Injury Minimization Programme for Schools (IMPS)

Accidents are the commonest cause of death in young people. In 1997 approximately 459 children died as a result of an accident and 2,400,000 children attended their local A&E Departments with injuries. Many of these accidents and injuries were preventable. In response to these statistics and Government initiatives, a multi-professional team from health and education in Oxfordshire developed the Injury Minimization Programme for Schools. The aims of I.M.P.S. is to reduce death and disability as a result of accidents; it targets children between the ages of 10 and 11 who statistically are at greater risk.

I.M.P.S. is taught within both the school and hospital environments. The key aspect of the programme uses an experiential learning approach which links accident prevention to the school curriculum. The programme can be divided into two components:

1. School environment learning

The I.M.P.S. education resource pack is provided to schools enrolled on the programme on a FREE long term loan. The resource pack includes accident prevention lessons linked to the national curriculum Key Stage2 targets and guidelines. The Lessons are prepared directly for use by the children and include teacher's information.

Examples of pages from the Resource pack can be downloaded from the IMPS website (external link).

2. The hospital visit

Each class of children visit the local accident and emergency hospital accompanied by their teacher and three other adult helpers. The children and staff visit three areas:

  • A guided tour of the Accident and Emergency department, which allows children to experience many of the concepts learnt in the classroom applied to the real world.
  • A session using an interactive video where children are taught the principles of first aid and injury minimisation.
  • A session in which children are taught the principles of emergency life support using individual ACTAR911 manikins.

Schools