The initiative launched by Mears Social Housing maintenance and repair contractors and endorsed by the Children’s Safety Education Foundation, teaches children aged between five and seven years of the dangers that can exist in the home when tradesmen are doing repairs. RoSPA (Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents) are also supporting the initiative. It is estimated that 256 children an hour are taken to hospitals following accidents, and almost half of these accidents occur in the home.

Lizzie Burgess aged seven won £300 prize money for Hazel Grove. Her winning poster warned children of the dangers of playing with repair tools in the home.
Lizzie’s poster was chosen out of 500 potential winners by Dick and Dom, who praised her on creativity and design. Corpus Christi with St’ Anne’s RC Primary School, Carruthers Street, Manchester, who also took part in the competition, came third and won £150 for their school.

The CBBC duo performed a health and safety sketch in front of a captive audience of 40 children, with Mears cartoon character Mr Menda. The kids also played games and took part in a fun learning experience.

Mears CEO Stuart Black said:
“Menda is a fun character with a serious message. Our staff are visitors in people’s homes and we try to keep disruption to a minimum while carrying out improvements. But children are naturally curious about visitors. In many cases they learn about play by watching adults at work.

“Menda will teach children about the dangers of handling tools that they might see in their home during a Mears’ visit. He’ll show them how to keep safe and you never know – he may inspire some towards a career in home improvement too!”

John McNamee, CEO Children’s Safety Education Foundation said:
“We are delighted to support Mears in their Health and Safety initiative.
Mears has designed safety packs for children that are informative and educational too. We hope the children enjoy this learning exercise”

First prize went to St. Marks School in Manchester.

Mears are well established in the North West region and work in partnership with Wigan and Leigh Housing; Stockport City Council and Stockton Council to provide social housing repairs and maintenance work.
Mears also provides extensive work for the Government’s ‘Decent Homes’ work programme.

NOTES TO EDITORS

Mears Group PLC

1. Mears is the leading social housing repairs and maintenance provider in the UK, providing rapid response and planned maintenance services to Local Authorities and Registered social Landlords.

2. Our core business takes us to the heart of communities which provides us with a prime opportunity to enhance our understanding of today’s problems. We strongly believe we can provide sustainable improvements to the communities where we are contracted to work, through targeting the skills of our workforce. Our vision is to actively enable, encourage and engage our employees to contribute to this aim, which helps us impact

3. wider part of our communities and extend our commitment to improving our neighbourhoods and ultimately improving lives.

4. Mears employ and train local people and work together to improve the quality of life of the whole community.

5. Mears is the largest social housing repairs and maintenance provider in the UK, providing rapid response and planned maintenance services to Local Authorities and Registered social Landlords. Mears is working across the UK to provide decent homes for social housing tenants. – to date we have improved 500,000 homes.

6. Our core business takes us to the heart of communities which provides us with a prime opportunity to enhance our understanding of today’s
problems. We strongly believe we can provide sustainable improvements to the communities where we are contracted to work, through targeting the skills of our
workforce. Our vision is to actively enable, encourage and engage our employees to contribute to this aim, which helps us impact wider part of our communities and extend our commitment to improving our neighbourhoods and ultimately improving lives.

7. Mears employ and train local people and work together to improve the quality of life of the whole community.
We currently have operations in Wigan and Stockport and are expanding our reach through new partnerships with social landlords in 2006.

Health and Safety statistics

Market research carried out by on behalf of Mears Group state that:

• Nearly 50% of children do not know why protective clothing and hard hats/masks are worn whilst renovation work is being carried out in their home.
• 30% of parents in the North West find it difficult to supervise children at all times, whilst workmen are carrying out repairs in the home.
• 25% of children have accidents which result in bruises, trips and falls when DIY repairs are being carried out in their home.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Dianne Lowther – Mears Group PR Manager
Tel: 0773 9190 722
E-mail: Dianne.Lowther@mearsgroup.co.uk
Katie Hagerty – Mears Group Marketing Assistant
Tel: 0870 67 1400 (ext 3)
E-mail: Katie.Hagerty@mearsgroup.co.uk