Addressing road safety in disadvantaged communities Some lessons from the NRSI project

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Addressing road safety in disadvantaged
communitiesSome lessons from the NRSI project
Mike Hayes Child Accident Prevention
Trust Elizabeth Towner University of the West
of England, Bristol John Towner Child Accident
Prevention Trust Paul Pilkington University of
the West of England, Bristol Heather Ward UCL
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The NRSI local authorities

• Blackburn with Darwen
• Blackpool
• Bolton
• Bradford
• Bury
• Liverpool
• Manchester
• Nottingham

• Oldham
• Rochdale
• Salford
• Sandwell
• Stoke-on-Trent
• Tameside
• Wigan

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Developing the workshops

• Identified key contacts in local authorities and
  among project partners through various sources
• Analysed and classified projects
• Created workshop themes
• Developed workshop formats not all workshops
  were the same
• Theme based
• Strategic

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Workshop themes

• In-car safety, driver and rider projects
• Highway engineering
• Vulnerable road users
• Education resources and publicity
• Partnerships theatre in road safety
• Strategic issues defining the target audience

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Main purposes of the project output

• To assist and stimulate people responsible for
  reducing road casualties in disadvantaged
  communities to learn from the experiences of
  those involved in the NRSI
• To provide background information on the
  connections between road safety and disadvantage
  so that managers, practitioners and elected
  members can make a strong case for action in
  tackling this problem
• To help the development of contacts between
  people who have a responsibility for reducing
  road casualties in deprived communities

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The audiences

• The principal audience is the highways and road
  safety professionals in local authorities.
• The wider audience - people whose work can
  support or complement road safety
• other local authority departments (notably
  regeneration, education, play and housing)
• community and voluntary organisations that work
  closely with disadvantaged communities
• other statutory bodies, such as childrens
  centres, health sector and fire service
• people with strategic responsibilities e.g.
  coordinators in local strategic partnerships
  (LSPs), and those developing local area agreement
  (LAA) bids.

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Key conclusions

• The need to identify and target people as well as
  places
• The major role that developing and sustaining
  partnerships can play in reaching target
  communities
• Responding to the problems described by the
  community that may not show up in STATS19 data.
  Both are needed if projects are to succeed.
• Road safety is not a one-size-fits-all issue.
  Projects must be tailored to local circumstances.

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Key conclusions

• NRSI illustrated that road safety can reach
  successfully into those communities with the
  greatest need often influencing those who have
  traditionally proved the hardest to get to.
• Using innovative methods of working
• Developing and sustaining partnerships
• Actively involving statutory, voluntary and
  community organisations.
• Most importantly, working closely with those most
  at risk, at all stages in the development and
  delivery of projects.

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NRSI issues

• Targeting people and places
• Innovative approaches
• Involving the community
• Partnerships
• Communication and collaboration
• Sustainability of programmes
• Local political pressures

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Targeting people and places

• People AND places, not people OR places
• Consider road safety issues that people face, not
  simply the problems that the places where they
  live can create
• Identifying the groups at risk can help to
  identify organisations that can assist
• Need to get behind the statistics remember that
  what people want to do, but cant, matters in
  taking road safety decisions

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Innovative approaches

• Not just about creating new interventions - it
  can also involve new ways of defining target
  audiences, creating new working methods, adapting
  staffing requirements, creating and sustaining
  new partnerships, etc
• Innovation can take time
• Can be about doing things differently, not
  stopping doing things
• Making the case for being innovative is not easy

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Involving the community

• Asking people about their concerns and listening
  to their answers
• Seeking reactions to proposed interventions
• Involving the community in programme development
  and delivery
• Can bring communities together, improve image of
  council
• Can be time-consuming and expensive, but can be
  the key to successful projects

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Partnerships

• Partners can open many doors, for example
• access to target groups, especially hard to reach
  groups, often through pre-existing relationships.
  
• additional resources - people, skills and
  knowledge, money and other resources
• new approaches and other ways of thinking about
  issues
• access to additional policy frameworks

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Partnerships

• Development and maintenance of partnerships
  requires effort. Dedicated posts in NRSI
  councils.
• Other benefits
• Partnerships can lead to costs being shared
• Can help the sustainability of programmes as a
  result of new agencies becoming involved in road
  safety
• Broadening the reach by embedding road safety
  into the plans of other agencies

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NRSI partners in road safety

• Other local authority departments regeneration,
  youth service, play and recreation, housing
• Health sector - as practitioners and data
  providers
• Schools and colleges, both as a means of reaching
  children and young people and also by providing
  volunteers
• Police, fire and rescue services
• Sure Start and Childrens Centres
• Voluntary organisations
• Community organisations, including churches and
  mosques
• Councillors
• Private companies

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Other issues

• Communication and collaboration
• Road safety programmes can improve links between
  local authority departments, as well as between
  local authorities and other agencies
• Sustainability of programmes
• Partnerships can lead to costs being shared
• Embed road safety into the plans of other
  agencies
• Local political pressure
• Can be a help and a hindrance - but councillors
  should have a role as community representatives
  and through their scrutiny responsibilities

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Blurton Dads Group, Stoke-on-Trent
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Looking ahead

• A need for road safety among disadvantaged
  communities to be on the agenda
• Use the regeneration agenda. Safer roads and
  safer access to essential facilities are
  essential components of local regeneration.
• Capitalise on existing policy drivers that exist
  across sectors
• Recognise that staffing structures in road safety
  may need to change

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