Children’s emergency skills: the gap parents miss
Ask most parents whether their child would know what to do if something went wrong while they were out, and the answer is usually yes. We picture them staying calm, calling for help, telling someone where they are. It is a comforting picture. New research suggests it is often not the real one.
What the research found
Research commissioned by what3words looked at how prepared primary school children really are for an emergency outdoors. The findings show a clear gap between what parents assume and what children can actually do.
Nearly four in five parents of children aged five to eleven feel confident their child would know what to do in an outdoor emergency. Only around half have ever sat down and practised it. When you look at specific skills, the gap widens. More than a third of children cannot reliably recite their full home address. Almost a third do not know how to use a phone to call for help. And while most parents believe their child could use a phone to find their location, far fewer children say they actually can.
None of this means children are careless or that parents are complacent. It means a skill we assume is already there often is not, simply because it has never been practised out loud.
Why the summer holidays bring it into focus
The timing matters. Most parents expect their child to spend time outdoors without them at least once a week over the holidays, whether that is with grandparents, at a holiday club, or out with friends. More independence is a good thing. It also means more moments where a child might need to reach an adult and cannot simply turn to a parent standing next to them.
Two things that genuinely help
The first is practice. what3words suggests a simple Family Breakfast Briefing before the holidays: a few minutes over breakfast to talk through who to call, how to call, and how to describe where you are. Saying it out loud once makes it far easier to remember under pressure. Knowing how to share an exact location, rather than a vague description of a park or a footpath, can save real time when it counts.
The second is having a fallback for the moment a child needs to reach home and their own phone is not the answer. Phones get left at home, run flat, get lost, or are simply not carried at all, which is increasingly the case as more schools go phone free. A child who has learned the right steps still needs something to act on them with.
A way to reach home from any smartphone
This is the gap we built My Home Call to close. If a child needs to reach home and does not have their own phone, they can borrow any smartphone, go to My Home Call, identify themselves with a quick facial scan, and reach the trusted contacts a parent has already saved. The message can include their exact what3words location, so the adult on the other end knows precisely where they are.
There is no app to download, no password to set up, and no number to remember. Nothing is left behind on the borrowed phone afterwards. For a child, it is one simple, calm route back to the people who can help.
This summer, that access is free for every child in the UK, as part of our Always a Way Home campaign.
The same need continues in September
As more schools adopt phone free policies, the question parents ask is a fair one: if my child cannot carry a phone, how do they reach me if they need to? The answer should not be to make an exception to the policy. It should be to give children a secure, purpose built way to contact home when it genuinely matters, whether that is a change to collection arrangements, a missed bus, or simply running late. The preparation you do this summer carries straight into the new term.
Start with a conversation
You do not need anything technical to begin. Sit down together, talk through the steps, and make sure your child has a way to reach you that does not depend on a charged phone in their pocket. A few minutes now is worth a great deal later.
You can set up your child’s free account at myhomecall.com.
Research by what3words, June 2026.
About My Home Call
My Home Call is a safety platform that lets you reach your saved trusted contacts from any smartphone, using a quick facial scan. No app to download, no passwords, and no numbers to remember. Nothing is left on the borrowed phone: no image, no code, no history. Find out more at myhomecall.com.