Where might you practise crossing the road in complete safety, react to a fire in a house, learn about travel safety on a bus, visit a police station, practise putting on seat belts, react to someone drowning and learn about railway safety in a real train, all without stepping outside? The answer is one of the eight interactive safety centres across the UK which deliver experiential safety and citizenship education to thousands of children and adults every year.

Such centres take visitors on a tour of a realistic indoor village featuring shops, water areas, railways, buses, houses, road crossings, internet cafes and cinemas, delivering practical safety education in a real setting. Some centres are run by emergency services and some are run by charitable trusts or by coalitions of local organisations. Most centres currently focus on programmes for children in the final years at primary school. Tours are usually staffed by volunteer members of the local community.

Another ten centres are being planned across the UK at locations including Gloucester, Sutton in London, Leeds and Manchester. A national organisation – the Safety Centre Alliance – has been set up to facilitate support, networking and development between existing centres and to support those wishing to set up new ones. It also aims to promote and represent safety centres to relevant bodies and more widely to the media.

The Alliance is holding its first conference on 30th September at Safeside Birmingham, the newest of the centres, which is run by West Midlands Fire Service.

Acting Secretary Rob Hattersley, who is the Education Co‐ordinator at Safeside and a former deputy head teacher, said: “We know that our experiential approach to safety and citizenship education works. It is a cost‐effective use of public money which addresses many of the issues that concern families and local communities. This is not about scaring parents to keep their children inside, but empowering children in particular to feel confident and to stay safe whilst becoming more independent.”
 
NOTES TO EDITORS
The press are welcome to attend a photo shoot in the Safeside safety village on Wednesday 30th September, 2.30pm. There will also be an opportunity to tour the centre as well as speak to staff and volunteers from similar centres around the UK.

Please email info@safetycentrealliance.org.uk or phone Rob Hattersley on 0121 380 6429.

The Safety Centre Alliance is inviting all those who work in operational Safety Centres, and those actively engaged in setting up new ones, to its first Annual Conference entitled "Developing the Safety Centre movement across the UK."

The Conference will take place at Safeside in Birmingham on Wednesday 30th September 2009. Safeside is the latest centre to open and is run by West Midlands Fire Service.

Following an Annual General Meeting, representatives of centres across the UK will set the direction of the Alliance on issues such as collaboration on new projects, evaluation, sharing good practice and developing support networks for practitioners. The relationship of the Alliance to other groups involved with child safety will also be under discussion, and ways of promoting the movement locally and nationally addressed.

For full details please click here.

Interactive Safety Centres across the UK agreed in April 2009 to form the Safety Centre Alliance. The Alliance will facilitate support, networking and development between permanent interactive safety centres in the UK and will support those wishing to set up new centres.

The objectives of the Alliance are to:-

• Promote the work of existing safety centres in the media and to key audiences
• Act as a united voice for safety centres to government, educational and safety organisations
• Work to extend the provision and scope of safety centres across the UK
• Collaborate on development projects such as new programmes for different user groups
• Provide support and expertise to both existing and future safety centres
• Provide a facility for peer evaluation and assessment to ensure high standards

Full membership is open to existing safety centres in the UK (England, Scotland, Wales, NI). Associate membership is open to groups or organisations looking to set up permanent safety centres in the near future. Both full and associate member organisations pay an annual subscription to cover travel expenses and so on - this has been provisionally set at £50.