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Welcome to Driven By Excellence, your trusted place for all things logistics and road safety from PDT Fleet Training. Each month, join host Hattie Hlad as she interviews experts on a wide range of topics within the logistics field.
[00:00:00] Hattie Hlad: Driven By Excellence, your trusted place for all things logistics and road safety. As parents or carers, the priority is to keep your children safe. We think about the dangers that our children may face at different ages, finding ways to minimise risk of harm throughout their lifetime. Today, we are joined by experts Julie and Claire from Child Seat Safety UK, who've dedicated their careers to supporting parents and carers to understand the rules and make the right choices for their children in regards to car safety.
Thank you both for joining us in this podcast. Firstly, prior to your visit to the studio, we ran a question poll for our listeners to ask them what they would like us to ask you both, so we'll try and feature as many as we can in our sit down today.
Let's start by asking each of you how you became involved in this specific area of risk. Why child seats? Did you feel there was a gap of knowledge? Can I start with you, Claire?
[00:00:58] Claire Waterhouse: My background is actually food, which is very bizarre, but it was around sort of, quite a lot of publicity and promotion and that sort of thing. So I started my second career within local government, within road safety team, in the Northwest and within that team, we got involved in education, training, publicity of all aspects of saving lives on the road, really and I met Jules when we started our degree qualification in Accident Safety Management, which we did obviously through work at the time and we kind of had different authorities, we moved through progression of local government, et cetera, running our own teams. But Jules had, I won't take her line...
[00:01:45] Julie Dagnall: Feel free!
[00:01:46] Claire Waterhouse: But she ran an in car safety centre within the North West and I kind of went more into the side of accident investigation, traffic engineering, that side of things and sort of like we got to the point where we'd moved away really from that day to day, being out there, you know, talking to people, giving those messages to managing and running teams and over normally again, wine...
[00:02:15] Julie Dagnall: A glass of wine.
[00:02:17] Claire Waterhouse: ...at one of Jules's daughter's birthday parties, we were like, we really need a change. We really need a change and Jules said, well, what about doing something around child car seats? Because there was no proper training. There was lots of ad hoc things going on and I think certainly in the North West, we were very fortunate. Obviously we had Jules who did a lot of work with child car seats anyway, so did training for us, but the rest of the country, there was not an awful lot really going and also there was no standard of knowledge for people and we felt that was it was important. So it kind of went from there.
[00:02:57] Julie Dagnall: So, from my point of view, I'd, like Claire said, done the local authority side of things and was really doing the road safety stuff and just had a bit of a, one of those moments, just something that I really enjoyed doing was talking about child seats, so it kind of moved from there and then I got involved with running the team with the in car safety centre that we had and we were doing about 3,000 checks, voluntary checks for people, working with the health teams across the children's hospitals, that type of thing. Great. Really enjoyable. Got asked to go and speak at a conference for Rosper, which Consumer Magazine were there and, I think I just had a bit of a light bulb moment and said, why is there no qualification? Why can you be doing something completely different? You could have been a hairdresser yesterday and call yourself a car seat expert today. You can't go and fit a gas fire in somebody's house without being registered. So why can you do it with the car seats and children? This is people's lives we're talking about and nobody had an answer and I said, is there a qualification? No, there isn't. Anyway, the meeting finished, conference finished and then it was the guy from Which who came, the editor there and said, you write it and I went, Oh no, it's not me, it's not, I'm not the person to be doing that. Kind of left it for a few years, carried on with what I was doing and then, as Claire said, I just, it was one of them where, well, if we're going to do it, Which had said they would endorse it, so we were like, let's go back, see if they'll still offer it and that's where we set Child Seat Safety up 12, nearly 13 years ago.
[00:04:27] Hattie Hlad: Wow, that's amazing. Can you share with us the work Child Seat Safety undertakes to get their safety messages out? And what in your opinion, has been the most effective route you've taken to share knowledge?
[00:04:39] Claire Waterhouse: I think for us it's the training course. So we have several training courses now. When we originally started, as Jules said, the idea was we had a training course that we could deliver so everybody had that standard of knowledge. So anybody giving advice or help to parent, carer, somebody who's, you know, it was part of their job, could have that knowledge and therefore be able to transport their children safely.
