In New Zealand there is no lead department for children, and no one minister who provides an overall voice for children. At present the responsibility is split between the Ministry of Youth Affairs and the Ministry of Social Welfare. The Commissioner for Children is also mandated to inquire into and report on any matter relating to the welfare of children and young persons.

In our last advocacy update we suggested a Ministry for Children as one way of achieving better co-ordinated policies for children. Since then we’ve come across a very interesting report called Effective Government Structures for Children published in the UK in 1996. The Report focuses on how to ensure central government is responsive to children. One section looks at the pros and cons of having a Minister for Children. While the Report deals with the UK experience, it also provides helpful background for informing debate here.

A large majority of those interviewed by the Report’s authors favoured the appointment of a Minister for Children. Points made in favour included: raising the profile of children with government, the media and the public providing a focal point of contact in government initiating new areas of policy for children sending children a positive message that they are important enabling an audit of policies to ensure they directly benefited children the gathering of better research and information the development of better informed indicators and targets establishing better co ordination with local government rights and implementation of the UN Convention would be given proper priority While the appointment of a Minister was given strong overall support, almost all respondents had some reservations. Many of these derived from a general cynicism and mistrust of government. Reservations included: a weak Minister could marginalise, rather than promote children as a priority some departments might abdicate their responsibilities for children the creation of bureaucratic hassles and inflexibility

In making their recommendations, the Report’s authors come out strongly in support of the appointment of a Minister for Children. The Report urges that a senior minister should be appointed to the position. The Report does not however favour the creation of a specific Ministry for Children. The preferred option in the UK context is a Minister for Children to head a Cabinet Office Children’s Unit.

Interesting too to note recent comments from Roger McClay the current Commissioner for children in the New Zealand Herald. He suggests the creation of a cross-party children’s caucus in Parliament. "This would be a team of politicians dedicated to promoting the best interests of children - people who would closely examine all legislation, using a child’s eye".

Children have both a need and a right to be safe. This cannot be achieved without political recognition and will at a national level. Creating a Minister (or Ministry) for Children or creating a cross-party caucus are two possibilities. There are others. Let’s keep the debate going and the pressure on!

Baby walkers As we pointed out in the last edition of Safekids News, New South Wales will have a mandatory product safety standard in place for baby walkers from December 1st, 2000. This is great news for the safety of our littlest neighbours in New South Wales! But what about our littlest kiwis? The news from the Minister of Consumer Affairs’ Office is that a Discussion Document on baby walker safety is currently being prepared. Keep an eye open for this document, which is expected to be out in December. Safekids News will keep you posted.

Shelley Hanifan (Safekids Director) sets a good example! She is throwing out a baby walker to ensure it can’t be used.

Although engineering solutions, like many environmental solutions, tend to be more expensive to implement, money spent on this strategy is likely to reap more positive results.

The Kapa Haka group from Chisnellwood Intermediate welcomes guests to the Kidsafe Week 2000 Celebration. Christchurch Mayor, Garry Moore, with a group of young cycle advocates who all spoke about their love of cycling and why they needed to have safe and cycle friendly environments.

Kidsafe Week 2000 Celebration benefits from Southern hospitality! Each year, Safekids and the National Kidsafe Week Planning Group organise a major event to launch Kidsafe Week, and to provide a national focus for the issue of child injury prevention. In the past this event has always been held in Auckland, but this year it was decided to take it further afield. Christchurch was chosen as a great place to celebrate Kidsafe Week 2000 Christchurch has a real reputation as a cycling city, and also because the Christchurch City Council are extremely active in taking responsibility for child safety. Safekids benefited from working closely with staff from Christchurch City Council and Sport Canterbury to plan and implement the Kidsafe Week 2000 Celebration. Below are a number of photos that give an overview of what proved to be a highly enjoyable and memorable day for all concerned.

The Honourable Ruth Dyson, addresses the guests at the Kidsafe Week 2000 Celebration and outlines ACC's commitment to reducing unintentional injury to children. The Honourable Mark Gosche responds to the question posed by Issy Manson

Young cyclist Issy Manson from Burnside Primary School asks the Honourable Mark Gosche what he and the government can do to make cycling safe for all children throughout New Zealand.

	Kidsafe Week Ambassador, April Ieremia, tests Christchurch Mayor Garry Moore on his cycling skills, as part of the Kidsafe Week 2000 Celebration.
	Kidsafe Week Ambassadors, Pio Terei and Hinewehi Mohi, announce the school whose cyclists demonstrated the highest level of cycle skills, and therefore were awarded the 'Tour de City ' trophy for 2000.

...and an extra Southern bonus for Safekids staff Whilst in Canterbury preparing for the Kidsafe Week 2000 celebration, Rachel Algar (Safekids Analyst) and Sue Kendall (National Kidsafe Week Co-ordinator) were able to take time out from their busy schedules to visit the cycle safety day held in Ashburton. They were impressed with the organisation of the event, and Sue had the following comment to make: " It was great to have the opportunity to visit one of the local Canterbury coalitions and join in with their activities. It is just a pity we didn't have more time to visit other local coalition groups. "

Sue Kendall with members of the Ashburton Kidsafe Week Coalition at their Cycle Safety Day held at the Extreme Cycle Track in Ashburton.

