A rather disturbing report on the BBC News this morning which highlights the devastating impact of a tiny minority within youth organisations.
It is disturbing although it is non recent happening in the 1990s rather than now with all our checks & training.
One good comment from the article
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Iām pretty sure in 30 years weāll be having similar things coming to light referring back to āthe 2020sā. Sadly these people are attracted to organisations like ours, and thereās only so much that can be done.
Being observant and fostering an environment where people know they can speak up if something happens to them is really important to getting rid of these kind of people. Sadly I think we often are still lacking on that second bit.
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Anybody watch the ITV documentary last week regarding abuse at British Gymnastics following the Whyte Report?
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This is really upsetting.
Its unfortunate however that people are getting away with these things, not just in our cities, but our organisations aswell. I hope that the people affected by these cases are doing okay and are making recoveries.
I think as an organisation we should perhaps put in some more background checks, but im aware that its futile if said person hasnt had any records.
I hope that organisations including ours can better ourselves, and create safe environments for people to defend themselves and speak out as already said by @JoeBloggs.
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Anyone else thinking back this?
we could easily tie ourselves in knots trying to get people but that wouldnāt really make much difference.
Itās the internal security & awareness & willingness to flag that will help prevent these sort of issues.
It doesnāt even have to be the cadets who are at risk but could even like the 50year old married WO officer who preys on the newly commission pretty pilot officer (& then blames the officer as they are the higher rank). Itās the on going training & reviews that will minimise the nasties & I think currently we have the right balance.
It is a lot better now & having a fully civilian safeguarding team at HQ which everything is meant to go directly to is a massive step in the right direction.
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I was thinking that & if memory served it was the SCC who came off worse.
However speaking to a friend in the sea cadets is that often if the try to sack a volunteer over an allegation they get threatened with legal action for defamation.
The ATC & ACF due to their funding have lawyers on call so call the persons bluff but the SCC (& similarly scouting) have less resources so rather than expelling they can only allow someone to leave & do a referral.
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Unless this was posted elsewhere, Iām surprised this one has not appeared on ACC, a recent one, and air cadets appear to be some of the victims.
A few āpromoted out of positionā scenarios by my recollectionā¦
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Iāve discussed the materials of AVIP and our safeguarding hubs and flowcharts with my spouse, who is a current childrenās social worker - and explained the various reporting procedures we have as an organisation. Many, I am told, are not fit for purpose and look designed to keep issues in-house. The advice should always be if in doubt report to social services/the police - but we are obsessed with our own safeguarding leads and process.
The organisation generally tries to handle too much; and gets involved with items which are best left to parents, schools and professional authorities to handleā¦ rather than volunteer safeguarding leads.
So there are probably lots of things that get missed, or are handled badlyā¦
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Same as has happened in British Gymnastics. The documentary showed that the police and social services should have been involved from the start,
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Letās be clear, HQ have made it explicitly clear that any accusations that would amount to a crime must be referred directly to the police before any RAFAC CFAV or staff member getās too involved.
I donāt agree with some of the way our Safeguarding stuff is managed, but there is no one trying to keep things āin houseā. If you see people doing that, report it to HQ. They are pretty serious about this.
Only after the police/social services have finished will HQ begin their own internal investigation.
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Christ, Iāve been shooting with him. 
I remember hearing about the hidden camera, but had no idea he was arrested for it!
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This is truly shockingā¦
As a cadet who is under 18 and doesnt usually look on the news, every once in a while ill scan through. Cases like this are a reminder that this can happen to anyone. I hope those children and cadets affected are doing alright. As to what @Chief_Tech mentioned about the internal information gethering, i find that very sweet and responsible of those cadets and they should be extremely proud of themselves for everyone on the sqn doing their part. Its nice to hear.
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Easy to say, less easy to make happen, like all
crime and neglect, not enough staff dealing with too many cases.
I donāt know how recent your experience is, but there is a big push away from WCPOs and WExOs dealing with things, and more centralisation. The reporting of safeguarding concerns is direct to HQ, who usually - assuming itās not an issue that needs dealt with immediately - liaise with external agencies. It also reduces the dependency on volunteers to deal with casework which is both above their capabilities and time consuming.
Itās coming with its own problems though.
Is this down to people being concerned with āreputationalā issues, same as the NHS?
I can think of a recent example where an individual (RAFAC permanent staff) was convicted of offences against children not part of RAFAC, and there was not enough information provided to RAFAC units heād interacted with. I believe those where he worked regularly were made aware but not those who (e.g.) had been on camp with him. I personally felt we should have had internal comms more widely and I do worry that reputational fears prevented that.
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