The good thing about modern digital compacts is that the bulk of the "selling" features (e.g. face detection, image stabiliser) generally have their own button for quick access.
Those with metal cases tend to be a touch more robust than those with plastic exteriors. However, if a digital compact lands on it's lens it doesn't matter what the casing is made of, it's usually fatal.
Panasonic's compacts have a lot of good press. Always worth looking at fuji and canon too.
If you want a camera you can accidentally drop from waist or chest height onto concrete, have a look at the Olympus Tough 3000 and Pentax W80 for £130-140 (Amazon prices). However, bare-in-mind you generally suffer in the image quality stakes on the more rugged cameras (zoom is nearly always digital for example).