Background The over-arching goal of the Scottish Government is to ‘make Scotland a better place to live and a more prosperous and successful country’. Subtitled ‘Accident Prevention- a leading priority for Scotland’ this document highlights the better outcomes for the health of Scotland’s population that can be achieved by partnership working in the areas of accident prevention and safety awareness.

Description The document acts as a touchstone for practitioners providing useful insights into ’what works’ and a manifesto for RoSPA in Scotland delineating the role the charity plays in setting the unintentional harm prevention agenda in Scotland and the wider United Kingdom.

Results Endorsed by leaders within Scotland’s Accident Prevention community the document clearly identifies why accident prevention should be the top priority for public health. Approximately 30% of Accident and Emergency attendances in Scotland are due to accidental injuries, the financial burden associated with this burden is unsustainable, requiring more resources, a challenge in a period of austerity or early intervention, accident prevention being the easiest and cheapest way to save a life. Scotland’sBig Book of Accident Prevention presents case studies linked to the positive benefits of early intervention which can be easily adapted and adopted by organisations across the globe to reduce the burden of injury on the global economy.

Conclusions In Scotland, accidents cost Society more than £12.4 billion per annum, of which Accident & Emergency attendances cost the NHS £1.48 billion. Accident prevention strategies as outlined in Scotland’s Big Book of Accident Prevention are clearly identified as being ‘low cost and high impact’ contrasted with the expense of healthcare linked to unintentional injury.