Took the youth group to Chessington yesterday. Contrary to the worst case scenarios on the umpteen-page risk assessment I had to fill in, nobody died. Which was nice.
It occurred to me that if you removed the people and the rides, all you would be left with would be sugar, plastic and various means of queuing. Odd.
Sunday, 19 August 2007
Looking after other peoples' children.
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4 comments:
UK H&S mania appears to be trying to create a risk free environment for youth, thereby setting them up for possible failure in a future job market that is all about risk taking. Pure irony!
Litigation culture has a lot to answer for in all of this. Any responsible group leader would assess the risks to their group, whether explicitly or not. I'm not convinced that filling in the risk assessment made it any safer at all - it simply provides you with the paperwork to prove that all reasonable attempts were made to make the trip safe, should you or your organisation be threatened with legal action followng a mishap. With the best will in the world, and all the risk assessment planning you can handle, you cannot prevent a child tripping over their own shoelaces and breaking a tooth etc.
Having said that, I have seen examples of bad practice in action, and I guess enforcing risk assessment protocols does force people who might not otherwise bother to stop and think about stuff to actually consider the possibilities. But as I sat there this week listing all the various ways in which our kids could be killed or injured, I was seriously starting to regret ever agreeing to organise this trip, and I can totaly understand why people can be reluctant to get involved.
I remember one school trip I ran, I decided to include alien abduction and nuclear war as potential risks...
The headmaster criticised me for not including outbreaks of various tropical diseases!
Good for you! Nice to know those pesky parents wouldn't have a leg to stand on if Martians put in an appearance. ;)
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