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Highlights of Year 2000

Simon Whitlock (Information Manager): Simon's highlights for 2000 "I started working at Safekids in the Information and Resource Centre during the year 2000. My first highlight therefore, was actually being offered the position of Information Centre Manager and being welcomed on board. I had just completed an MLIS (Master of Library and Information Studies) from Victoria University and the job managing the Information Centre was exactly the sort of work I was hoping to find. I have enjoyed meeting people involved in the field of injury prevention and my personal highlight would have to be meeting and working with the Kidsafe Week 2000 ambassadors; Pio Terei, Hinewehi Mohi and April Ieremia. They were all wonderful ambassadors for Kidsafe Week and this was due to their generous, kind and helpful personalities."
Bonnie Dowding (Safekids Strategist): Bonnie's Highlights for 2000 "I had two major highlights for 2000! I enjoyed working with Safe Waitakere Pacific Peoples Project, Injury Free Counties Manukau and Radio 531PI on a Kidsafe Week radio promotion around road safety and falls prevention messages. Also, PITA (Preventing Injury Through Action), Safe Waitakere and Safekids worked with five Pacific Island language nests to hold a concert during Kidsafe Week. The language nests performed original songs in their own languages, and skits around the falls prevention theme. I particularly enjoyed working with the children."
Rachel Algar (Safekids Analyst): Rachel's Highlight for 2000 "One of the highlights for me was working on the Ban Baby Walkers Campaign. It started with an idea at one of our internal advocacy meetings and then grew from there! It was pleasing and exciting to see so many agencies come on board and although there has been no ban, we definitely collectively raised the awareness of the dangers of baby walkers".
Helen McCracken (Safekids Advisor): Helen's Highlight for 2000 "My highlight had to be going to Sydney in October to attend a meeting of the joint Australia/ New Zealand committee, developing a "downunder" child resistant cigarette lighter standard. It was a fascinating process to be part of, great networking, and we even managed to reach consensus on the wording for the standard!"
Sue Kendall (Manager & National Kidsafe Week Co-ordinator): Sue's Highlight for 2000 "The highlight of 2000 for me was definitely working with the Kidsafe Week Ambassadors to ensure that Kidsafe Week and the issue of child safety received maximum exposure in the media. Not only were the Ambassadors great fun to work with, but they all gave so willingly of their time and were genuinely concerned about the issue of child injury. They were a great trio and the Week really benefited from their involvement."
Rhonda Jordan (Office Manager): Rhonnie's highlight for 2000 "A highlight for me this year was being involved in the Kidsafe Week 2000 Celebration held in Christchurch. It was wonderful to meet many people from the various regions who work so hard in child injury prevention. During the Celebration proceedings I particularly enjoyed hearing the individual children's speeches about what cycling means to them and seeing them complete the cycling skills course. Also it was great fun watching the celebrity cycle event and I was thrilled to meet and work with the Ambassadors who I found to be very warm and most giving of their time for Kidsafe Week."
Shelley Hanifan (Safekids Director): Shelley's highlight for 2000 "What I enjoyed most in 2000 was the people that I got to work with - both at Safekids, and outside of it, in the wider child injurr prevention field. Relationships and communication are important in our field, and I feel that progress has really been made this year. Both the growing IP Network and the Kidsafe Week Coalition Network are improving communication and helping us build closer working relationships across the country. These relationships will ultimately make us much more effective in our child injury prevention work."
Rebecca Williams ('Safe Routes to School' Facilitator): Rebecca's highlight for 2000 "As always a major highlight for me is working with all the fabulous people involved with Safe Routes to School projects in the region, particularly the people that make up the SRTS Working Groups. Helping to make our plans turn into reality is a rewarding experience. Particularly exciting activities that I've been involved in this year include the creation of the "Inter-Galactic Road Safety Show" which is performed by The Aunties, a winning submission presentation to Waitakere City Council and the creation of the Kelston Gateways."

Some recent acquisitions...

A large number of resources and publications have been acquired, catalogued and added to the collection in recent months. Following is a brief selection of a few of these:

Community-based injury prevention interventions
Klassen, Terry P. et al.
The Future of Children 10(1) spring/summer00 pp-83-110

http://www.futureofchildren.org/uic/24contents.htm

A systematic review analysing the effects that community-based injury prevention strategies in schools, municipalities, and cities have on childhood injuries, safety behaviours, or the adoption of safety practices.

Bicycle crashes in New Zealand
Wood, Kerry
Wellington, Kerry Wood: 1999

The objective of this study was to consider safety aspects of the New Zealand cycling environment. The major safety problem is sharing space with motor vehicles on roads designed and used with little regard for cyclists' needs. An LTSA database was used to show that over 85% of serious and fatal crashes fall into only 14 types of crash. These are analysed for frequency of fatal and serious injuries, the effects of cyclist's age, and changes over time. Each of the selected crash types is analysed for common contributing factors. Bicycle facility design manuals from overseas are used to develop proposals suitable for New Zealand conditions, focussing particularly on methods of reducing risk in the most common crash situations. However, engineering measures cannot be effective in isolation. Non-engineering measures needed to improve cycle safety include legislation changes; a fundamental review of the thinking behind present road safety practices; and estimation of the costs and benefits of enhanced cycle use. Practical recommendations are presented at the conclusion of this paper.

