29 October 2007
West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service’s Safety Rangers scheme is to receive accreditation from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents.
The Leeds-based partnership scheme will receive the prestigious accreditation when RoSPA holds its National LASER (Learning About Safety by Experiencing Risk) Forum at West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service’s Birkenshaw headquarters on December 11.
More than 60 delegates from fire services, local authorities, the NHS, police, and national government will attend the event to celebrate the success of Safety Rangers and hear other positive examples of educational schemes.
Safety Rangers is a Leeds-based multi-agency partnership scheme led by West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service. Primary school children attend Stanningley, Gipton, Hunslet and Moortown fire stations, where they take part in activities such as calculating stopping distances when travelling in a car, escaping from a bedroom fire scenario, dialling 999 and talking about weapon awareness. The courses also involve West Yorkshire Police, Leeds City Council, NHS, West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Initiative, British Transport Police, Asda and East North East Homes Leeds.
On completion of the course the year five pupils receive a certificate emblazoned with a sheriff-style badge to confirm they are a Safety Ranger.
West Yorkshire Community Fire Safety Officer and Safety Rangers co-ordinator, Shivdev Singh, said: “Safety Rangers is an ideal opportunity for all the agencies involved to have a lasting impact on the children in encouraging them to be safe in all aspects of their lives.”
Assistant Chief Fire Officer Craig McIntosh, Director of Fire Safety and Community Relations, said: “This is an enormously successful scheme because we are able to communicate important messages while the children are having fun. It is also an example of the excellent relationship we have with other emergency services and statutory bodies.”
John Vallender, LASER Programme Manager at RoSPA, said: "Children are equipped with valuable lifelong skills when they learn about hazards and how to deal with them. This is where LASER schemes come into play, giving children the chance to practise first-hand what it means to recognise hazards, take and use safety advice, make judgements about possible harm to themselves or others, take some responsibility for their own and others' safety, and summon help quickly.
"We congratulate the Safety Rangers scheme in Leeds for being among the first annual events in the country to receive LASER accreditation, and we hope many more will follow in its footsteps."
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