Child Protection Officers

[Mark Mitchell]

What exactly do they do in Motorsport and how do you become one?
It's something I've noticed more & more over the last couple of seasons or so.

[fazza]

Child protection offices are there because there are a number of children involved in motorsport from karting throught to race and even marshalling.

they are there to offer councelling and giudence as in any other activity or profession where children are involved.

Quote for MSA website
Child Protection

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The MSA Policy Statement on Child Protection is as follows:

The child’s welfare is paramount.

All children whatever their age, culture, disability, gender, language, racial origin, religious belief and/or sexual identity, have the right to protection from abuse.

All suspicions and allegations of inappropriate behaviour will be taken seriously and responded to swiftly and appropriately.

As defined in the Children’s Act 1989 anyone under the age of 18 years should be considered as a child for the purposes of this document.


and link to policy statement : http://www.msauk.org/site/cms/conten...p?article=2575

[Woolley]

My experience of under-18s behind the wheel, they mostly need protection from each other...

[Suze]

My understanding is all motorclub's now have to have one - I know we do. It seemed to involve a lot of form filling out and a CRB check from what I saw.....

[garybirch]

While a lot of the paperwork, rules and regs are highly inconvenient, the thought behind it all is a good one.
I work for a church, which has loads of kids work and you can only imagine the work this produces for me as the Child Protection Responsible Person!

Recently we had an issue over photographs. We have to ask every parent to sign a form to say they are happy to have photos taken and published of their child. At Christmas one parent said no. This caused big problems for the children's nativity play as parents all wanted to take photos and we had to say no. But the reason was because this child was being kept away from one of their parents for safety and their location needed to remain secret.
It's a difficult one but I guess the safety of our children must come first, even in motorsport!

[M Greenslade]

Another consideration is that the Child Protection Officer is also responsible for over seeing the 'working conditions' of children, what I mean by that, is the club will often 'employ' children, maybe drivers or officials family members as runners or whatever in race control/paddock and consideration needs to be made to their 'working' hours/conditions etc.

As there are no longer any chimneys left at Silverstone we are left wondering where to put them!!

I do take this seriously for as a school governor I have to be CRB checked and we too as a car club running race meetings will need to appoint this position.

Bladders

[TFHarv]

Its a small price to pay for getting kids interested in all aspects of motor-sport its a shame that some circuits have not embraced the fact that youngsters are interested in becoming involved in the workings of the race meets and plan for it accordingly.

With the advent of Marshal Cadets and several Under 16's being present on the training day I attended this year is it such a big deal to have one person available to protect the kids and the people working with them?

My 11 year old daughter has expressed an interest in taking up a cadet position and with this measure in place I can begin to feel safe in letting her be in the areas she is allowed to work in without mine or my wife's supervision.

Whats weird tho is in my day this would never have even been thought about.

Its a good, clear, safe move that can only lead to good safe practices in my opinion.

[Tim Hull]

I do a lot of childcare in theatre. There is a lot of opposition as to why these young people who during a Saturday would wonder around town unsupervised, should then need such levels of supervision when performing in theatre. The issue is, when things are fine thats okay but when things go wrong, people always want to point a finger and its about protecting your back and proving that measures were in place to protect children from harm

Child protection is a very complex issue, but if for example a child were to be injured whilst helping at a race meeting, a club could find themselves in a very difficult position if they were unable to prove they had measures in place to protect harm coming to that child.

Its also very important to remember that we all share the responsibility for looking after children, not just the child protection officer. The child protection officers role is more of a point of contact should anyone have concerns over the welfare of a child.

We are living in a society of incresing blame culture, hence new rules and regulations coming in all the time to try and prevent things going wrong and people getting blamed. In 1982, at 12 years old, I started working the fly floor at the local theatre. This would involve the lifting out and dropping in of scenery. Any mistakes could easily result in serious injury. I spent many happy years working the fly floor, but a 12 year old today would not get that opportunity.