Road Safety Minister Jesse Norman has launched a new road safety campaign aimed at teachers and schools to help cut child fatalities.

A recent survey revealed that 67% of children get fewer than 2 hours of road safety education in their whole time at school and the new THINK! campaign will help schools and teachers highlight the dangers of the road and encourage best practice for children.

The government’s iconic THINK! campaigns have helped reduce child road deaths by 90% since records began in 1979.

Road Safety Minister, Jesse Norman, said:

We have some of the safest roads in the world and in the last ten years child road deaths have fallen by more than half. But there is no room for complacency.

Teachers are already doing great work but it’s important we in government do everything we can to help teach our children these important safety skills. These new resources should make that easier than ever.

The latest THINK! campaign will feature a wide range of brand new education resources, including easy to follow lesson plans, 2 new films co-created with school children and a song in a bid to make teaching road safety lessons easier and more accessible.

The first documentary-style film follows a group of school children as they act out how to cross the road safely after learning to use the Stop, Look, Listen, Think code. The second film follows another 6 children on their different journeys to school, including walking, cycling and scooting. They explain their top tips for getting to school safely in the form of a new road safety song.

THINK! has been running campaigns for more than 50 years and has successfully challenged a number of behaviours and attitudes to improve road safety, including drink driving, drug driving and using handheld phones while driving. THINK! campaigns have helped reduce the number of deaths from 22 a day in 1960 to current levels of 5.

These new resources follow a long and a proud tradition of hugely successful child road safety campaigns spanning several generations and featuring much-loved icons such as, the family of Hedgehogs, Kevin Keegan, James Earl Jones (the voice of Darth Vader) and David Prouse as the Green Cross Code Man.

The first phase of resources, aimed at 3 to 6 year olds, are on the Think! website. The next 2 phases for ages 7 to 12 and 13 to 16 will follow in the new year.

To be the first to hear about the new resources, register your interest at: think.direct.gov.uk/signup

A cash boost of £30 million will be handed out to towns and villages along the route of the new High Speed Two railway to help improve road and cycle safety.

Funding for 13 areas along the Phase One route of the new rail line between London and the West Midlands has been revealed by HS2 Minister Paul Maynard today as part of National Road Safety Week.

The cash can be used for traffic calming measures, safer pedestrian crossings or safer junctions for cyclists, pedestrians and drivers.

Today’s announcement highlights the government’s determination to ensure HS2 is more than building a new railway. It will be a catalyst for economic growth, driving regeneration as well as improving the transport landscape around the track.

Paul Maynard, HS2 Minister, said:

This significant investment will mean a legacy of road and cycle safety improvements for people who live and work along the HS2 route between London and the West Midlands.

HS2 will become the backbone of our national rail network – supporting growth and regeneration and helping us build a Britain fit for the future. As part of Europe’s biggest infrastructure project, we are minimising the effects of building the new railway as much as possible.

This money will see areas up and down the route benefit from high quality road and cycle safety projects to ensure that England’s roads remain among the safest in the world.

Mark Thurston, HS2 Chief Executive, said:

Safety, environmental protection and being sensitive to the impact of our work on local communities are at the heart of HS2’s approach to construction. That’s why we welcome today’s announcement and we look forward to working with local highways authorities along the route. We all have a responsibility to ensure that the new funding leaves a positive local legacy of improved road safety for communities once HS2 is complete.

Once local authorities have agreed plans for projects, they will agree the release of funds with HS2 Ltd. Authorities must ensure that improvements made leave a lasting legacy of road safety.

Royal Assent was granted for Phase One of HS2 on February 23 2017 and preparatory works have been underway since then, including archaeological surveys and the creation of new wildlife habitats.

On November 9 2017 HS2 Ltd announced a £5 million Woodland Fund to help local landowners create new native, broadleaf woodlands and restore existing ancient woodland sites along the HS2 Phase One route.

PHE is calling on all men and women, aged over 60, to get screened for bowel cancer after the latest figures show over 40% are not getting tested – with embarrassment over providing a stool sample one of the reasons, among men in particular, that is putting thousands unnecessarily at risk of dying.

PHE wants wives, partners and daughters to encourage the older men in the family – as well as the women – to overcome any embarrassment and ensure they send in a sample to be tested.

