Brown And Balls Just Don’t Get It
Youth organisations, such as the Scout Movement, are less desperate for money than volunteers. Whilst more money is all well and good, it is of a far far lesser importance than having the adult volunteers in order to run the meetings and events. The amount of paperwork that needs to be done is exorbitant, the number of regulations massively excessive. There are forms for this, forms for that, forms for the other. Yes, it is all intended for the safety of the kids, but considering that it is all done by volunteers, the excessive paperwork puts many off.
There is also the problem of society, which often views any adult - especially men - who want to do this sort of volunteering [or even as a job, such as teaching] as potential or likely paedophiles. The CRB forms that need to be filled out are ridiculous and take stupid lengths of time to come back. I filled one out at least three or four months ago, and it has still not been returned. And since you are supposed to have a separate CRB form for every activity in which you may have some - even fleeting - contact with children, it is nothing more than absurd.
Most youth organisations have - certainly the Scout Movement does - waiting lists of children who want to join, but can’t because there is not enough adult volunteers to provide the service. Throwing money at it won’t make the blindest bit of difference on its own. It doesn’t matter how much “spare” money Balls can dig up unless the whole culture around youth organisations are reformed. Simplify and streamline the paperwork, for a start. Give the Criminal Record Bureau a damn good kick up the back side, and make it necessary to have only one check which can be carried across various organisations. But most importantly, society as a whole needs to understand the reasons that people volunteer in youth organisations - to pass on the knowledge that they have, and to enable a new generation to have great experiences they had as a child.
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The CRB is a huge moneyspinner and apparently fails both ways on occasions.
It is also a good excuse to override good judgment with dodgy characters- “he must be OK, he’s got a clean CRB”.