SafeTea

The SafeTea Campaign aimed to prevent one of the most common injuries to young children, scalds from hot drinks, which can result in long-term scarring and visible difference.

SafeTea started life as part of the 'Prevention' theme at The Scar Free Foundation Centre for Children's Burns Research.

The team created and ran multimedia burns prevention and first aid campaign which ran from Octover 2019 to January 2020.

Supporting Safe Tea Banner

Background

Burns are a potential hazard in every home, with the majority of child burn injuries being to children under the age of three. Approximately four million people in the Western world are subject to post-burn scarring each year. 70% of these are children.

Scalds from hot drinks are one of the most common causes of burn injury to children under 5 in the UK. SafeTea was a national campaign that aimed to reduce hot drink scalds to young children, and to improve first aid given to children with burns. The campaign was run on social media and included Facebook and Twitter supported by a dedicated website, and reinforced by burn prevention interventions from health professionals working with the families of young children.

The campaign included video clips, posters, leaflets and charts which were distributed to schools, nurseries and parent groups, in order to educate parents with young children on the importance of keeping hot drinks out of reach.

The SafeTea project was carried out by:

Professor Alison Kemp, Professor Alan Emond and Dr Laura Cowley and was a collaboration between The University of Bristol and Cardiff University.

Safe Tea Resources

A lot of great resources were produced as part of the project including films and the SafeTea website which can be accessed below.

The site contains a wealth of burns prevention and first aid information and resources including films and downloadable posters, flyers, and social media content which are available to all.

SafeTea Evaluation

Following the campaign, the research undertook an evaluation of SafeTea with the aim of assessing the reach, engagement, and effectiveness of SafeTea using a mixed methods approach.

This involved monitoring the use of the website and social media, undertaking parent and professional surveys and collecting information from emergency departments and burns units before and after SafeTea to see whether the number of children with hot drink scalds reduces and whether the number of children who receive Burns first aid improves.

You can read a summary of the key findings of the evaluation below.

Alongside The Scar Free Foundation, the Safe Tea campaign was generously supported by:

The British Burns Association

Health and Care Research Wales

The VTCT Foundation

& The The Worshipful Company of Tin Plate Workers alias Wire Workers