For our Energy Networks business, public safety is the key issue that drives its community programme. The business supports and runs a range of programmes designed help improve the awareness in young people of the dangers of electricity.

“Be Safe with ScottishPower” is a child education programme for primary school children across our operating areas in Scotland, North West England and Wales.

The programme is designed to increase awareness among primary school pupils aged four to eleven of the potential dangers of electricity in the home and outdoors. The programme is taught by a team of qualified school teachers and is linked in with the school curriculum for Scotland, England and Wales.

Although electrical safety in the home is covered, these sessions focus more on the dangers of electricity in the outdoor environment, such as throwing items at electrical cables, taking covers off street lights, entering an electricity substation or climbing trees near overhead lines. We also warn them of the dangers of flying a kite near electricity pylons. Plenary sessions for these age groups include a quiz with the opportunity to win prizes, such as pencils, pencil sharpeners, water bottles and torches.

All children taking part in the sessions receive gifts bearing a safety message. Resource packs containing posters, a danger sign and a board game are left with each class, while head teachers at each school receive a pack containing activity sheets, videos and teacher’s guidance notes.

The programme offers sessions that are appropriate for different age groups. The four to seven age group has a 20-minute session that focuses on electrical safety in the home, and children are taught to recognise yellow and black danger signs and the locations they may be found. They are also taught about dangers associated with the misuse of streetlights and the need for barriers around open trenches. Then, during a short plenary session, they are introduced to Sparky, a puppet, and reminded of the main safety points of the session. Children in the seven to nine and nine to eleven age groups are taught separately, but receive similar, harder hitting messages in 45-minute sessions.

Almost 100,000 school pupils have already benefited from the programme.

We have launched an interactive website for primary school children (www.ollieandsparky.co.uk), designed to help them identify hazards and dangers in their local community. The site can be accessed in both English and Welsh language versions, and has a series of on-line games and quizzes for children aged 5-11. It also provides a range of resources for teachers and parents.

Energy Networks supports a number of safety centres within our communities. The first of these in Priesthill, Glasgow, includes a “hazard alley” which helps visitors spot hazards and dangers.

A second Fixed Safety Centre in Flintshire, North Wales, opened in September 2005 and has already received thousands of visitors. The centre, DangerPoint, uses scenarios to educate the public on how to stay safe around electricity.

A third centre, The Risk Factory, is nearing completion in Edinburgh and a fourth is planned for Liverpool.