Child Safe & Clubright

Via Bristol City Council:

Sport and community groups in Bristol working with children and young people are being invited to take part in free training sessions to help them keep children safe.

Organised by national child protection charity, Child-safe, the 'Clubright' seminars have been specially designed for sports clubs and community groups in Bristol, giving practical advice on how to promote the safety, welfare and care of children and young people taking part in club-based activities.

Bristol Safeguarding Children Board (BSCB) co-ordinates and leads work on child protection in the city. It is made up of organisations and people working together to promote children's welfare and keep them safe, and includes Bristol City Council's Children and Young People's Services, Avon and Somerset Constabulary, health services and the probation service. BSCB has commissioned Child-Safe to deliver the Clubright training sessions in Bristol.

Regrettably the word “charity” now instils suspicion in me. See here for a previous five minute investigation demonstrating how the FSA were cheerfully donating £17 million of our money to a charity run by the financial services sector while they were simultaneously failing to regulate that same financial services sector.

Looking at the press release above, the BCSB (new chairman required) – a composite public sector organisation - has commissioned Child-Safe to provide a bit of “free” training. With a certain sinking feeling, I ask myself “Who are Child Safe?” , and via the Charity Commission here’s the answer:

According to Child-Safe’s website:

The Child-Safe concept originated as an Avon and Somerset Constabulary innovation, focussed on reducing crimes against children, specifically in the area of abuse. Over time, the Charity has developed broader aims and objectives, re-focussing on the ever challenging area of safeguarding young people in the widest context.

Mission creep seems to be the typical growth model for state-sponsored charitable organisations. The main product currently on offer to local clubs, “Clubright”, is described as:

[A]n information and resource child protection pack targeted at unaffiliated sport groups, voluntary and community groups and other organisations involved with children. The pack is comprehensive and colourful, providing good practical advice to enable group leaders and volunteers to introduce and manage an effective child protection policy within their club. This scheme is being developed nationally under its new Clubright identity, with the support of the NSPCC.

RRP £29.99, but free if you live in the Avon & Somerset area. The goals sound reasonable – laudable, even - but the government child protection policies that Clubright seeks to explain are as much a problem as the [extremely low] incidence of sexual crime within Clubs and Voluntary Organisations.

Non-affiliated (ish) campaigning organisation The Manifesto Club summarised the change in philosophy that has taken place in attitudes toward children over the last generation:

Highly bureaucratic child protection policies encourage ‘anti-child’ attitudes. Responsibility for children is transformed from being an informal civic duty, shared between adults, to a legal obligation for CRB-checked coaches or child welfare officers.

Taking a share of responsibility for children is no longer seen as a normal part of adult life, but is instead becoming an unwelcome burden to be defensive about. The question of who is responsible for children now often means: ‘who is carrying the can if something happens?’

Full of good intentions, one hand of government creates a legislative hoop through which people must jump, and the other hand offers hoop-jumping consultancy and services. This is a common pattern in modern Britain, as is the mediation of such parasitic relationships by registered charities.

A related initiative from Child Safe is Wherever U-Go:

Travel Safe offers a unique series of books aimed at protecting the millions of young people, who participate in educational, cultural and language exchanges or home-stay schemes every year. The books are aimed at a wide audience including young people, parents, host families, schools and other home-stay organisations, and provide expert advice and guidance to ensure that young people are safe whilst away from home.

The rationale for this initiative is so obscure that even Child Safe can’t get the web link correct, nor is there much evidence of significant levels of abuse associated with exchange visits and school trips.

It doesn’t take much effort to identify these sort of wasteful activities. Next time you read about a charity, take a moment to look them up at the Charity Commission. You may be surprised at what you find.