A new PHE report today (24 November 2017), Screening Programmes in England 2016 to 2017, shows that despite a 3% increase on the previous year, the take-up for bowel cancer screening (59%) is still significantly lower compared to other cancer screening programmes – breast screening (76%) and cervical screening (72%).

Bowel cancer screening is offered to all men and women aged 60 to 74, who are sent a home test kit to provide stool samples.

There were over 3,000 bowel cancers diagnosed as a result of screening in 2016 to 2017. In over 90% of these cases, cancers were found at an early stage, where treatment is more likely to be successful.

Bowel cancer is the fourth most common cancer in England, but the second leading cause of cancer deaths, with around 13,000 people dying from it every year.

If detected early, bowel cancer is very treatable which is why screening is vital and it has been shown to reduce the risk of dying from bowel cancer by 16%. Thousands more lives could be saved if more people, particularly men, returned their stool samples to be tested.

Improvements are being made to make screening easier and next year there will be a new home test, the faecal immunochemical test (FIT), which requires just 1 sample rather than the current 3, and will detect bowel cancer more accurately.

In addition to the home test, a one-off test called bowel scope screening is offered to men and women at the age of 55.

Professor Anne Mackie, PHE’s director of screening, said:

It’s of great concern that 4 out of every 10 over 60 year olds are not taking up the offer of getting tested for bowel cancer. Men in particular are less likely to send in a sample, so we’re asking their partners, children and grandchildren to encourage them to do so.

Bowel cancer causes 13,000 deaths every year, which is why screening is so important. Embarrassment over giving a stool sample may be causing thousands of preventable deaths. But with a new home test kit next year making it much easier to get screened, we are hoping to see numbers increase.

Judith Brodie, Interim Chief Executive at Beating Bowel Cancer, said:

People may feel uncomfortable completing their home screening tests, but they can be crucial in the early diagnosis of bowel cancer – which is very treatable if caught early. We strongly encourage the use of these bowel screening tests – they can be life-saving.

PHE is committed to improving bowel cancer screening attendance and has a programme of work which includes:

• providing local services with clearer information to encourage better screening take-up
• encouraging GPs to endorse screening invitation letters

The Bowel Cancer Screening Programme, recommended by the UK National Screening Committee, began in 2006 and the expert Committee has reviewed the evidence every 3 years. The Committee recommends the programme as it shows clear benefits and saves lives. Screening remains a choice, based on a person’s individual circumstances.

1. The risk of bowel cancer increases with age, with over 80% of bowel cancers arising in people who are 60 or over.

2. Bowel scope screening, also known as flexible sigmoidoscopy, is a one-off test offered to men and women at the age of 55. It is normally used as a routine outpatient appointment procedure to examine the inner lining of the lower large intestine – the part where most cancers are found. It can also be used to evaluate gastrointestinal symptoms, such as abdominal pain, rectal bleeding, or changes in bowel habit.

3. The NHS Bowel Cancer Screening Programme offers screening every 2 years to all men and women aged 60 to 74. People in the invitation age range are automatically sent an invitation, then their screening kit, so they can do the test at home. Those over the invitation age range can ask for a screening kit every 2 years by calling a Freephone number – 0800 707 60 60.

4. PHE is currently working with NHS England on the introduction of a new home test kit, the Faecal Immunochemical Test (FIT), which can quantify the amount of blood found in a stool sample. It has a number of potential advantages over the current test, faecal occult blood (FOB), as it is more accurate and more acceptable to use.

5. Anyone with any symptoms, such as a persistent change in bowel habit or bleeding from the back passage, or who has concerns about their bowel health, should speak to their GP, who can arrange for a referral with a specialist, if necessary.

6. For more information about the bowel cancer screening programme, visit NHS Choices

7. Public Health England exists to protect and improve the nation’s health and wellbeing, and reduce health inequalities. We do this through world-leading science, knowledge and intelligence, advocacy, partnerships and providing specialist public health services. We are an executive agency of the Department of Health, and are a distinct organisation with operational autonomy to advise and support government, local authorities and the NHS in a professionally independent manner.

Prime Minister Theresa May will attend the Eastern Partnership summit in Brussels.