Background The Safer Bars programme, developed in Canada in the late 1990's, resulted in a 30% reduction in violent incidences in bars where it was trialled in Canada. The Injury Control Council of WA (ICCWA) ran a successful pilot with venues in the entertainment precinct in the City of Vincent.

Aim To work with licensed venues to implement changes to reduce the incidence of violence, aggression and injury by improving staff skills in communication within their staff groups and between staff and patrons.

Method The methodology of the programme was primarily centred around a delivered training package and observational audits at 3, 6 and 12 month intervals. Police offence data was also recorded early in the project to identify a baseline and then again intervals post initial training.

Outcome The programme yielded positive results, recorded very high satisfaction rates and positive learning outcomes by participants. In particular, the module ‘Responding to Problem Situations’ was the highest rated training module with 93% of participants saying that they found it useful or extremely useful. This is very encouraging for the programme as this is one of the central aspects of Safer Bars.

Significance Safer Bars is an effective measure to reduce alcohol related crime and violence in and around licensed venues.