Falls continue to be the leading cause of accidental deaths. Why aren’t we doing more to stop them?
New data reveals that falls from stairs or steps are the most common fatal accident in the UK for another year.
Thousands of lives are being lost to accidents in the home which could be prevented with better policy solutions, writes our Head of Homes Millie Brown.
Falls remained the leading cause of accidental deaths in the UK in 2023 with the overall rate of fatalities and hospital admissions from accidents on the increase according to a new report by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA).
More than 23,000 people lost their lives because of accidents in 2023 while almost 900,000 people were admitted to hospital in 2023/24 – an 8% increase in accidental death rates and a 3% rise in the rate of accident-related hospital admissions compared to the previous year.
Almost half (48%) of accidental deaths in 2023 resulted from falls. Falls from stairs and steps were the most commonly identified cause of fall-related deaths while more than half (59%) of all accident-related hospital admissions were because of falls.
The report stated that older people faced a “disproportionately” high number of serious injuries and deaths particularly as a result of falls.
In addition, people living in more deprived areas of the country are also more likely to be the victims of accidents – with poorer housing conditions and higher risks at work among contributing factors.
As well as the significant personal suffering and loss behind these stats, there are also enormous costs and additional strain to the NHS for the sheer number of accidents, and in particular falls.
Without urgent intervention, the number of deaths and hospital admissions is likely to significantly increase in the future as our nation’s ageing population grows, with one in four of the population projected to be aged 65 and over within the next 40 years.
Calling them accidents is somewhat misleading as it seems to infer that there was nothing that could be done to prevent it from happening, as if it is just the natural course of things that thousands of families should lose loved ones in this way every year.
But it is not inevitable and it is preventable.
We desperately need more homes that are suitable for us throughout our lives and which significantly limit the risk of serious injury through falls.
Accessible and adaptable homes are designed to help us live safely and independently for longer. But there is such an enormous shortfall that currently 12 million people are not having their accessibility needs met by the place they currently call home. That’s 12 million people put in harm’s way by our country’s substandard housing stock.
The government has announced plans in its reform of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) to tackle this issue by requiring a minimum of 40% of new homes to be built to higher accessibility standards.
But this approach has two problems:
- It won't make up for the number of homes that have already been built and are not designed to mitigate the risk of falls
- A minimum target of 40% is too low and should be much higher in the context of our rapidly ageing population and the huge existing shortfall.
As part of the ongoing NPPF consultation, the government should revise its minimum target percentage significantly upward to ensure that more people can find a home that meets their accessibility needs. The government should not find it tolerable that so many people die every year in a place where they should feel safe and secure.
More new data out this month from the ONS has also confirmed that the health of the nation is in a pretty poor state. Women in the poorest areas can expect to spend more than 30 years of their lives in poor health, with men experiencing 23 years of poor health.
As more people are living in ill health for longer, we need to start taking more of a preventative approach to reducing falls. This should start from the moment we build a new home.
It is not inevitable that a growing ageing population spells a declining future for our country. But if we don’t recognise the upcoming demographic change and prepare for it, then we will be creating significant issues for the future.
By taking a more proactive, preventive approach to housing quality and accessibility, recognising its importance as a health issue, we can reduce pressures on the NHS by reducing hospital admissions for accidents which are preventable and avoidable.
We also need to encourage everyone to think with this longer-term mindset and consider their own futures.
Better support and guidance needs to be made available so that people can better consider how their homes might need to be adapted over time to eradicate any risks and prepare their homes to be a place they can live in with comfort throughout their lives.
We believe this support should be delivered through a national network of home improvement one-stop shops called Good Home Hubs.
Given the scale of human loss and injury caused by falls in the home, it is an extremely low cost solution.
Ensuring that future editions of ROSPA’s annual report do not report loss of life and injury on anywhere near the same scale as the most recent edition would be an excellent ambition for this government to keep in mind.
This article first appeared in Housing Digital.