eastanglianrailways.myfreeforum.org

Bramleyman · Joined: 30 Jan 2007 Posts: 481 Location: Norfolk

This is sickening!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hampshire/6670071.stm

The mother of the child has said that the line should be closed down permanently, but I disagree, because Police Checks could have been made.
_________________
Please help us to 'Raise a Wagon Load of Cash' and so we can get the lease, then start running. See the main website www.bramleyline.org.uk for further details.

phineas dorchester · Joined: 12 May 2007 Posts: 12 Location: King's Lynn

All organisations that deal with young children should have a written child protection policy nowadays. Officials should attend the appropriate training days. All volunteers who come into contact with kids should be screened and as you say police checks should be made.

I would imaging most county councils have this covered these days and help orgaisations with training, policies, etc. as here in Norfolk it runs jointly with Suffolk under the banner of SAFE. I used to run a youth orchestra and with their help we eventually managed to jump through all the relevant hoops.

This applies these days to all youth groups, clubs that involve children, churches, etc - so if there are any preserved railways out there that haven't even thought about it, they run a huge risk in these litigious days.

I know we live in a nanny state, but in this instance it's actualyl quite important as this incident shows.
_________________
Phineas Francis Dorchester

easternbuzz · Posted: Mon May 21, 2007 10:34 pm Post subject:

I based in Portsmouth currently and saw this come up on our local news and the statement put out by the Mid-Hants company was that his job was outside which are needed for the police check and therefore he wasn't screened, but he was convicted of previous offences. Surely this happened due to Mid-Hants not screening ALL of their volunteers. The mother was very upset and shouted that it should be closed.