So I think our training course, so the IOSH One, which was the main one, is really important and that certainly I think has made a massive difference. We've got other training courses, more bespoke ones, that are aimed at specific areas. So for example, special needs transport. So lots of local authorities transport children with additional needs, et cetera, to and from school and there's, you know, things that obviously they need to be aware of and help they've needed with that. So we've got those types of courses as well. So I think the training really has been, one of our main ones.
The other thing that we do, which is another sort of like mainstay of our business, are check events. So we've got obviously the two types of check events. Police enforcement ones are where obviously the police are there and they're stopping people out on the road and bringing them into a safe environment where we can check the seats. We normally use things like fire stations or ambulance stations, places like that. We're checking the seats, making sure that, you know, everything's okay, altering seats and advising parents on the safe transportation.
If there's an issue and we will often get these bonds, we've got a child sat on a parent's knee, so they've got no seat at all. So the idea is we don't want to fine them because we'd rather they spent the money on buying a car seat that was appropriate than giving them a fine. So we obviously, there's places round about that they can go and get a seat, so we're advising them on what to go and get. They go and get that seat, bring it back, we fit it and then they're allowed to leave. That's the police enforcement one. A community one is we would perhaps be in a supermarket car park or a leisure centre and we're just asking people who are there with children, et cetera, if they'd like their seat checked or if they'd like any advice.
Obviously, they're able to say no if they know if they don't want to, which is why we often, we get obviously that difference between police enforcement ones and the community ones. But they're a really good way of getting to the general public and seeing what's actually going on out there in the real world, how seats are being used and from that, we collect all that data and we have a database and it means that if we've got a specific seat that we're having problems with, we can go back to the manufacturer and say, look, parents are getting this wrong. So is it because of how it's been designed? Is it perhaps the instructions aren't quite explaining it very well? So it kind of gives us that, you know, really good, solid base of knowledge to be able to help manufacturers and also car manufacturers as well. Now, if we've got an issue with a particular car, so we can pick that sort of thing up and feed that back.
[00:08:01] Hattie Hlad: That's amazing, thank you. And what would you say, Julie, in regards to that, what's been the most effective route you've taken to share knowledge?
[00:08:09] Julie Dagnall: I think the check events, being able to get to so many people and it's quite funny really, you get some parents who'll turn up and they'll say, you know, I've only got five minutes and they're really quite abrupt with you and then half an hour later, they're still there, they're still asking you loads of questions, they suddenly realised, hang on a minute, this person's actually wanting to help me and it's really lovely when the police officer will say to them, has that been useful? You know, and they'll, you know, they're like, yeah, actually that's really good. We even had one lady who drove past four times and said, are you going to pull me in? Cause I want my seat check. And we just said, just drive in, you can do it, you know, you don't have to be wait to be stopped to be asked and I think that's been really good, that's one of the things that we see a lot on our social is, when are you coming to our areas, is there any of those events going on? Because people are missing out on the opportunity to have an actual physical check of their seat and that's what they want to know. I think they get them checked and fitted when they purchase them. What they don't get is that continued, they don't go back and get their seats checked and if one thing we always say to parents, you know, you'll go back if you've got a squeaky wheel on your pram to your retailer, go back to the retailer if you want advice on how to move it to the next stage and retailers are really more than happy to check and obviously if you're pregnant and you've not had your baby yet, they love seeing new babies. So they're more than happy to help with that respect, but we've got a really good network of people across the whole of the UK, people who are, well, all over the world now, haven't we? Who are trained on their IOSH qualification and are more than happy to give advice. So there's lots of people, you know, if you're traveling abroad and stuff like that, it's been really useful.
[00:09:46] Hattie Hlad: That sounds amazing. So in all the people that you've met, and let's say educated, what would you say has been the most common misconception?