The better building code.
Waitakere City Council - Te Taiao o Waitakere
Auckland, Waitakere City Council: 2000

This document is intended to be a voluntary minimum environmental standard for council buildings. It was developed by Waitakere City Council, but is equally applicable to all public buildings and many private commercial buildings. This is not a legally binding document and all buildings still have to comply with all relevant legislation. The aim of this document is to provide standard clauses for tendering and briefing documents for the design and construction of public buildings. Additionally, it contains guidelines for sound project planning and management and for the maintenance of existing buildings.

PASSENGERS: Child safety seats: Rear-face until at least one year. Weber, Kathleen Child Passenger Protection Research Program, University of Michigan Medical School http://www.parentsoup.com/library/babyres/carseat.html This article highlights the fact that there are still some common misconceptions and misunderstandings around the safety of positioning a young infant (less than one year old) facing forward in their car seat. The idea that it is safe to face baby forwards in a car seat is no longer considered correct even though some older pamphlets and paediatric literature advise it. The article discusses the physiological reasoning for positioning a baby in a rear facing car seat for at least the first year of life.

Simon Whitlock Info Centre Manager sorting through some of the many media cuttings that covered Kidsafe Week 2000.

Handbook for public playground safety
U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission
http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/pubs/325.pdf

An updated version of the "Handbook for public playground safety" first published in 1981. This handbook presents safety information for public playground equipment in the form of guidelines. Publication of the handbook is expected to promote greater safety awareness among those who purchase, install and maintain public playground equipment. These are guidelines only and are not a mandatory US standard however the Commission believes that the recommendations included in the handbook will contribute significantly to greater equipment safety.

Unintentional Injuries in Childhood: Analysis and recommendations.
Deal, Lisa W. et al.
The Future of Children 10(1)spring/summer00 pp. 4-22
http://www.futureofchildren.org/uic/24contents.htm

An analysis of prevention strategies to reduce childhood injuries through education, environmental change, and the enforcement of legislation and regulations, and recommendations for steps that can reduce the toll of injury on children's lives.

Inaugural professorial lecture

Langley, John
Division of Health Sciences, University of Otago

This paper identifies a selection of challenges to New Zealand achieving significant progress in reducing its injury burden. These are observations made during the lecturer's 20-year involvement in injury prevention research.

Injury among Pacific peoples in Aotearoa/New Zealand.
Lima, Ieti & Tukuitonga, Colin
Pacific Health Research Centre, University of Auckland

There has been little research into injury amongst Pacific Island communities in New Zealand. This report provides initial injury information aimed at enhancing the planning and implementation of injury prevention programmes for Pacific peoples by injury prevention service providers throughout New Zealand. It will also: (1) assist Pacific communities in their understanding of injury as an important cause of death and disability and (2) assist their efforts in reducing the burden of injury on Pacific families. The specific aims of this report are to describe the:

• main causes of injury death among Pacific peoples
• main causes of injury hospitalisation among Pacific peoples
• age and gender specific rates for major classes of injury among Pacific peoples.

Waikato Burn Support goes on-line

Burn Prevention information is now available on-line by visiting Waikato Burn Support Charitable Trust's new Website, http://www.burnsupport.org.nz. If you are thinking of setting up your own Website, or are after some information about preventing burns, the site is well worth a look.

John Carlisle, Secretary for Waikato Burn Support Charitable Trust says...

"While the information is predominantly focused towards the Waikato, people from the rest of the country could just feel encouraged by what they read - and you never know, some might like to join us in one of our many great activities. People from around the country have already been part of Waikato activities with some attending this year's Burn Camp, which was held in February. You will be able to check out the details of the next one coming up in February 2001 - not very far away!"

Join CAN, the Voice for Cyclists

CAN is the voice for commuter, recreational and touring cyclists. CAN works with central government and local authorities on behalf of cyclists for a better cycling environment. Currently a key issue for CAN is the NZ Road Safety Strategy 2010 - CAN believes fundamental changes to the draft strategy are needed to produce any significant improvements in cycle safety.

CAN invites you to join. For a membership form or more information about CAN, check out our website at http://www.kennett.co.nz/can, e-mail us at can@actrix.gen.nz, mail us at PO Box 6491, Auckland, or ring/fax us on 04-385 2557. CAN aims to:

• Promote the benefits of cycling

• Improve safety for cyclists

• Encourage the creation of a good cycling environment

• Promote cycle tourism

• Advocate for integrated transport planning

• Increase the number of cyclists on our roads.

CAN, the Cycling Advocates Network of NZ, has produced a new membership form and has embarked on a national membership campaign. CAN's membership has increased steadily since its beginnings in 1996, and now includes local advocacy groups in several centres, individual members, and supporting organisations (including Safekids!). An increasing number of local and regional authorities are joining, recognising the value of being part of CAN's extensive e-mail network and of its newsletter, Chain Links.