Partner Activity
Partner Activity
Road Safety Scotland (RSS)
RSS is a team within Transport Scotland which produces road safety education materials and road safety marketing campaigns for Scotland. RSS is governed by two Sub-committees, dealing with Education and Publicity. These Sub-committees draw membership from local authorities, the police and fire and rescue services, as well as national bodies with a road safety involvement such as the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) and the Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM).
Both Sub-committees have seen members come and go, and RSS is grateful to those who have stood down for their service to the work of RSS and also to those who have stepped in to fill the places. A particular thanks must go to those who have worked in road safety with RSS for many years and have now, due to circumstances outwith their control, left the profession. Their help and support has been invaluable in achieving the successes which have accompanied RSS initiatives, and also the continuing downward trend in casualties.
Useful Links:
Road Safety within Curriculum for Excellence
A tremendous amount of work was put in adding in links to experiences and outcomes and the booklet was reprinted and distributed to schools in November 2013.
Early Years
Go Safe with Ziggy has been a major focus of the work of the Education SubCommittee, and distribution of five out of the six storybooks was, once again, done through Education Scotland's distribution centre. This year, and in future years, the Primary 1 book will be part of the Scottish Book Trust's new Primary 1 Family Pack. A variety of promotional items were made available to road safety professionals through the online ordering system, Simply Order, and these will be added to in the new year.
Theatre in Education (TiE)
Following a tendering process, Theatre & Learning was awarded the contract to provide the TiE programme over the next two (2+1) years. The company is an experienced Theatre in Education provider and has successfully completed the Roddy Hogg and Friends Disunited tours, and early feedback from road safety units and schools has been very positive.
Junior Road Safety Officers (JRSO)
The JRSO scheme continues to flourish and, early in 2013, there was a competition to design an International JRSO badge. Seventy-four schools took part and the winning design was from Stoneyhill Primary in Musselburgh. The JRSO website was further developed with a focus on supporting schools, and the enhancement of the section on the UN Decade of Action.
Scottish Learning Festival (SLF)
Last year's event was held at the SECC on 25-26 September, and RSS took the opportunity to exhibit and promote road safety education resources to the education sector. The main showcase was 'Ziggy' and the revised Curriculum for Excellence booklet. Interaction with attendees at the event suggested that Ziggy is becoming well-established in schools and nurseries across the country.
Parental Influence Campaign - Kids in the Car
This ground-breaking campaign targeted those, particularly parents, who drive with children in the car. Research suggests that the types of drivers children become is laid down at an early age, and that parents' behaviour and accident-risk is a good indicator of children's future behaviour and accident risk. The long-term aim of the campaign sought to highlight to parents that, every time they get into the car with their children, they are setting an example which could save their children's lives in the future. Another aspect of the campaign was that, if parents are conscious of this, and change poor driving behaviour, there should also be a shorter-term gain in the present. The campaign was launched by the Minister on 24 July 2013 and results from the first burst of activity have been very positive.
Your Call
The RSS lower secondary school resource, Your Call, was reviewed by ODS Consulting. The review found that Road Safety Units took different approaches to distributing and promoting the resource, with the majority of Road Safety Officers indicating that they had not been as proactive as they would have liked promoting it in schools, with reduced resources and increased workloads cited as reasons for this. The ten case study schools selected for this research were all using Your Call, although the extent of use varied from minimal to regular. The resource was used exclusively in Personal and Social Education (PSE) and was predominantly used with S1 and S2 pupils, although there were examples of the resource being used with S3 and S4 pupils.
The DVDs produced to accompany the Your Call material were the most commonly used part of the resource. Pupils and teachers agreed that the messages in Your Call 'reinforced' messages that pupils had heard before. However, despite this, younger pupils agreed that it had influenced them to change their attitude and behaviour while out on the roads. Some pupils commented that the style of the toolkit made learning more interesting. The key recommendations arising from this review are: consider developing a complementary online resource; produce an updated DVD; and consider a national re-launch. The report can be accessed here: Review of Your Call.
Country Roads
The new 2013 Country Roads campaign fronted by David Coulthard was launched in March and re-ran in September, supported by many other media platforms and, in the second phase, by Scottish Sport. The results from the first airing were among the best recorded across the Scottish Government, with 87% of the target audience motivated to change their behaviour as a result of the campaign. The campaign also boasted a return of £15 for every £1 invested and received a prestigious Prince Michael of Kent International Road Safety Award.