[00:09:55] Julie Dagnall: I think, it's that all car seats fit all cars. I really do. I think they just think they can just buy one car seat and it'll automatically fit and they just go, you know, it's got ISOFIX points. It's not as simple as that. There's a lot of things that could stop your seat from fitting your car and quite often as again, parents will say, Oh, well, you know, I've got ISOFIX, it's not a problem, but actually it's not the seat that's the problem, quite often it's the car that's the problem. So, you know, you can say that the slope of your vehicle seat is really poor for this child seat, and there's nothing you can do about that, the slope of your vehicle seat. So you have to then adapt the child seat. So one of the great things with the new standard is that we are now seeing the car seat manufacturers and the car manufacturers working together. So it seems ridiculous, but we're just getting to that point where they are being involved in the design of it. So new technologies and stuff like that, we'll see lots of that coming forward.
[00:10:55] Hattie Hlad: Yeah, great and what would you say is the most common misconception or would you agree?
[00:11:00] Claire Waterhouse: I would agree, yeah, would agree. I think a lot of that comes from people who buy online. So they kind of just assume any car seat will fit their car and don't think about that. So we'll just go and order online. So rather than go to a retailer and get that help and advice. So that's, I suppose, one of the things we try and push when we're doing our check events, when we're talking to parents is always go to a retailer who can check your vehicle, they can try the seats in the vehicle and make sure they're suitable because as we say, not all car seats fit all vehicles, so it's important they do that.
[00:11:37] Hattie Hlad: When we think about how important this information is for parents and carers, and quite clearly you are both very passionate about this, but who else is responsible for sharing what legislation sits behind child seat safety? And if there are government entities responsible for this, why do you think there's still a gap of understanding?
[00:11:57] Claire Waterhouse: I think, so, yes there are other authorities that are responsible, so obviously the police, to uphold the road traffic law, and the things that are contained in that. I think it's about having the understanding and the knowledge around what that part of the road traffic law actually means and when you transpose it into the child car seats and who should be using what etc. It's, you know, the police having that knowledge and knowing that and then obviously we've got health visitors, midwives who have access to parents who are giving them information obviously about their newborn and things like that but parents aren't getting knowledge about car seats and transporting their children safely right from the very beginning and a lot of that is around that the, you know, the midwives and health visitors aren't trained on that, so they don't have that knowledge themselves, only perhaps their, you know, anecdotal knowledge from their own children and the misconception that obviously you have to have a child car seat to take your child home from hospital, well, that's more about the safety of getting the child from the ward to the car park rather than them understanding that it's about the safety of transporting the child in the car. Now, at the end of the day, it's the only legal thing you need to have if you're going to transport a child. You have to have a car seat. So, it kind of falls off the radar a little bit, and that people lump it in with nursery product. Whereas, actually, it's a safety product, and kind of, we want to try and give it that sort of priority as a safety product and sort of, like, people understand that.
[00:13:38] Hattie Hlad: Absolutely, and what do you think Julie, in regards to sharing that knowledge and who's responsible for it?
[00:13:44] Julie Dagnall: I think what Claire said that, you know, there is a big gap there that we really do put a lot of trust in certain people and that, you know, we are pushing towards getting health visitors and midwives trained so they know about car seats. They want to know, they are concerned clearly about that. Retail, going to a recognised retailer, they're very keen on that and one of the things that we've introduced with the retailers is they have check forms that they will go through with you and it's not just a five minute purchase. It is a bigger thing than that and that you should give it the time that it deserves. There's a lot of things that they'll go through with you and ask you about. You might feel like you're being interrogated a bit, but that's just so that they can make sure they're getting it absolutely right for you and getting the right seat that you need, because what you need might be completely different to another family, even though your children are the same age, you know, the same size, but it could be the fact that, you know, your lifestyle is different to theirs. You've got more passengers, that type of thing. So working with them has been really important.
[00:14:44] Claire Waterhouse: There's also, obviously, the standards for car seats and it's about people being aware of the new standards and legislation, isn't it?
[00:14:54] Julie Dagnall: Yeah.
[00:14:55] Claire Waterhouse: And, you know, we still have, within the road traffic law, that they can use an R4403 seat, which have been around since before 2006. Yeah.
[00:15:08] Hattie Hlad: Oh wow.
[00:15:09] Julie Dagnall: 1995 they were introduced.
[00:15:11] Hattie Hlad: Wow.
[00:15:12] Claire Waterhouse: And they stopped production of them in...
[00:15:13] Julie Dagnall: 2006.
[00:15:16] Claire Waterhouse: Didn't they?
