Despite this, children and young peopleface growing adult anxiety over theirsafety, across many aspects of theireveryday lives. While we do not wantchildren to come to harm, our fears canlead us to underestimate their ownabilities and to overreact to extremelyrare tragedies. After graduating from university, William begins a career that will define his life: from his early months on the beat under the watchful eye of his first mentor, Constable Fred Yates, to his first high-stakes case as a fledgling detective in Scotland Yard’s Art and Antiques squad. Investigating the theft of a priceless Rembrandt painting from the Fitzmolean Museum, he meets Beth Rainsford, a research assistant at the gallery who he falls hopelessly in love with, even as Beth guards a secret of her own that she’s terrified will come to light. IntroductionChildren and young people have a thirst for adventure andchallenge. This is evident from their earliest efforts to crawland walk, and can be seen throughout childhood. What ismore, the majority of children grow up to be competent,confident people who lead healthy, fulfilled lives. It will take skill and tenacity for William to solve the crime, and along the way he will encounter many who will change his life, from Miles Faulkner, a crooked art collector, and his influential lawyer – who bends the law to the point of breaking – to research assistant Beth Rainsford, a woman with secrets who he falls hopelessly in love with . . .

The benefits of outdoor education arefar too important to forfeit, and by faroutweigh the risks of an accidentoccurring. If teachers follow recognizedsafety procedures and guidance theyhave nothing to fear from the law.

Nothing Ventured

Nothing Ventured... Balancing risks andbenefits in the outdoors aims toencourage readers to take a reasonableand proportionate approach to safety inoutdoor and adventurous settings, andto reassure them that managing risksshould not be a disincentive toorganising activities. It is not a ‘how toguide’. Rather, at a time when manywonder whether society has gone too farin trying to keep children safe from allpossible harm, Nothing Ventured... addsits voice to the call for a more balancedapproach: an approach that accepts thata degree of risk – properly managed – isnot only inevitable, but positivelydesirable. The form has, according to KathleenNicol, Training & Quality Manager atEnable Scotland, made a realdifference to the approach of staff. Shesays: “Usually the penny drops aboutthe advantages of risk taking and theimportance of not wrapping people upin cotton wool.” Being clear and explicit about benefitsnot only helps with risk management, italso provides a sound basis forevaluating programmes and activities.This is an important point because oneof the criticisms of some outdoorlearning initiatives is that they are notalways well evaluated. What are the risks?Teachers can be forgiven for believing that childrenregularly come to serious harm on outings and activities.The media can sometimes appear to give that impression.Yet the reality is that visits and activities are by any measurecomparatively safe. Minor accidents and upsets are notuncommon – and should not be ignored – but again, there isnothing to suggest these are any more frequent than ineveryday life.

Developing confidence and risk judgement among young people is crucial if we are to structure a society that is not riskaverse. We need to accept that uncertainty is inherent in adventure, and this contains the possibility of adverse outcomes. Ayoung person’s development should not be unduly stifled by the proper need to consider the worst consequence of risk butmust be balanced by its likelihood and indeed its benefits. Counter-intuitively, the key to challenging risk aversion among leadersand decision makers, is the application of balanced risk assessment. It is only by objective analysis that the benefits andopportunities of an activity can be weighed against their potential to go wrong. Indeed I feel that the terminology should bechanged to ‘risk/benefit assessment’. For the most part, as previous generations have learnt by experience, it is rare indeed thata well planned exercise leads to accident. It will instead be most likely to bring a sense of enterprise, fun and accomplishment,so vital for maturity, judgement and well-being, which must nearly always offset the residual and inevitable risk. Our mantra atRoSPA sums up this approach: We must try to make life as safe as necessary, not as safe as possible. This is why I amdelighted to support the work of the OEAP and Tim Gill with Nothing Ventured. We welcome the debate this will promote. Professional awareness of risk-benefitassessment has grown considerablybecause of work on playground safety.However, it has long been implicit in theethos and goals of agencies such asthose providing adventurous andoutdoor activities, and has beenelaborated theoretically in the form of a‘triangle of risk’ (benefits, hazards andcontrol measures). The University ofCentral Lancashire, which providesdegree courses for outdoorprofessionals, recognises that studentshave to encounter risks if they areto become well-equipped to supportexperiential learning once they havequalified. Hence it plans to introducerisk-benefit assessment into its riskmanagement systems. The approach isalso being put into action elsewhere.

Of course, the key question is ‘what isreasonable’? The answer, notsurprisingly, depends largely upon thecircumstances. But two important recentlegal cases, explored in Myth 5 below,show that the law provides a sensibleframework. They bring out two cruciallegal points. The first is that the courtstake the view that risks and benefitsneed to be balanced, and any proposedpreventative measures need to take thisbalancing act into account, and also tobe proportionate in cost terms. Thesecond is that where risks in an activityare inherent and obvious, and peoplechoose to take part, the law takes acommon-sense position about the dutyof care. Many who work with children and young people wouldagree that they should be given the chance to learn how tocope with a range of challenges, and that they should notbe overprotected. Yet it is easy to slip into a pessimistic orcynical frame of mind about risk when someone brings uphealth and safety as an issue. Ambitions are scaled down,obstacles imagined, and enthusiasm levels fall.

Some local authorities are alsodeveloping procedures that allowbenefits to come into the equation.Worcestershire County Councilemphasises the importance of anexplicit consideration of benefits whenmanaging risk. Its Learning Outside theClassroom (LOtC) Guidance states: A mindset that is solely focused onsafety does children and young peopleno favours. Far from keeping them safefrom harm, it can deny them the veryexperiences that help them to learn howto handle the challenges that life maythrow at them. There is an emergingconsensus that our society has becometoo focused on reducing or eliminatingrisk in childhood. And research suggeststhat overprotecting children can lead tolonger-term problems with mental healthand well-being.When tryouts for the team were announced, Tanya doubted that she could quality, but she thought : nothing ventured, nothing gained. Department for Education and Skills(2001) Health and Safety:Responsibilities and Powers (statutoryguidance note DfES/0803/2001) Such materials should be helpful andsupportive. However, guidance can onlygo so far, and can never deal fully withall the possible circumstances andsituations that may arise on a visit orduring an activity. Indeed too muchguidance, at too great a level of detail,can be counterproductive, because itcan reinforce a distorted approach torisk management that focuses ontechnical compliance rather than criticalthinking and proactive problem solving.According to Marcus Bailie, Head ofInspection at the Adventure ActivitiesLicensing Service, when things gowrong, the primary questions posed inany resulting inquiry, whether conductedinternally or by the courts or regulators,are ‘what happened on the day?’ and‘was it reasonable?’. I just like to try anything and I figured nothing ventured, nothing gained,” said Holly, 36, who works at Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship of Canada. ( The Chronicle Herald)