AN initiative to make schoolchildren safer is celebrating a major milestone.

Crucial Crew, a multi-agency project in Hartlepool that uses practical workshops to highlight a range of personal safety issues, is ten years old.

This year's two-week event started yesterday, at the training centre at Hartlepool Power Station, and more than 1,300 year six children from 29 local schools are expected to attend.

The workshops will cover a range of keep-safe scenarios, including fire, kitchens, roads, railways, water, electrical, gardens and fireworks. There is also a session on prison life.

The organisations taking part are Hartlepool Borough Council, Hartlepool Primary Care Trust (PCT), British Energy Hartlepool, Cleveland Fire Brigade, Cleveland Police, HM Coastguard, the No Way Trust Ltd, NEDL and Network Rail. Funding is being provided by the PCT, Hartlepool council's Children's Services Department and the attending schools.

Crucial Crew chairman Phil Wilson, a retired police officer who has been involved in the initiative since it began, said: "Crucial Crew has gone from strength to strength over the last decade, and I would estimate that some 14,000 to 15,000 youngsters have benefited from it in that time.

"I would like to thank our funders for their ongoing support, and I look forward to Crucial Crew continuing well into the future."

Emma Tierney, the council's principal health and environment officer and secretary of the Crucial Crew committee, said: "The aim of the event is to provide an enjoyable way of teaching children to become more aware of personal safety, to learn how to react to dangerous situations and to provide an opportunity for children to practice safety skills in an exciting, stimulating and safe setting.

"The intention is for the children to carry the knowledge they gain into their everyday lives."