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The early years framework identifies improving outcomes and children''s quality of life through play as a key element of transformational change needed to give children the best start in life.

To deliver this vision, the Scottish Government, in partnership with the Care Commission, Play Scotland and the police are leading a debate on understanding and balancing the benefits of play against risk. This will include discussing attitudes and perceptions regarding risk and safety in play settings with parents and providers.

There is no separate ring-fenced funding for the promotion and advancement of child play safety.

Through the Single Outcome Agreement process, local authorities and community planning partners are responsible for securing improved outcomes for children in their local areas, where necessary realigning existing resources to support the early years framework and priorities such as play.

The Scottish Government has funded a pilot in order to assess the current level and quality of data collected on unintentional injuries in selected Scottish accident and emergency departments as it has been agreed that the Health Directorate will lead on coordinating information on unintentional injury.

The pilot will be used to see whether it is necessary to enhance the data being collected. The pilot is expected to report back later this autumn. The results will help inform any perceived gaps in data, which should help influence delivery and planning of any future initiatives.

Information Services Division (ISD) has published data on unintentional injuries up to 31 March 2008, disaggregated by age, gender, NHS board, Community Health Partnerships (CHP) and deprivation level (SIMD quintile). These figures are available at

http://www.isdscotland.org/isd/5867.html and http://www.isdscotland.org/isd/1144.html.

The number of admissions to hospital for children under 15 as a result of an unintentional injury that took place neither in the home nor on the road, is shown in the following tables by the cause of injury and by place of occurrence.

Table 1. Number of Hospital Admissions, Resulting from Unintentional Injury Incurred Neither in the Home nor on the Road, for Children Aged 0-14, by Cause of Injury, for Year of Discharge Year Ending 31 March 2006 to 2008.

Cause of Injury	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08
Transport Accidents	536	528	522
Falls	3,466	3,387	3,242
Exposure to inanimate mechanical forces	919	821	803
Exposure to animate mechanical forces	321	309	304
Accidental drowning and submersion	3	6	4
Other accidental threats to breathing	13	8	10
Exposure to smoke, fire and flames	24	19	12
Contact with heat and hot substances	21	22	27
Contact with venomous animals and plants	8	14	9
Accidental poisoning by and exposure to noxious substances	117	126	110
Overexertion, travel and privation	31	14	23
Accidental exposure to other and unspecified factors	270	280	403
Assault	169	164	134
Other/unknown	47	42	36
Total	5,945	5,740	5,639

Source: Information Services Division (ISD) Scotland.

Notes:

These statistics are based on data collected on discharges from non-obstetric and non-psychiatric hospitals (Scottish Morbidity Record 01, SMR01). Patient injury categories that do not occur in the home or on the road are identified in SMR01 by selecting admission codes 34 and 35. Categories of cause of injury are based on the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10), codes V01-X59, X85-Y09. Other/unknown category includes cases where there was no recorded external cause code, or the external cause code did not fall into one of the main categories.

Table 2. Numbers of Hospital Admissions as a Result of Unintentional Injuries That Occurred Neither in the Home nor on the Road, for Children Aged 0-14 by Place of Occurrence, for Year of Discharge Year Ending 31 March 2006 to 2008.

Place of Occurrence	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08
Home	49	51	57
Residential institution	24	12	16
School, other institution and public administrative area	621	571	508
Sports and athletics area	476	438	411
Street and highway	210	205	156
Trade and service area	68	85	68
Industrial and construction area	4	6	5
Farm	18	8	7
Other specified places	467	423	325
Unspecified place	3,437	3,383	3,540
Total	5,374	5,182	5,093

Source: Information Services Division (ISD) Scotland.

Notes:

These statistics are based on data collected on discharges from non-obstetric and non-psychiatric hospitals (Scottish Morbidity Record 01, SMR01). ICD-10 codes W00-X59, X85-Y09 may include a fourth digit that describes place of occurrence and therefore only these codes have been included in this analysis. Patient injury categories that are neither home injuries nor road traffic accidents are identified in SMR01 by selecting admission codes 34 and 35.

Data relating to patient age and the reason for attendance at accident and emergency (A&E) departments are not centrally available.

The Scottish Government provides funding from the Health and Justice Directorates to support national child injury prevention and safety programmes, which promote the Scottish Government''s overarching objectives of keeping the people of Scotland healthier, safer, and stronger.

The Health Directorate have lead responsibility for coordinating responses on a range of issues related to unintentional childhood injury and has established a pilot, through Information Services Division (ISD), to look at data that is collected from accident and emergency departments (A&E) in order to establish the main causes of accidents, although other parts of government have a responsibility for taking forward specific strands of work, for example in relation to road accidents.

The pilot is expected to report back later this autumn. Once this information is available the Scottish Government will consider the data available and whether further work may be necessary in collating and analysing accident data before taking targeted action in order to reduce the number of unintentional injury (if appropriate).

In responding to the 2009 Report Card, the Scottish Government considers development of a clear and robust evidence base on childhood injuries to be a priority. It has therefore commissioned and funded an unintentional injuries data collection pilot in order to assess the current level and quality of data collected. This pilot will help flag up perceived gaps in data collection. Further work may be necessary in collating and analysing accident data before taking targeted action in order to reduce the number of unintentional injuries in children.

We also published Good Places, Better Health: A New approach to the Environment and Health in Scotland in December 2008. This project is a collaboration led by health interests and ranging over policy interests across the Scottish Government as well as external stakeholders with an interest in unintentional injury and accident prevention, particularly among children.

The SMR (Scottish Mortality Record) national database holds data on children admitted to Scottish hospitals. SMR records data on unintentional injuries, defined by admission code and/or international classification of disease (ICD10) diagnosis codes. Validated SMR data is collected via hospital patient management systems and submitted electronically across a secure network to Information Services Division (ISD) Scotland, where it is stored in the national database.

Data relating to unintentional injuries in children is published as part of ISD''s annual unintentional injuries national statistics publication: http://www.isdscotland.org/isd/3066.html.

Data is also disseminated on an ad-hoc basis in accordance with ISD''s information request protocol.

Data relating to patient age and their reason for attendance at accident and emergency (A&E) departments are not centrally available.