[00:15:16] Julie Dagnall: Yeah.
[00:15:17] Claire Waterhouse: And so there's still those seats out there. Oh, that's a long time ago, you know, what? 17 years? So people are still using those sorts of seats. So it's again, getting them to understand that, you know, we really need those latest standards to be used and enforced really.
[00:15:35] Julie Dagnall: And those seats you'd have got at that time, probably a six year lifespan, average across the industry, because the industry would have been a six year lifespan on it. So really you should have, if you got the last one in 2006, should have stopped using it in 2012. It's going to be quite old now and one of the things we always sort of talk to parents again about is you don't get a new car, you wouldn't have bought a car in 2006 and still be expecting all the parts to be still in working condition. So why are you expecting it of a child seat?
[00:16:04] Hattie Hlad: Absolutely.
[00:16:04] Julie Dagnall: This is the thing that is going to protect your child.
[00:16:07] Hattie Hlad: That was really interesting. One thing we did wonder about, and this follows on from your question quite nicely, is a survey that we read in 2019 where 9 percent of parents adopted for buying a second hand child seat for their child. Does this affect the safety in any way and how can parents safely buy a second hand child seat?
[00:16:28] Julie Dagnall: Yeah, definitely.
[00:16:29] Claire Waterhouse: It's a difficult one and obviously, you know, we're aware about, you know, the economic situation and the cost of seats and with the new standard again, you know, seats are more expensive than, they were. But like Jules said, you wouldn't buy a car and expect all the parts in it, you know, your tyres, you change your tyres, don't you? They perhaps last you a couple of years and then the tread goes and you replace them. So the same thing with items on a seat, the buckle for example. It's tested 5,000 times when it's obviously being produced and 5, 000 times of use is equivalent, if you think about just taking your child perhaps to nursery every day, so dropping them, putting them in the seat, taking them, dropping them off, then picking them up later on in the day. That 5, 000 times is used in three years and four months?
[00:17:23] Julie Dagnall: That's right.
[00:17:25] Claire Waterhouse: If you think then about the seats we've just talked about, the fact you can still legally use an R4403 seat that stopped being produced in 2006, that 5, 000 times has probably been used up many, times over.
[00:17:39] Julie Dagnall: Can we guarantee that buckle's going to work and hold the child in an impact? We don't know.
[00:17:44] Claire Waterhouse: It's things like that, so it's not necessarily the seat itself, it's those moving parts within the seat, because we do have seats that go from birth to 12 years, and people say, well, in that case, how can that happen, but you're not using the buckle for all that amount of time.
So, it's parents understanding that, the fact that, how it's been stored as well, so has it been put in the shed or in the attic or, you know, the plastics will have contracted and all that sort of thing, and the cold and then the heat and obviously, the advancement in technology means seats now, modern seats are better than the older seats. So it's having that understanding of those sorts of things, how old it actually is, how much it's been used, has it been in a crash? Because there might not be any physical damage to the seat, but it could have been involved in a crash that they've not told you about and it's done its job once, is it actually going to do it again?
So now if you have a crash, now your seatbelt holds you in place and we always say you should have your seatbelts replaced if you've been involved in a collision, because they're going to have stretched. Same thing for, think about the harness within the seat. That's going to stretch and, you know, to hold the child. It's important that people understand that. So, you can't know what's, especially if you're buying off, you know, one of the selling sites that are available. You don't really know, but somebody's not going to tell you, oh, well this seat's absolutely perfect. It's been in a couple of collisions, but no, it's actually not.
So, you don't know. So we would always push people not to use secondhand seats. Obviously, there are times when, you know, perhaps if it's a family member, they've perhaps passed that seat on, but then you're going to know how old that seat, how long it's been and those sorts of things. But we would err on the side of caution and advise not to use secondhand seats wherever possible.
