Cheshire Fire and Rescue Safety

Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service's Road Safety Team is accredited by Road Safety Britain

Three members of the Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service Road Safety Team have recently been accredited by Road Safety Britain after undertaking The Road Safety Practitioner's Foundation Course.

Road Safety Officer Frances Egerton, Warrington's Lead Advocate for Prevention Lorna Lucas and Lead Advocate for Halton, Suzanne West, completed two assignments and an evaluation of the effectiveness of the Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service's current road safety events as part of the course.

Suzanne West said: "The course was delivered on site by road safety practitioners. It was particularly interesting as it focused on examining behaviour, offering a new lens with which to examine the effectiveness of content delivered by the service.
"The experience I've gained has been useful for both road safety and conducting fire setter interventions, which is when the Service talks to young people who have set deliberate fires. The course has also helped when setting up training sessions as it focuses on setting clear aims and objectives and evaluation."

The course exists as part of Road Safety Great Britain's mission to raise awareness of road safety practices and safer road user behaviour. It focuses on engaging with vulnerable road users and evaluating their organisation's current safety and engagement exercises to discover potential areas for further improvement, whilst also giving participants the opportunity to share best practice. Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service is the first to host the qualification on site.

The Service will also be the first Fire and Rescue Service to host Road Safety Great Britain's Behavioural Change course which will see 21 officials from Road Safety GB and Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service study a one day course focused on changing behaviour, as an extension of the Road Safety Practitioner's course.

Lorna Lucas said: "The importance of evaluating the work we do in road safety cannot be underestimated; as a Service we need to demonstrate that we are targeting the right demographic and that our engagement makes a difference.
"The 'light bulb moment' for me was looking at different behaviours. For example, why do people speed or use mobile phones whilst driving? Getting into the psychology of behaviour was really fascinating."

Frances Egerton added: "'It's an excellent course that makes you look at things differently."

Lorna Lucas is now looking at enhancing the current content of Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service's school safety visits as a result of the foundation course, and Suzanne West is working on areas of how road safety is taught at key stage 4. Frances Egerton has evaluated the service's Biker Down Course and is growing the delivery of the Service's key motorcycle safety course.

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