Child home injury prevention scheme

CHIP visits are provided by Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue (LFR). Upon referral, LFR will visit the household and supply and fit safety equipment as necessary. This may include:

• safety gates (to prevent access to and falls on stairs)
• window restrictors (to prevent falls from windows)
• fire guards (to prevent access to open fires)
• cupboard locks (to prevent access to cupboards containing medicines and poisonous household chemicals)
• blind cord cleats (to prevent access to blind cords, which could cause entanglement and suffocation)
• hair-straightener pouches (to prevent burns from hot hair straighteners)

They will also undertake a home fire safety check. This check includes escape planning with the family and installation of smoke or CO alarms, if needed.
Referrals for CHIP visits can only be made by:

• early help workers
• early years practitioners
• health visitors
• family health workers
• social workers

The referral form will ask for a copy of the household's CHIP assessment. This demonstrates the need for equipment and evidences that home safety has been discussed with the family.

It is LFR's responsibility to assess for and fit safety equipment according to manufacturer's instructions and best practice. It is not LFR's responsibility to educate parents about accident prevention – this is the responsibility of the referring practitioner. 

The provision and installation of safety equipment is only effective in preventing injuries when combined with parent education. The CHIP e-learning and assessment tool are designed to support practitioners with this.

CHIP visits are targeted at households where children are at the greatest risk of injury. The following characteristics indicate that a child may be at high risk:

• they live in areas of deprivation
• they live in rented accommodation, poor quality housing or homes of multiple occupancies
• their parents are unemployed or have never worked
• their parent's ability to supervise is impaired (for example, due to mental health problems, health or care needs, substance misuse, number of children in the property)
• they have young or single parents with poor support networks
• their parents can't afford safety equipment

The following eligibility criteria are therefore applied. The child or family must be on:

• child protection plan
• child in need assessment or plan
• Early Support Care Co-ordination (ESCO)
• Team Around the Child (TAC) plan
• income-based jobseekers allowance; income related employment support allowance; income support, including universal credit
• working tax credits or child tax credits
• disability living allowance or personal independence payments
• housing benefit or council tax benefit

Some points to consider before referring:

• ensure you have the consent of the parent or carer
• if the parent or carer is a tenant, they will need to have permission from their landlord
• be aware that LFR will not install safety gates unless there is a child aged less than 24 months in the property
• we will notify you with details of any action taken during the visit. Please retain this in the child or family record.

Unfortunately, we are not able to accept new referrals at the moment.