Increasing Membership of the Children's Traffic Club in Scotland in Areas of High Social Deprivation

8.1 The CTCS and deprivation

The CTCS aims to encourage parents and carers to work with three to five year old children to develop road safety awareness and skills
Across Scotland the CTCS has an uptake level of just over 50 per cent of all parents/ carers of three year old children. The uptake level has fallen over the years, but is still significantly higher than CTC schemes in other parts of the UK
There is a strong link between low CTCS membership and high levels of deprivation at local authority and neighbourhood level
Glasgow, Dundee and East Ayrshire have been selected within this study as areas demonstrating a strong correlation between low CTCS membership and deprivation
There are some characteristics of areas of high deprivation which may result in lower levels of CTCS membership - including lower levels of adult literacy, links with ill health and support needs, concentrations of people for whom English is not their first language, and more transient households.

8.2 Awareness of the CTCS

Road safety is seen by parents/carers as a key message for children aged three to five (and younger children) and parents felt that the aims of the CTCS were very important
While members naturally had high levels of awareness of the CTCS, the non-members consulted demonstrated very low levels of awareness
Based on consultation within the three target local authorities, awareness of the Club is relatively high among front line staff working with parents/carers and children, but lower at a strategic level
Voluntary organisations demonstrated high levels of awareness of the Club, but awareness was lower among organisations whose primary aim was regeneration or working in deprived communities - such as Social Inclusion Partnerships.

8.3 Use of CTCS resources

Parents and carers were generally positive about the CTCS resources, but most suggested possible improvements while a minority gave more negative feedback
Members clearly made use of the CTCS resources, recognised the characters and knew which book they had received most recently
There was a perception amongst some parents/carers that use of the resources may decline as children reach school age and school work starts to take precedence
Some parents/carers indicated that they had or would have difficulty reading the books aloud to their children.

8.4 The registration process and publicity

The majority of parents/carers joined the CTCS in response to the postal invitation, but in some areas Health Visitors and nurseries had prompted membership of the Club
Parents and carers were in favour of increasing the ways in which they can register their children for the Club and there was some demand for online and text registration
Although there was some interest in different methods of joining, parents and carers were much more interested in ensuring that they were offered more opportunities to join rather than simply being sent one registration letter
There was a very strong preference for a face to face approach in promotion of and registration with the Club, through working with professionals such as Health Visitors and nursery staff to support parents through the registration process.

8.5 Barriers to joining the CTCS

Potential barriers to joining the CTCS were identified by parents/carers and organisations
None of the non-members consulted consciously refused membership of the Club, and non membership was generally attributed to not receiving the registration form
For some however, it was clear that either they did not have the literacy skills to read and complete the registration form, or that taking notice of a CTCS registration form was not a priority, compared to other issues they were dealing with
Adult literacy was a key barrier consistently raised by parents/carers and other stakeholders. The lack of other registration methods or support in completing the form was seen as a major reason for many parents not joining the Club
Another potential barrier is that parents/carers either do not receive an invitation - due to moving home or procedural difficulties in distributing the form - or do not notice the invitation coming through the post
The need to be proactive in joining the Club and the range of other priorities for parents of young children were also identified as potential barriers
The lack of flexibility within the registration process - through only offering one invitation and currently few other opportunities to join - could exacerbate these barriers
Some parents'/carers' lack of satisfaction with the resource could act as a barrier to joining, due to lack of word of mouth promotion and reduced re-registration for families with more than one young child.

8.6 Potential Improvements

A range of ways of increasing CTCS membership in areas of high deprivation were suggested by parents/carers and organisations:
Simplifying the registration materials and introducing other registration methods
Promoting the Club through other organisations
Supporting parents in registering and using the resources
Improving the resources

8.7 Good practice in Road Safety Units

Road Safety Units are currently using a range of methods to promote the CTCS through:
Working with nursery schools and Health Visitors
Promotion in local press and at public venues
Appointment of a dedicated CTCS officer
The trial in Glasgow of distributing CTCS Book 1 with the registration pack did not generate the expected positive results, having little impact on membership levels and actually delaying parental registration with the Club.

8.8 Lessons Learned from other Children's Traffic Clubs

None of the other Children's Traffic Clubs consulted had undertaken any detailed work on correlating uptake and social exclusion and the CTCS is significantly more advanced in this area than the other Clubs
Levels of uptake, where known, are significantly lower in other CTCs than in Scotland
Each Club uses different CTC materials according to the local context, and the involvement of professionals in designing Club format can be extremely valuable
All of the Clubs promote registration through postal invitation and awareness raising activity by a network of professionals working with parents/carers and children.

8.9 Partnership working

There are a wide range of opportunities for promoting the CTCS through working in partnership with other organisations
The Community Planning Partnership in each area was seen as a key route for building relationships - generally at a thematic or area based sub group level
A range of opportunities for promoting the CTCS at an operational level were identified, including:
Strengthening existing relationships with Health Visitors and nurseries
Developing links with local projects, family centres and social workers
Working with local literacy projects to support parents to join and use the CTCS
Tapping into local staff networks of national voluntary organisations
Linking with SureStart activities at a local level.
All consultees emphasised that, in order to promote the CTCS, they would require further information, support and guidance on the Club
All emphasised the need to have at least one individual who is responsible for CTCS co-ordination and promotion at a national level, who could act as a key contact within Road Safety Scotland.

The Scottish Government