[00:19:38] Julie Dagnall: I think we're a really good nation at protecting ourselves when we come to travelling around because if you think about how many journeys are made every single day and how many collisions actually occur, we're actually pretty good at driving safely and keeping children in cars safely. So I think that puts us in a bit of a cosy world and it's not going to happen to me. They can't contemplate that. Well, I'm a good driver. You know, they don't think about other people hitting them, but nobody knows when, you know, a collision could occur to them. People, check events, they'll come and they'll say, oh well, we only have the grandchildren on a Wednesday. Well, that's all right cause crashes don't happen on Wednesdays, do they? So you don't need a car seat and you're like, that's ridiculous, that's not the attitude to have and that's part of our education thing is that you don't know when you are going to need this product, and this product literally is going to save your child's life. That's how vitally important it is, and like Claire said, it is definitely a legal requirement, it's the only thing, everything else, your pram, your cot, your high chair, is all an accessory. This is a life changing bit of kit, so that's how important it should be.
[00:20:48] Hattie Hlad: Thank you for that. Whilst we were doing our research for this episode, we found what we would say is a strange exemption to the law, and that quite frankly shocked us and this is in relation to traveling taxis. If a taxi does not have a child car seat, children under three can travel without a seatbelt on the backseat. Is this true?
[00:21:08] Julie Dagnall: Sadly, yeah. Yeah, the one place you would want your child restrained would be in a, with some taxi drivers and around where I live, yeah, definitely. but yeah, it is! We always say the exemptions exist doesn't mean your child is exempt from being injured. They are going to be injured, even if it's just, you know, a very low speed in the car park. They are going to get some sort of bruising, you know, some strain to the muscle, neck, whatever, to the completely the other end, life changing, life ending and clearly we don't want that happening. So yeah, unfortunately it's there, but that doesn't mean to say you can't take your own car seat with you and a lot of people who may be in a position where maybe live in big cities and they don't have a car, they'd still have car seats, and they're looking for a car seat that's quite generic, that'll fit in most sort of Ubers and taxis, that type of thing, and they will transport them that way, yeah. So, unfortunately, yeah, it's one of those things that's in there.
There is another rule that is very bizarre that's in there with the exemptions, and it's if you can't get three seats across the back. So you can't fit three seats across the back, you can just put two of the children in child seats.
[00:22:14] Hattie Hlad: Oh, wow.
[00:22:15] Julie Dagnall: How ridiculous is that? And I always joke...
[00:22:17] Claire Waterhouse: Your phrase.
[00:22:19] Julie Dagnall: Choose which child you least like!
[00:22:20] Claire Waterhouse: Yeah!
[00:22:20] Julie Dagnall: And don't give them a car seat. That's just ridiculous, isn't it? And that's why legally you can put a child in the front seat of the vehicle. Obviously there's an airbag that needs switching off if they, especially if they're rear facing. Always check the vehicle manual for the advice on that. But that's why we allow it in this country to allow for that particular position. So you can still transport three safely with seats. Yeah.
[00:22:42] Hattie Hlad: So one common question we had from our listeners was the confusion between height based seats and weight based seats. Please can you explain around this?
[00:22:50] Claire Waterhouse: Okay.
[00:22:50] Julie Dagnall: It's very confusing.
[00:22:52] Claire Waterhouse: So it's around the standards. So the older standard, which was R4404 was based on weight. Whereas the new standard, which is Regulation 129, is based on height. So to try and move more towards, so in Europe, when you buy clothes for a child, you buy them height based, not like we do in the uk, where we buy them age based. So it's kind of in connection with that, but also around the seat being able to accommodate children of different stature. So, you know, we all know that, you know, some people have long legs and short bodies, some people have short bodies and long legs, et cetera, both and it's been done with a range of measurements. So it's not literally just standing height, they looked at all sorts of different heights, they looked at sitting height, hip breadth, shoulder breadth, all those sorts of things, and came up with these height based measurements for seats to try and make the seat more adaptable so that it becomes more like your motorcycle helmet that you can adjust for that particular child. So they went to a height based measurement rather than a weight based measurement.
However, you will still always find a maximum weight on the seat as well as the height. So with the new Regulation 129, there will still be a weight limit of the child on the seat. So That is to do with the harness and how much weight the harness can take, but also about the ISOFIX points in the vehicle. So the ISOFIX points in the vehicle can only hold 33 kilograms of weight. So that's the seat and the child. So the car seat manufacturer knows how much the seat weighs, so therefore put a maximum amount of weight for the child on the seat too, so you don't go over that thirty three kilograms.
