Finger points to children's safety (From Witney Gazette)
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Finger points to children's safety
6:53am Thursday 24th January 2008 in Headlines By Victoria Owen
Fingers crossed: Oxford East MP Andrew Smith with Matthew Woods, ten, from St Joseph's School, Marston. They had their fingers bandaged at the John Radcliffe Hospital to remind them about the Imps initiative
CHILDREN are being given a unique way to remember a website launched to help them stay safe and healthy.
From this week, school pupils joining Oxfordshire's accident prevention and first aid initiative Imps - Injury Minimization Programme for Schools - will be given a plaster of Paris finger bandage with details about its online advice service FirstPoint.
About 4,200 10- to 11-year-olds from the county's primary schools take part in the Imps programme every year, and they have always had their fingers plastered as part of a visit to local hospitals.
Now, the bandage, which they take home, is decorated with an advert for the service.
Imps development manager Debbie Lock said: "All these children are a captive audience so we knew we could help them link up with more advice in the future. The finger bandage is the one thing they keep, so we decided to find a way to use it to advertise the website, which gives them all sorts of information about keeping safe and healthy."
FirstPoint acts as a link to other specialist websites, with information about anything from safe sex and drugs to first aid and child abuse.
Ms Lock said: "We hope this website will offer reassurance to young people.
"The health section offers advice on weight, fitness, drugs and alcohol as well as a host of other health issues, and the keeping safe section provides links to websites that offer advice on issues such as bullying and Internet safety.
"It's important, because a lot of children need help, but don't want their parents to know they are looking for advice."
Imps has 12 centres in the UK, and started in Oxford 12 years ago. More than 39,000 county children have used the service.
The website was launched on Monday with help from pupils from Oxford's Bayard's Hill and St Joseph's RC primary schools.
Alison Burton, health imp- rovement principal for the Oxfordshire Primary Care Trust, which helps fund the service, said: "It's so important to offer children easily accessible routes to self-help and advice.
"This new website is a valuable resource and I'm sure it will be well used."
The website is located at www.impsweb.co.uk
