Good Egg Safety
I am currently living up in Edinburgh, Scotland to work on the Good Egg Safety Scottish Car Seat Campaign. I thought it would be a great idea to write a little bit about what I’ll be doing and where, and also a little about what Good Egg Safety do.
I have come to Edinburgh to be based at the offices and to allow me to travel around Scotland doing car seat clinics, offering ask the expert advice and doing mystery shops. It is lovely to finally be working in an office with the team rather than at home – I’ve missed having colleagues!
The car seat clinics are the main thing I am here for – I have done lots clinics – from Galashiels to Thurso! There are clinics from the Boarders right up to Shetland.
As well as doing car seat clinics, I will also be conducting mystery shops for the Good Egg retailer charter, which is designed to promote and advocate best practise. The individuals who have passed have been mystery shopped by myself and you can go to them and buy a car seat, knowing they are knowledgeable and will sell you the correct seat. The thing I love the most about this is that the individual gets passed, not the store. In the past I have spoken to people who have had a terrible experience and been sold the wrong seat, but someone else has gone to the store and spoken to someone else and had great and correct advice!
I am also offering ask the expert advice – which I do through here and my facebook page. Parents and carers can click “ask the expert” on the good egg website and that will come through to myself or 4 other experts, with a combined experience of 80+ years in child seats your sure to get the right answer!
– If you want Good Egg clinics in your area and there are not any planned, please get in touch with your local council. They may be able to check your seat or offer the advice you need, or your council can then contact Good Egg to book a clinic!
Good Egg don’t just do car seat safety though – they do a whole host of guides to help keep children safe right through from babies in the car and around the home, up to learning to ride their bikes then on to passing their driving test!
The guides they have available are:
– In Car Child Safety
– In Home Child Safety
– Family Cycling
– New Drivers
– Parents of New Drivers
– Older Persons road safety
Here is a link to the main website that will take you through each section: http://www.goodeggsafety.com/
The car seat clinics:
The car seat clinics are brilliant, but I’m quite disappointed by how few people are getting their seats checked. My worst day has resulted in just 1 check and my best day gained 33 checks. I understand that it may partly be due to parents being in a rush to get their shopping home – coupled with the stress of food shopping with the kids and feeling like they don’t have the time. It is also partly due to people not realising that there may be something wrong with their car seat – if they don’t know their seat is potentially fitted incorrectly, why would they get it checked?!
I’m currently working on showing parents that not one person who has had an incorrect car seat has done it intentionally – everyone has been surprised and in some cases upset, that the seat wasn’t safe. Nobody intentionally makes their child’s car seat unsafe, but it’s trying to get across the message that I’m not there to judge, just to help, that is proving quite hard!
A day in the life of a car seat expert:
The Clinics:
As soon as I get to a clinic I sign in at the store and get set up! I have guides to in car safety and leaflets to give out, as well as stickers for the kids! I have my own car seats with me and I put useful tips and facts up to grab people’s attention!
Giving out stickers!
We even had a policeman come along for a chat!
Then there are the checks themselves!
Mystery Shops
I also undertake mystery shops, in the hope of adding people to the Good Egg charter! My favourite place to mystery shop so far has been Glasgow pram centre – Tracey Smith has been added to the charter. They had a huge range of extended rear facing child seats and it was so difficult to stop myself getting into a big geeky car seat conversation with her and giving the game away! Thus far I have been really impressed with the advice given and only a handful of places have failed.
The Good Egg Safety campaign is a privilege to work on and little by little more and more children in Scotland are sitting safely.
Working with Parents 