[00:24:47] Hattie Hlad: Amazing.
[00:24:47] Claire Waterhouse: So it is a bit sort of, no, it is a bit confusing and with the weights, they were broken into groups and those weights were fixed within that group. Whereas with height, there's none of that. They can, the car seat manufacturer can, you know, basically do whatever height they want within that seat. There's no restriction, which is, that's fine, but it can be a little bit confusing for, for the general public, but that's why they did it.
[00:25:13] Julie Dagnall: I think one of the nice things about it is, going to this height measurement as we call it, is that we can now tailor seats better. So manufacturers can design seats so they fit children much better. Snug is good in a car seat, seat you know, you want the child to have that protection. You don't want them rattling around inside the seat. So like Claire said, you can alter it and make it fit, but we're getting them more tailored. To be able to almost, you know, bespokely fit them for each child depending on them, their body length, you know, their leg length, we can make it fit better, so it is a positive. We're just struggling a bit here in the UK with it, that's not how, what we're used to, that's not how we buy children's clothing, but they've gone along that because across the rest of Europe, most people are used to that and they're familiar with that way of measuring and across Europe, they're all like, yeah, it's fine. Yeah, this it's just, we're struggling a bit with it.
[00:26:05] Hattie Hlad: Well thank you for the clarity on that one. Let's for a moment just take a look forward to future possible innovations. We've read an article or two that explain that within a few years, sensors will be factory fitted into vehicle seats that will be able to measure a person's height and weight and then automatically reconfigure the seat belt to the safest position. How will this change the way we think about child safety?
[00:26:30] Claire Waterhouse: So we're looking there at older children, obviously. Now we recently went to a conference in Munich, which is called Safe Transportation of Children. So it's an annual conference and it's quite technical with, advancements in crash test dummies they use and obviously vehicles as well and one of the things that came out of that was this integration of a restraint within the vehicle. It has been done to a certain degree already where in some vehicles they've had kind of like a booster cushion integrated into the seat. So you basically lift the seat up and it kind of provides a little bit of a higher cushion for the child to sit on and you can get a separate head restraint that kind of is lower and therefore the seat belt fits the child better. But again, it is for the older child. Think about an infant, a newborn, we were still going to have to use an infant carrier to be able to transport them. But yeah, no, for an older child, great where we've got that innovation within the seat because it moves away again from a parent incorrectly fitting a seat. So if it's within the vehicle, then it hopefully will be safer because it will be used correctly and not misused. But as with everything else, all these things take a long time.
Now we've got airbags in seatbelts, which a lot of people aren't even aware of, and they have been around probably eight plus years and we've seen probably about three or four a year when we're doing check events. So they're in Fords and Mercedes, tend to be optional extras, so you're paying to have those sorts of things, but it just doesn't seem to have taken off. There doesn't seem to have been very much publicity around it. We're seeing airbags in the rear of vehicles. So coming out of the back of the driver's seat and the front passenger seat, again, in Mercedes, the big high end chauffeur driven, the ones they use for chauffeuring services, because obviously their backseat passengers are their clients so they want to try and protect them as much as possible. So these innovations. do tend to take a while to come through, it's taken us 10 years to get Regulation 129.
[00:28:51] Julie Dagnall: Yeah, 2013.
[00:28:52] Claire Waterhouse: Yeah, it was 2013 it first brought out Regulation 129 and we're now, well we're now 2024 aren't we? And we've only just getting to the end of the phases and there's still different bits and pieces, you know, going on with that. So it does take a long time, unfortunately, for these things to come through. But yes, it is there, it's in the pipeline, certainly Munich, the vehicle manufacturers that were there were talking about those sorts of things. So yeah, I imagine it will eventually come about.
[00:29:24] Julie Dagnall: It's really exciting that things that you see in a car that we expect every day, like airbags and, you know, those types of things. If you think about it, we introduced seatbelts into cars and then we went, Oh, do you know what? It might be a good idea to have one for a child and we created car seats. So we see the technology that's being used in cars, transferring into that smaller car seat for the child to protect the child. So it's really exciting to see that there's an opportunity there that we can do the reverse where they can see what technology is going into car seats and the car manufacturers are going to start going, okay, well, we could integrate this into our car.
