How to protect children at clubs and events.

Following a few high profile and particularly nasty cases of children being victims of adults who were in a position of trust, there is widespread anxiety about how to ensure that children are adequately protected at events, clubs, leisure activities and so on.

How worried should you be? And what should you do?

In fact fears about paedophilia are probably greatly exaggerated. Most adults in contact with children are nice, caring people. But it is true that a tiny, tiny number of evil-minded people deliberately search out jobs with children to do them harm. It is also true that a small number of trouble-making kids make false accusations against adults because they know they will always be taken seriously.

So, the problem is two fold. Protect children and also yourself.

Protecting children

How do you know who is a danger to kids? Some nasty incidents come out of the blue and cannot be predicted. In other cases, though, such as the Soham case, the murderer had “form” and could have been prevented from having contact with children if the proper checks had been carried out.

If you are an employer of adults who regularly come into contact with children or “Vulnerable Adults” you should check whether your employees or potential employees have a known criminal record. (A vulnerable adult, incidentally, might be a young trainee or someone with physical disabilities, learning difficulties, or mental health problems. Elderly people might also come into this category)

In England, checks are performed by The Criminal Records Bureau  The employing organisation can ask for a criminal records check, known as Disclosure. There are two kinds of Disclosure, Standard Disclosure and Enhanced Disclosure. Standard Disclosure would be for adults who work with young people, a school cleaner for example; Enhanced Disclosure is for those who work with young people and who will be in sole charge of them (like a teacher or a scout leader) The results are sent to both the employer and the person being checked.

In Scotland the procedure is the same but is performed by Disclosure Scotland

If you are advertising a post where you intend to check applicants, you should say in the advertisement that the post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, which states that people with old criminal convictions do not have to declare them if they are “spent”. It's a good idea to ask people voluntarily to declare thier previous convictions on the application form - You'll find out at Disclosure anyway and it saves going through the process of interviewing, offering a job and waiting for Disclosure results if their previous record means you will be withdrawing the job offer. This doesn't mean that you skip Disclosure but it does mean that it should be routine with no nasty surprises.

In both cases you, the employer, and the person being checked will receive a copy of the Disclosure you have asked for. If you have asked for Enhanced Disclosure, it will list everything, from being cautioned for a spot of vandalism to much more serious things. It will not tell you not to employ this person. That is left to your judgement.

But what if you’re not an employer? Can you do a check anyway?

Quite simply no. So what do you do?

Disclosure is only for employer-employee relationships. But there are loads of situations where you’d like to know, just to be safe. In these cases (and incidentally this is also for you if you are self employed) you need to join an Umbrella Body, who will verify your identity and apply for the criminal records check on your behalf.  A list of Umbrella Bodies is on the CRB Website. There are plenty that will specialise in your area – Children’s Play, Youth Workers and so on.

If you are organising a fete and have employed a juggler, story teller or children’s entertainer, it would be reasonable to expect them to have Disclosure through an umbrella organisation and to be able to show you a current certificate.  Disclosure, incidentally, doesn’t expire, so it’s your decision how recent a certificate you’ll accept. Anything up to a year old would seem fair. It’s up to you. Some organisations won’t accept one that is over a day old, which is frankly daft and petty.

Protect yourself

So the children are protected as well as you can. But what about yourself? 

Generally, it’s considered wise not be alone with a child. Avoid giving individual coaching, running a kid home in your car, that kind of thing. Of course, running a child home in your car might be the only responsible thing to do, if the other choice is to let her walk home by herself in the dark. Be sensible. Tell others where you are going and how long you intend to be.

Equally, you should avoid touching children – it could be misinterpreted. But seriously if you see a child who is hurt and in floods of tears are you just going to stand there and watch? Of course you’re not. Child protection is about caring and being sensitive. Don’t touch children if you don’t need to but equally don’t spend so much time looking over your shoulder that you lose your humanity.

Photographs

There is what can only be described as total paranoia about photos of kids.  The theory is that it gives paedophiles an “in” to grooming the child. “Oh hello, Belinda, I saw your photo in…..” that kind of thing.  It’s pretty fanciful but we have all heard stories about parents who have been banned from filming the school nativity play or taking pictures of their son winning the egg and spoon race. Again, this is more an issue of protecting yourself from indignant vilification than real danger for children. If you want to take photos of kids, it is wise although it is NOT the law, to get written consent from the parents. If you intend to publish them, avoid giving information that could indentify the child, unless of course, the parents have given the go-ahead.