Outside our school

Launching in January 2012, this road safety campaign aims to combat the incidence of dangerous and inappropriate parking outside schools, which has a major impact upon children’s safety when arriving and departing at school. This problem has become a significant threat to children’s safety throughout the country, with a high proportion of schools reporting serious difficulties involving parking incidents.

Drivers are increasingly failing to respect parking and traffic regulations outside schools when dropping off, or picking up their children. They fail to realise that they not only endanger their own children, but also those of their friends and neighbours.

In order to reduce this threat to children’s safety the problem needs to be effectively addressed using a two-tier approach. On-street enforcement, coupled with effective education and publicity. Enforcement works as a deterrent. Education needs to bring the driver’s attention to the fact that their behaviour is endangering, not only their own offspring, but all children at or around the school. Drivers need to be reminded that school is supposed to be a ‘safe haven’, not a place of danger.

Parking enforcement brings with it a measure of ‘bad press’, which has entered the public consciousness to the point where the attitude of drivers is, “all parking enforcement is just another way of raising money”. Drivers have forgotten that parking enforcement is really about road safety and keeping traffic moving. A concerted effort is needed to re-educate drivers to this fact – thereby causing them to adhere to the rules when taking their children to and from their school.

This campaign, whilst targeting parent drivers, will also resonate with all drivers, when they are in the vicinity of a school and need to park a vehicle.

The “Outside Your School” Campaign will be distributed to all communities throughout the country, to bring this important message home. The campaign supports the efforts of all those involved in road safety for our communities.


Local Authority Publicity is a signatory of the European Road Safety Charter and is committed to expanding road safety education and awareness at community levels. We publish and distribute road safety campaigns and materials for Police Forces; Fire & Rescue Services; Road Safety Partnerships; Local Authorities; communities; districts; boroughs; counties; and, unitary authority areas throughout the country.