They played a clever game with. Euro NCAP star ratings. so when they introduced the new safety standard, Euro NCAP said, if you don't have the capacity to hold one of these new standard seats in your vehicle, you can't get your five star rating. So, suddenly the car manufacturers were like, Oh, right, what do we need to do? Cause we want this five star for safety, we want this five star. So if you can't provide room to fit a regulation 129, seat in your car, you're not going to get a five star rating. So obviously they all came on board and wanted to play, but I think for car seats, we're going to see things like... we're already seeing in this talk of apps which you'll use, which tell you, you know, it doesn't so much happen here in the UK, but you've left your child in the car and they're overheating, those types of things, so it recognises those things. We're going to see more, you know, press the app and it'll tighten the harness for you automatically to the right tension for that child in that car. Those are the things that are quite exciting that could be happening in the future.
[00:31:04] Hattie Hlad: That's amazing. This has been really informative. But before we can let you finish, can you share with us what's coming up for Child Seat Safety UK? And also very importantly, where can our listeners access your education?
[00:31:17] Claire Waterhouse: Okay, so I think probably the most important one for us is, our new parents course that we're looking to launch, to develop and to launch, simply because parents are not getting this information and again, as the conference we went to in November, it was a parent that knows lots of information going on, lots of, you know, car seat manufacturers talking to each other, lots of other professionals talking to each other. But the main thing seemed to be that the parents still don't know this information and still don't understand and appreciate how important it is to have the right child seat, to fit it correctly and to fit the child into it correctly.
So therefore we've said we really need to go back to the basics and start to talk and educate parents and the only way we can see of doing that is for us to have a course that enables them to do it. So a bit like attending like an NCT course, they can attend a parent's course around child car seats and get, you know, advice and help and information around what they need, what they need to think about and you know, hopefully the best type of seat for them and their needs. So that's probably our main thing for 2024.
[00:32:35] Julie Dagnall: Yeah, I think parents really, that's something they've been asking for. They've been saying, where can I do a course? They don't want to do their full qualification, I appreciate that. But they just need some help, and where can I do? And I'm really, when you're a new parent, you're really keen to learn as much as you possibly can, and it's really something that they asked us about, you know, I'd love to buy this as a gift for my, a birthing gift for my friend, I think she'd really love it. Okay, so if we were to write a course that you could attend, you know, you and your birthing partner, would you think that was a good idea? And the feedback was, yeah, absolutely, I'd really like that. So just being able to give them, not put the fear of God into them by any means, but just things to be aware of, top tips, top fitting advice, where to get help if you need it, you know, if you're traveling abroad, what is the advice there? What do I do? Hiring vehicles, all that, and we'll cover all that on the course, we've run a pilot, which is really well received. So yeah, 2024 is the year for the parenting course.
[00:33:36] Hattie Hlad: As it should be.
[00:33:36] Julie Dagnall: Yeah.
[00:33:38] Claire Waterhouse: So that's, yeah, that's our main, that's exciting, that's our main thing and obviously we've got all the other things that we do. So we've got check events, so tend not to happen over the winter too much 'cause it's you know weather, little bit weather dependent.
[00:33:49] Julie Dagnall: Gets dark very quickly, can't see what you're doing.
[00:33:52] Claire Waterhouse: Not that I'm saying that in the summer that it's beautiful. But, so they'll start obviously again in the spring. So we're all over the country doing those and then obviously our training courses are out there. So we do obviously face to face training, but we also do online training as well because that we started that, after COVID and things when people couldn't travel, but still needed that training. So we've got obviously all that programmed in for 2024 as well and obviously all the information about all those sorts of things that are on our website, so people can have a look there and obviously we've got Facebook and all those sorts of things where we put lots of things we're up to and doing, et cetera, so people can contact us like that.
[00:34:35] Hattie Hlad: Perfect. Well, thank you so much for joining us.
[00:34:37] Julie Dagnall: You're very welcome. Thanks for having us.
[00:34:39] Hattie Hlad: Claire and Julie, thank you so much, that was really beneficial. Wow, what an episode. Far too many takeaways to touch base on them all, so I hope you're all taking notes. If not, please check out their website at www.childseatsafety.co.uk
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