Drink Driving
The "Cut-up" campaign was used again to support the ACPOS 2012-13 Festive Campaign, but the main thrust of drink-drive work last year focussed on developing two new pieces of creative work. A new social marketing campaign was produced in November to support Police Scotland's Festive Campaign. Kenny MacAskill (Cabinet Secretary for Justice), Frank Mulholland (Lord Advocate) and Iain Murray (Head of Road Policing in Scotland) launched the campaign at Fettes Police Station on 6 December 2013. A second creative work for a public information campaign is currently in development and will be taken to a shelf-ready stage for when the limit is lowered later this year or early 2015.
Motorcycling
RSS once again funded the stand at the Scottish Motorcycle Show and supplied promotional resources to support various motorcycle events during 2013.
Young Drivers
RSS was the main sponsor of the Scottish Car Show in the SECC in July 2013. A partnership of the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, Police Scotland, North and East Ayrshire Councils and the Strathclyde Safety Camera Partnership made sure that road safety issues relevant to a younger/family audience were covered on the day.
Useful Links:
Reported Road Casualties Scotland
Royal Highland Show
RSS funded the Road Safety Village at the show in July. A partnership including: Police Scotland, the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, the City of Edinburgh Council, Scottish Borders Council, RoSPA, the Child Brain Injury Trust, the AA Driving School, International Rescue, Transport Scotland, Bear Scotland, and the Lothian and Borders Safety Camera Partnership ensured that all road safety enquires could be dealt with. Approximately 15,000 people visited the Road Safety Village during the event.
Good Egg Campaign
In 2013, RSS worked with Dynamic Initiatives and Arnold Clark to promote in-car child safety. The campaign launched at Ikea in Edinburgh in June, and over 50 clinics were held across Scotland, checking over 800 seats. RSS also commissioned, in eight languages, a seatbelt poster targeting parents of older children who still need to be appropriately restrained. These were made available as downloadable pdfs on the RSS website.
Get in Lane
The Get in Lane website, which gives information and advice for those at the beginning of their driving career, was also completely redesigned during 2013.
Local Road Safety Promotion and Education in Scotland
RSS works closely with road safety officers (RSOs) around the country to help support its education resources and publicise and promote road safety locally. Following the creation of Police Scotland on 1 April 2013, Road Safety Officers (RSOs) who formerly worked for the legacy forces have, during the past few months, either left or been reassigned to other duties. RSOs remain in those parts of the country where they were employed by the local authority.
Transport Scotland Strategic Road Safety Team
In line with its Route Accident Reduction Plan, Transport Scotland continues to work with operating companies to introduce new signs and barriers where these are appropriate as part of its accident reduction programmes. In addition Transport Scotland has installed a number of motorcycle friendly barriers during the last year. We are promoting variable message signs for motorcycles and installing additional protection for motorcyclists on barriers where there are benefits from doing so.
Also, an additional Trunk Road Incident Support Service (TRISS) vehicle has been provided by Transport Scotland, through Tranche 2 of the 4G Operating Company contracts. This allows extended coverage to the north of the Forth, taking the number of vehicles operating to seven.
Police Scotland
Police reform has now delivered a revised road policing structure for Scotland under a national 'Head of Road Policing'. This has streamlined the former Association of Police Officers in Scotland (ACPOS) structure and improved access to specialist road policing resources across the country.
There are now 14 Divisional Road Policing Units (DRPU), each under the command of a dedicated Road Policing Inspector, that exist to address local issues and concerns and to assist local Police Commanders in their efforts to reduce casualties. DRPU Inspectors also now play an active role in local Road Safety Partnerships ensuring that appropriate support is provided to new and ongoing initiatives.
A national 'Trunk Roads Patrol Group' (TRPG) has also been established to provide an enhanced level of service on the main routes across the country, to positively influence road user behaviour, keep people safe and keep Scotland moving.
The 'National Campaigns Working Group' (NCWG) has continued its work to highlight specific road safety issues through the national media, while local DRPU Inspectors have taken every opportunity to address local concerns via local press and media outlets.
