Demand drop behind move to end scheme

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Plunket is phasing out its rental and retail car seat services after more than 30 years.

Plunket chief operating officer Andrea McLeod said it planned to stop the services in the next 12 to 18 months because fewer people were using them.

The services might be missed by some parents - although a Wanganui child care leader says it's difficult to know to what extent.

Wanganui Playcentre Association president Debra Smith said there might be enough alternatives.

"My question is, 'is there another way of fulfilling that need?' A common theme with a lot of services available to families is that those that need it don't access it.

"I'd be wary of an emotive response to something that may not be actually be as relevant as we think."

In March, a sting on child restraints in Wanganui found 94 of 226 car seats and boosters checked were fitted incorrectly.

However, most parents seemed to at least know to use car seats, Ms Smith said.

"I think there's definitely an awareness that children need to be in car seats," she said.

"The parents I know seem to be quite well informed but that wouldn't be a cross section of the whole community.

"There are probably still some people that might need more support."

The number of Plunket sites offering car seats has declined from 283 at its peak in the 1980s, to 72 today.

Despite efforts to make the service sustainable, sites across the country have been closing as they can no longer afford to operate. The majority of these sites only operate part-time, a few hours a day, several times a week.

"The decline indicates families' needs have changed," Ms McLeod said.

When Plunket started offering car seat and capsule hire in 1981 just 20 per cent of children were buckled in. That number has risen to 93 per cent.

However, recently released data by Safekids Aotearoa showed car crashes were still a major cause of children's injuries and deaths.

Between 2006 and 2010, car crashes were the second most common cause of children's deaths - second only to suffocation.

Safekids Aotearoa director Ann Weaver said the number of car crash deaths was far too high.

"In most cases the deaths were totally preventable," she said. "Most parents use car seats but a lot aren't installed correctly.

"Most countries only have one standard for car seats, but in New Zealand there's four - American, European, Australia/New Zealand and Japanese.

"We also import cars from a number of different countries so getting the right car seat for a car can be difficult."

Safekids believed children should have to be restrained until they are 148cm tall, she said.

"Seatbelts are designed for people 150cm and over."

Ms Weaver said it was sad Plunket's car services were ending but she believed there was enough other reasonably priced retailers parents could buy or hire car seats from.