Home safety tips in support of Child Safety Week

With children at home during the Covid-19 pandemic and so many parents and carers busy multi-tasking, there has arguably never been a better time to remind families about safety.

Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service (NFRS) is proud to be supporting the national Child Safety Week (1-7 June), a community education campaign run by the Child Accident Prevention Trust (CAPT).

Throughout the week, NFRS is supporting vital safety messages with social media videos and messages, to help protect families across Northamptonshire.

The messages covered by the campaign include everything from advice over safe medicine storage, to fire and road safety messages as well as tips to avoid scalds and burns.

Prevention Team Leader Darren Carson said: “Many families are living in very different ways at the moment, due to the government restrictions. So many children are being home-schooled, often with parents who are perhaps multi-tasking by working from home or fitting in with other demands.

“Homes have become much busier places so we are using this opportunity to share some important messages, acknowledging the immense pressures many families are facing, and offering a helping hand by outlining the simple steps they can take to avoid accidents and mishaps in the home.”

Home safety tips for Child Safety Week:

• Keep matches, lighters and lit candles or tealights well out of the reach of young children. Teach children not to play with them.
• Take care not to plug lots of chargers and equipment into an extension lead from one electrical socket – the socket could be dangerously overloaded.
• Store items like hair straighteners safely – avoid leaving them switched on or where a child might be able to switch them on.
• You need a working smoke alarm on every level of your home. Test at least once a month to make sure they are working.
• Work out your escape route in case of a fire and practice it with your family.