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SECTION TWO BACKGROUND TO THE EVALUATION STUDY
This project's aim is to assess the impact of the 'Kerbcraft' child pedestrian training programme, which has been disseminated throughout a national network of pilot schemes, set within 64 local authorities ( LAs) in England and 12 unitary authorities ( UAs) in Scotland. Authorities were invited to tender for funding for delivery of Kerbcraft training with competition criteria based on measures of local community deprivation, child pedestrian casualty rates and potential support available from local schools. Areas of higher social deprivation were preferentially targeted since it is in these areas that the risk of child pedestrian injury is highest. Funding in England was provided by the Department for Transport, and in Scotland by the Scottish Executive. A separate report has been produced for the Department for Transport detailing combined results from across all English and Scottish national network schemes. This report is available from the Department for Transport Road Safety Research website as of early 2008.
Kerbcraft Training
The 'Kerbcraft' programme has been designed to enhance three pedestrian skills in 5-7 year old children over a period of 12-18 months. Three skills packages have been developed: (1) recognising safe versus dangerous crossing places, (2) crossing safely at parked cars and (3) crossing safely near junctions. An important component of the programme is practical training in the road environment. The training is progressive, with each skill package building on earlier programmes. Children work in small groups supported by an adult trainer who provides prompts and clues to encourage their decision-making.
Training on each skill is delivered over 4-6 sessions by trained volunteers. A scheme co-ordinator based in the local authority road safety department has responsibility for recruitment, training and ongoing management of the volunteers. The volunteers (usually parents) conduct the training with small groups of children in the streets surrounding the school.
Development of the Kerbcraft Model
Competent pedestrian behaviour involves a wide range of complex perceptual, cognitive and motor skills, making safe interaction with the traffic environment possible. Although adults demonstrate considerable competence in applying such pedestrian skills, children do not. Traditional road safety education was centred around knowledge acquisition through classroom-based 'rote' learning of rules for crossing. However, more recent research has shown that children require a more active learning process in order for them to develop pedestrian skills. Kerbcraft has a clear focus on skills training and is underpinned by a strong theoretical base drawn from research in social learning theory, child development and health promotion. Practical training at the roadside provides an appropriate context for development of key skills and the interactive nature of the training supports the development of children's conceptual understanding of the behaviours involved.
Kerbcraft was developed as a package of three skills and was piloted in Drumchapel, Glasgow between 1993 and 1995. The results of that pilot showed that children who had been exposed to the programme displayed significantly safer traffic judgements and behaviours compared with a matched control group of children from the same classes. Moreover, the improvements were robust, with no deterioration when children were tested 2-3 months later. The level of skill seen in trained children was several years in advance of what could normally be expected of children in this age range. The improvements were achieved on the basis of four to six training sessions per skill, each lasting only half an hour (Thomson and Whelan, 1997).
As an intervention, Kerbcraft promotes the tenets of inclusion and child-centred learning that are now considered central to national curriculum strategies across the UK. From a school perspective, Kerbcraft creates opportunities to enhance parent and community relationships and to make links with key themes within the Scottish and English national curriculum, for example citizenship, well-being and personal safety.
In summary, reviews of health promotion and injury prevention initiatives (Lister-Sharp et al, 1999) suggest that the most effective road safety-specific interventions are those which are: theory-based; taught at the roadside; involve participation and support from parents/local community and are integrated into a 'whole school' strategy for health promotion. The Kerbcraft model incorporates all of these key criteria.
Overall Aims and Objectives of the Evaluation Project
Aims
- To assess the impact of the child pedestrian training pilot projects (Kerbcraft), in both England and Scotland on children's pedestrian safety.
- To identify the most effective ways of establishing and sustaining practical child pedestrian training schemes at local level.
Objectives
- To establish the impact of the Child Pedestrian Training Pilot Projects on the safety of children in terms of behaviour.
- To determine the impact of the projects on schools, communities and volunteers.
- To determine the cost effectiveness of Kerbcraft in terms of local authority spending and children's behaviour change
- To identify the most effective schemes and explore those aspects that determine their success and also reasons why any schemes failed to meet their objectives.
- To investigate the setting up, management and maintenance of the schemes: exploring both reasons for success and failure at the National level ( MVA management) and the local level (individual schemes, feedback from children, schools and volunteers).
- To identify factors that contribute to the sustainability of schemes, in particular retention and continued recruitment of volunteers and local sources of funding.
