Sure Start is the Government's programme to deliver the best start in life for every child by bringing together: early education, childcare, health and family support.

'Sure Start - Safe Start' is a joint project between Sure Start North Cornwall and The Cornwall Health Promotion Service.

The project aims to:

raise the profile of accident prevention in County,
help Sure Start programmes meet the national target of a 10% reduction in children admitted to hospital with serious injuries following an accident
provide a one stop shop for parents and carers looking for advice and information about accident prevention.

The site is divided into 2 sections:

For Parents and Carers
For Practitioners

The site will grow and change over the coming months so keep coming back to see what's new.

A word about the word 'accident'.

There is a school of thought that says the word 'accident', which implies an element of chance or something that just sort of happens, shouldn't be used. You may have noticed that the BBC etc now describe 'road accidents' as 'road crashes'.

Accidents to children are often predictable and preventable not random acts of chance or bad luck so calling them accidents could be misleading...

Alternatives suggested include 'Unintentional Injury' which is possibly a bit more accurate but a bit of a mouthful... so we've opted to use 'accidents' has a shorthand for Unintentional Injury and for ease of use....

Accidents by type