Themes progressed this year have included:
- Speeding and inappropriate driving
- Country Roads
- Motorcycle Safety
- Summer Drink and Drug-driving
- Vulnerable Road Users
- Unlicensed and Uninsured Drivers
- Seatbelts and Mobile Phones
- Distraction - as part of National Road Safety Week
- 'Get Ready for Winter'
- Festive Drink and Drugs Driving
The work of the NCWG will continue in 2014 and the programme is currently being considered to ensure that the maximum safety benefit is realised from each of the issues addressed.
Scottish Safety Camera Programme
The Framework recognises the contribution safety cameras can make in the effort to achieve our ambitious casualty reduction targets and make Scotland's roads safer for everyone. At the time of police reform, the Scottish Government confirmed its commitment to continue support and grant funding for the camera programme. In view of its strong road safety emphasis and focus, responsibility for programme development and delivery was transferred from the Justice Directorate to Transport Scotland in October 2012.
It was widely understood that fixed wet film speed cameras, some installed in the early 1990s, were reaching the end of their serviceable life and a programme to replace them with the latest digital camera technology commenced in 2013. It is expected the rollout of these new cameras will be completed during the summer of 2014.
In order to ensure the most effective and efficient outcomes, a Review of the Programme is being undertaken by Transport Scotland in association with Police Scotland, Local Authorities and other stakeholders. This fulfils a commitment to consider how the programme might best be delivered following the creation of a single police service, and will also look to ensure that best use is made of current resources to help deliver casualty reductions. The opportunity will be taken to explore how changing accident1 patterns, new technologies and increasing demands for camera enforcement to prevent accidents or provide public reassurance can be satisfied. It is expected that the Review process will be complete by the summer of 2014 with any recommendations implemented thereafter.
Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA)
Transport Scotland supports RoSPA Scotland in the delivery of a range of road safety-related work.
During 2013, RoSPA continued to run the Scottish Occupational Road Safety Alliance (ScORSA) to promote the positive benefits of managing driving risks at work, to companies, especially SMEs, across Scotland. Monthly newsletters, the www.scorsa.org.uk website, the ScORSA Driving Risks at Work Toolkit and the annual ScORSA St Andrew's Seminar have all enabled Scottish employers to access free road safety advice and share good practice in their management of occupational road risk.
2 children were reported as killed in 2012
73% below the 2004-08 average
RoSPA has also been running an innovative "Young Drivers at Work (Scotland) Black Box Pilot" project to identify how Scottish companies can best make use of in-vehicle telematics to monitor and improve their staff's driving. Some early conclusions are drawn in RoSPA's Interim Report about the challenges in raising awareness amongst employers, and the research suggests that an extensive communications campaign will be needed to promote the potential road safety and financial benefits this technology offers.
The difficulties faced by employers in securing internal agreement to use this technology also shows the need for a Good Practice Guide to help them anticipate and resolve these difficulties. In the Employer's Workshop, there was a consensus that companies found it time-consuming and difficult to get agreement from their directors
and from their drivers. It would help if there was a framework to guide organisations on the issues to consider, and to provide answers or templates on how to address common problems. This project will publish a Good Practice Guide in March 2014.
Throughout the year, RoSPA has continued to develop the first SQA Qualification for road safety practitioners in Scotland. The SQA units are linked to the commitments within the Road Safety Framework to 2020, and will help to introduce a benchmark for quality assurance for road safety service delivery.
As well as providing free road safety advice to the public and other organisations, RoSPA is producing "Road Safety Guide for Elected Members in Scotland", which will be published in March 2014. The guide will provide local councillors with a good overview of the road safety landscape in Scotland; the importance of road safety to their communities, and to Scotland; the benefits to their communities and Scotland of maintaining an effective road safety service; and help them identify how they can cost-effectively support the Road Safety Framework to 2020 and help to make Scotland's roads safer for everyone.
Cross Party Group on Accident Prevention and Safety Awareness
A Cross Party Group on Accident Prevention and Safety Awareness was established at the Scottish Parliament during 2013, meeting for the first time on 26 June 2013. It is chaired by Clare Adamson MSP, and its remit includes road safety. It continues to meet regularly.
Useful Links: