b) that the report be submitted to the
Children’s Services Cabinet Member for approval.
Note: Reports are in Portable Document
Format (PDF) and therefore require a suitable reader to
view them. A reader can be downloaded free from the Adobe
website (full instructions for downloading the reader are
provided on the site).
