Child protection legislation
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| little_a |  | Child protection legislation | 10-12-2007 @ 11:03 |
 still a devious weightlifting bastard Member 43, 14374 posts | Or more to the point, Child protection legislation with regard to BWLA/ non BWLA members at gym level. On reading the NWnewsletter yesterday it would appear that if an under 18YO trains at a gym then EVERY member of that gym is required to be background checked. Did I get that right, and if so who will pay for it? Questions and debates a plenty me thinks... As Martin (I think it was Martin?) wrote, this cant help membership. Do we need Ed Clarke to get the red arrows to bomb France or what? | ||
| Martin1956 | | ... | 10-12-2007 @ 11:46 |
 Old Age Presser Member 75, 7740 posts SQ 0, BP 200, DL 200400.0 kgs @ 105kgs Eq | The BWLA guidlines haven't come out yet Andy, and I was torn between not scarmongering and not reporting back on a meeting I attended as NW Powerlifting rep. It's nothing to do with the EU, btw. It's all British legislation arising out of various things including the Soham murders, the case where the swimming coach was jailed for molesting a young girl in his charge, and several others as well. It's being driven by UK Sport rather than BWLA, and basically if you want their funds you go along with their initiatives. I think it's fair to say that many at the meeting felt that this was over-legislation that may hurt sport. Not just powerlifting, but all sports. If you think we've got problems, think about the local tennis club, rugby club or swimming club. And will a golf club have to police check every member (average 600 per club) in case they're drawn with a talented 15 year old in the monthly medal? I actually think that the powerlifting solution should be police-checked chaperones if a parent or guardian could not be in attendance, but I don't think that is enough to comply with UK Sport's standards on this. It's also a complex subject to get across in a few sentences. The presentation at the Governing Council took the best part of 4 hours, and they weren't doing all that talking for the fun of it! My worry, which I stated at the council meeting, is that this will either kill off junior lifting or confine it to the school environment if we're not careful. If we have 30 lifters and one of them is a junior, the temptation will clearly be to tell the junior to come back when they're 18. Similarly if a talented 17 year old walks into Adlington, for example. Do you police check everyone else, or tell the junior to come back in a year? And what if one or two of the members "fail" the police checks if they've been accused of something in the past but never charged? I was accused of assault last year by a drunken ex-partner. Totally false accusation, but you can bet your bottom dollar it's still on a file somewhere. My feelings on this, and I stress they're only mine, is that this could badly damage under 18 lifting, and in seeking to protect young people it may well end up depriving them of sporting opportunities. And then we'll just moan some more about how kids spend too much time in front of computers and don't have active enough lifestyles... | ||
| little_a | | ... | 10-12-2007 @ 13:10 |
still a devious weightlifting bastard Member 43, 14374 posts | Martin1956 said: My feelings on this, and I stress they're only mine, is that this could badly damage under 18 lifting, and in seeking to protect young people it may well end up depriving them of sporting opportunities. And then we'll just moan some more about how kids spend too much time in front of computers and don't have active enough lifestyles... They arnt just YOUR feelings Martin. For me this is definately OTT. BWLA has implemented vetting of club coaches (certainly for OL, where the age of entry to the sport is younger) for some time, which I see as reasonable, but every single member? in every club, in every sport? Then we have the problem of public swimming baths etc, walking accross playing fields where kids are having a kick about. Barpeople have to be 18 to sell alcohol, but pot collectors can work in pubs and clubs under that age. You can see where I'm heading here guys? I may be stretching it a little, but seriously, where will it stop? | ||
| brynevans | | ... | 10-12-2007 @ 13:51 |
 Scotbasher - forever Member 59, 2115 posts | From a contest perspective I think it may be that your parent/guardian must accompany you on the day if you are U18. Most parents are going to be driving their child to and from an event anyway. As far as bwla powerlifting clubs are concerned (I think only catts is?)I just dont think people will form official clubs anymore if it's over legislated, the only advantage is each member saves a fiver per year on fees but it costs about £50. ithink to register the club so it needs 10 members at least. This could be the end of clubs if all the police checks are needed etc. We will just have to wait and see what the official situation is. | ||
| marc | | ... | 10-12-2007 @ 13:51 |
 Dancing queenfeel the beat from the tambourine Member 84, 2415 posts SQ 225, BP 170, DL 275670.0 kgs @ 103kgs UnEq | A lot of the time i feel we pay for the governments failings, nonces get let back into the community after serving shorter sentences than say a car thief or football hooligan. Then the rest of us have to pay for finding them when the government loses them, crb checks, government funding to pay for special centres for these sick f**ks. sorry to sound working class(which i am) and council estate mentality(which i come from) but if the superior interlects that rule this country realised once a nonce always a nonce, gave everyone of them life imprionment, castration or the death penalty, then we might solve a few problems at source and in the long run save the hard working man in the street a few quid, especially when the after effects are starting to effect peoples pastimes. | ||
| Martin1956 | | ... | 10-12-2007 @ 14:54 |
Old Age Presser Member 75, 7740 posts SQ 0, BP 200, DL 200400.0 kgs @ 105kgs Eq | Without writing pages here, I can only reiterate that it's not a BWLA problem. BWLA is being driven by UK Sport, which in turn would claim to be driven by legislative requirements. Over legislation? Of course it is. But do kiddie fiddlers use sports clubs as a way of getting close to kids? Of course they do. So the trouble is where do you draw the line I guess. Sometimes bad laws come about for the best of reasons. I'm not advocating this, but I can see more and more clubs being for 18+ only, and for junior comps to be held totally separately to senior/masters ones. I specifically asked that if half a dozen of us trained at regular times in a commercial gym and a 16 year old asked to join us, surely that wouldn't be regarded as a club. The answer was that it probably would be, but until the guidlines are finalised there's still a bit of guesswork involved. As I said, I didn't want to start scaremongering before guidlines came out. But if I go to a meeting representing a group of people, I think I have some obligation to report back on the business of the meeting. | ||