While there are some excellent staff deployed on work which includes road safety, these days there are fewer staff with dedicated road safety roles.
This was one of the key findings from a study carried out by the London Road Safety Council (LRSC), which was the subject of a recent conference presentation.
The presentation summarised the findings of a study which looked at current and future road safety education training and publicity provision across the 33 London local authorities.
It was delivered by Liz Knight, vice president of the LRSC, and Saul Jeavons from the Transafe Network – to delegates attending the LRSC’s ‘Facing the future’ conference on 2 November.
The study, funded by the Road Safety Trust, set out to develop a London-wide picture of current road safety provision, aims and aspirations – and to outline the concerns, barriers and challenges boroughs face going forward.
The findings are based on in-depth interviews with all 33 London boroughs – elected members with a road safety portfolio, heads of service and road safety managers – and TfL
The chief concerns raised in the discussions with boroughs included: funding cuts leading to reduction in staff numbers; outsourcing of, and cuts to, services; and a loss of road safety knowledge, expertise and experience.
Saul Jeavons said:
“While some boroughs have maintained staffing levels, others have not – and many have changed roles and titles, making like-for-like comparison difficult.
“There were also concerns that having a smaller pool of experienced road safety professionals to recruit from – both outside London as well as within – could pose problems in the future.”
Cllr Teji Barnes, chair of the LRSC, said:
“We are grateful to the Road Safety Trust for the support and funding it has provided for this important piece of work.
“By funding studies such as this, the Trust is helping to raise awareness of road safety issues, improving road safety policy and practice – and encouraging partnership working.”
This study will also be presented to delegates at the 2018 National Road Safety Conference in Brighton on 27-28 November.
Footnote
All of the presentations from the ‘Road Safety: Facing the Future’ conference are available for LRSC members to download from the members’ area of this website.
5 November 2018