title: Multi-sectoral action for child safety-a European study exploring implicated sectors.
abstract: Injury to children in Europe, resulting in both death and disability, constitutes a significant burden on individuals, families and society. Inequalities between high and low-income countries are growing. The World Health Organisation Health 2020 strategy calls for inter-sectoral collaboration to address injury in Europe and advocates the whole of government and whole of society approaches to wicked problems. In this study we explore which sectors (e.g. health, transport, education) are relevant for four domains of child safety (intentional injury, water, road and home safety). We used the organigraph methodology, originally developed to demonstrate how organizations work, to describe the governance of child safety interventions. Members of the European Child Safety Alliance, working in the field of child safety in 24 European countries, drew organigraphs of evidence-based interventions. They included the different actors involved and the processes between them. We analyzed the organigraphs by counting the actors presented and categorizing them into sectors using a pre-defined analysis framework. We received 44 organigraphs from participants in 24 countries. Twenty-seven sectors were identified across the four domains. Nine of the 27 identified sectors were classified as 'core sectors' (education, health, home affairs, justice, media, recreation, research, social/welfare services and consumers). This study reveals the multi-sectoral nature of child safety in practice. It provides information for stakeholders working in child safety to help them implement inter-sectoral child safety interventions taking a whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach to health governance.
authors.affiliation: Department of International Health, Health Medicine and Life Sciences, CAPHRI School of Public Health and Primary Care, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands.|Département des Sciences de la Santé Publique, Université de Liège, Liège, Belgium.
authors.forename: Beatrice
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Scholtes
authors.affiliation: Department of International Health, Health Medicine and Life Sciences, CAPHRI School of Public Health and Primary Care, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands.|Faculty Human and Health Sciences, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Schröder-Bäck
authors.affiliation: Department of International Health, Health Medicine and Life Sciences, CAPHRI School of Public Health and Primary Care, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Katharina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Förster
authors.affiliation: SafeKids Worldwide, Washington, DC, USA.
authors.forename: Morag
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: MacKay
authors.affiliation: Department of International Health, Health Medicine and Life Sciences, CAPHRI School of Public Health and Primary Care, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Joanne
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Vincenten
authors.affiliation: Department of International Health, Health Medicine and Life Sciences, CAPHRI School of Public Health and Primary Care, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Helmut
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Brand
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D000067576:Child Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D002669:Child Welfare / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005060:Europe; D006801:Humans; D012449:Safety / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000517:prevention & control