Key outcomes from the overall evaluation study
The overall evaluation met all of the study aims and objectives through a number of different research methods. There were eight strands to the main evaluation study, detailed as follows:
- A skills assessment exercise measuring changes in children's behaviour at the roadside as a result of training
- A survey of volunteers' experiences and perceptions of Kerbcraft and their own communities
- A series of case studies providing in-depth information on implementing Kerbcraft in a range of different environments
- A survey of Kerbcraft scheme co-ordinators
- A survey of line managers within each participating authority
- A survey of head teachers involved in the programme
- A cost effectiveness analysis
- Interviews with MVA staff and investigation of other data sources
Results from each of the study strands outlined above have been synthesised to present the main conclusions in relation to the six study objectives.
(1) The impact on behaviour: the study shows strong statistical evidence of the positive impact of training in all three Kerbcraft skills. In relation to Safe Places training, before the intervention trained and control groups showed similar levels of construction of 'safe' routes (17%). This rose to 28% in trained children immediately after training (Post test 1) and 20% in control children. At post-test 2, two to four months later, trained children had further increased their safe scores to 44%, whereas control children's scores had risen moderately to 29%. The increase was statistically significant for trained but not for control children. In relation to Parked Cars training, trained children showed a significant increase in the key actions associated with checking the parked cars for occupants and signs of activity and also showed a significant increase in the proportion of trials where they clearly stopped (rather than paused) to look right and left for traffic at the sightline. The mean scores for key looking behaviours while stopped at the sightline increased significantly for trained children and were accompanied by a corresponding decrease in less rigorous looking behaviours, which are only conducted while crossing (without first stopping at the sightline). In relation to Junctions training, trained children had a significant advantage over control children at pre-test, possibly the result of informal learning occurring during the two earlier skills training sessions. Trained children again outperformed controls; one example was that the trained group was significantly better than controls in relation to moving away from obstructions.The improvements made by trained children in this study, however, were not as great (for each skill) as those observed in the original pilot study in Drumchapel, possibly owing to the larger scale and more disparate nature of the sample. There was no gender difference for baseline performance or the impact of Kerbcraft training.
(2) The impact on schools, communities and volunteers: Schools were supportive toward road safety training when it actively reinforced current educational and curricular links. The programme was found to fit in with schools' ethos and to improve relationships between the schools and parents. In the head teachers' survey 43% considered that the Kerbcraft programme had actively improved the relationship between parents and school, 36% reported no change and no school reported a detrimental effect. In relation to volunteers, the programme has provided opportunities to develop social contacts, to take advantage of educational and employment opportunities and to encourage greater participation in local schools. Active volunteers identified benefits resulting from involvement in 'Kerbcraft' as feeling valued by the school and project staff (59%), social benefits of meeting new people (50%) and improved relations with schools (30%).
(3) Cost effectiveness: The budgets and the number of children trained in the Kerbcraft courses for each local authority were compared and costs per child were calculated. These were all below £100 per child in all 7 local authorities schemes sampled. Costs lay in the range £28 - £99 per child. The cost of Kerbcraft in six of the local authorities was below £40. The added cost per initial 1% proportionate change in 'safe' behaviour scores for Safe Places training across all trained children in each local authority sampled ranged from £919 to £5,999.
(4) Success and failure of schemes: Key ingredients related to the success of schemes focused on the skills and ability of the co-ordinator. The ideal co-ordinator was a person able to develop a good relationship with schools, parents and volunteers, who could motivate others and had a flexible approach to work. The supply of volunteers was also important, with the most effective recruitment strategy being the use of a letter from the school/ co-ordinator, followed up by personal invitation. Where parental interest/availability was low, recruitment was extended into the wider community. These community volunteers included community/street wardens, school crossing patrollers, police, churches and social clubs and students on childcare courses. Other ingredients for success of schemes included the co-operation of schools; innovation and creativity in the delivery of the training and practical factors such as timetabling training to avoid clashes within the National Curriculum.
(5) Setting up, management and maintenance of schemes: Early teething problems in Tranche 1 were addressed as the project evolved and RSOs and co-ordinators were more positive with the support they obtained in Tranches 2 and 3. This was facilitated by improvements throughout the project lifespan in the communication and feedback processes between co-ordinators, network managers and the evaluation team. Training and support of co-ordinators was also an important factor. In some areas, co-ordinators added "value" to Kerbcraft training. These features included: providing children with skills for walking safely in rural areas, timetabling extra sessions to introduce new or unusual environments such as Home Zones and the inclusion of refresher sessions for skills 12 months after children completed their initial Kerbcraft training programme.
(6) Sustainability of schemes: Securing funding to continue pedestrian safety training beyond the timescale of the national Kerbcraft pilot has presented a challenge to schools and local/ unitary authorities. A wide range of funding sources was accessed to sustain schemes. Both schools and authorities recognised the positive impact of the scheme and most are keen to continue with it. A survey conducted between six and nine months after pilot funding ceased showed that of the 39 authorities, 69% were still undertaking some form of practical roadside training and a further 21% were planning to do so. However, few had continued with the full number of recommended sessions.
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