Car stickers are now available
Help us spread the word about safer car seats
Stickers are £2 each including p&p
Government advice to turn your child forward facing at 9 months is putting their life at risk. In other European countries, children stay rear facing until they are 4 years old.
British child seat manufacturers are refusing to sell their safest products in the UK because they've decided that British parents don't want them. They export the seats to Scandinavia but will not make them available here.
Rear facing group 1 seats are 5 times safer in a frontal collision. They protect the neck and head by distributing the force along the back of the seat and are much more effective at protecting internal organs.
Latest News
BeSafe seat awarded top safety certificate
The BeSafe iZi Kid is the first seat to be awarded the new Swedish Plus certificate. The Plus Test is a much tougher test than the ECE test and only the best seats will be able to get approved. The Plus Test measures the force applied to the neck in a collision, something other tests don't measure at all. From a safety point of view, this test is as tough as you can get. Read more
BMJ advise use of RF seats for children under 4
The British Medical Journal has released a report advising the use of rear facing child car seats for children under 4 years old
You can read the report here
The report has been picked up by the BBC, Herald and Daily Mail
HTS BeSafe enters UK Market
HTS BeSafe has entered the UK market through The Gro-Company. Read the press release here. The Gro-Company is now the distributers for HTS BeSafe products. Contact The Gro-Company to find a retailer near you.
New Volvo seats launched
Volvo Cars launches three new child restraints; one infant restraint, one convertible seat that can be rear facing until the child is 6 years old (!), and one booster seat with back rest. Read all about it here.
Buyer's Guide
We've updated the buyer's guide with all the info we have on where you can buy rear facing seats. You can find it here.
Manchester Evening News
The Manchester Evening News has published an article about Rear Facing seats on their website. Read the article here.
ANEC Report
The ANEC has published a new report entitled 'A fatal contradiction'. Find out more here.
Email templates
We have created two example emails for you to use. Find them here.
rearfacing.co.uk on the BBC:
You can see the BBC South Today report on the campaign here.
Our first award:
We have been awarded a gold star by NTF, the Swedish National Society for Road Safety. You can see the article here (in Swedish I'm afraid).
Download the press release:
We've put together a press release. Many of you have been kind enough to bring up the issue with consumer groups, MPs, and the media. Why not include this when you make contact?
Flyer now available:
Why not download our pdf flyer. You can distribute it to friends or groups or take a copy to your local shop. The more pressure we can put on UK suppliers, the better
Did you know that children younger than 4 years old
are safer if they travel rear facing in the car?
Are you confused about when to turn your child forward facing in the car? Different shops and websites give different advice and it can be hard to know what to do. Did you know that children younger than 4–5 years old are safer if they travel rear facing in the car? In Scandinavia, children are not turned forward until they have reached at least 4 years old and weigh more than 25kg(55lbs). This website has been set up to explore the facts about rear and forward facing car seats. Hopefully you will find it useful.
The safest seats are not available in the UK
Did you know that companies such as Britax and Graco market different products in different countries? In other countries, they are keen to promote rear facing car seats as the safest way for children to travel. In the UK, there is no such promotion and the rear facing seats manufactured by these companies are not available. In addition, all current UK government advice is that children should be placed in front facing car seats at approximately 9 months of age. This is significantly earlier than is advised in many other countries including the USA, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark.
We believe that it is vital that parents in the UK are given access to the evidence which shows that the safest way for children to travel is rear facing for as long as possible. Britax, Graco and many other companies manufacture rear facing seats which are designed for children up to 4 years of age but will not make them commercially available in the UK
You can help us turn things around
We invite you to read the information on this site and, if you find it as convincing as we have, contact your local suppliers, car seat manufacturers and MPs and demand that parents in the UK are given the same access to rear facing car seats as those in other countries
If you have any questions, suggestions or further information that we can use on the site, please contact us