Home Safety

What is Home Safety?

Home safety refers to the awareness and education of risks and potential dangers in and around a home which may cause bodily harm, injury, or even death to those residing in and around the physical structure of a home. It includes mitigating or preventing unwanted dangers through testing, research, and accepted standards of applications and practices.

Some of the hazards to be prepared for:

• Falls: mitigation check for trip hazards, install handrails and make sure easy access to light sources.
• Fires: mitigation control of naked flames in safe ways, don’t cook when under the influence of substances, don’t overload plug sockets and install smoke alarms on all levels of the home.
• Carbon monoxide: mitigation have carbon monoxide monitors on each floor that hosts a gas boiler or fire.
• Choking: mitigation keep small items away from young children, slowly eat food ensuring chewing and first aid response.
• Cuts: mitigation keep knives safe and out of the way, look for other items that can cause cuts such as paper, cans, glass and cardboard, learn how to look after a cut. If it is bad go to the nearest accident and emergency or seek other medical advice.
• Poisoning: mitigation know what items in the house or garden are poisonous, keep away from children and adults at risk. Store medications correctly, keep paint out of the reach, secure all chemicals and put away personal hygiene products and lock away detergent and bleach products.
• Strangling: mitigation put away, trim or remove, or wrap up cords on window dressings such as blinds and curtains that may provide a strangling hazard to small children.
• Drowning: mitigation put away buckets, if there is a pond or swimming pool don’t allow young children to play out unsupervised. Attend to young children in the bathtub.
• Burns: mitigation latch dishwashers, use back burners on hobs, add stove knob covers, use safety guards around fires, make sure the kettle is out of reach and be careful where hot pots and trays out of the oven are placed. Never leave children and adults at risk with naked flames.
• Suffocation: mitigation keep plastic bags out of reach of children and adults of risk who may potentially put them over their head causing suffocation.

“More than 14,000 people accidents across the UK each year with thousands more suffering injuries, many of which are life-changing are killed in.” RoSPA

Home injuries are defined as unintentional injuries that occur in and around the home. If they are deliberate injuries then they are either domestic abuse, child abuse or adult abuse.

In addition, there is home security which is about keeping the home and its occupants safe. The main methods for this is through locks for windows and doors, target hardening where there is a risk of domestic abuse, and other personal safety measures.

House building regulations also fall under the requirements of home safety.  

In the Summer of 2021 Welsh Government announced Phase 1 of the Welsh Building Safety Fund. This provides grant funding for fire safety surveys. The fire safety surveys will identify what measures and actions are required to make a multi-residential building as safe as it can be and protect lives and property in the event of a fire. The findings from a fire safety survey will inform the creation of a “Fire Safety – Building Passport”. Whilst the initial priority will be high rise residential buildings, this grant funding will also be available for medium rise multi-occupied buildings (11m+). The scheme will be open for expressions of interest from responsible persons/ building owners/ management companies from Autumn 2021.