Taking responsibility seriously when out

One bullet that cannot be dodged in scouting is the responsibility a Group leader and others has to those children and young adults out on an adventure be it local or further afield.

My thoughts revolve around the hearing into an ill fated exercise by a group of Venture Scouts from Reddish, Stockport currently going through a hearing that resulted in one sixteen year old losing his life having fall to his death on the Great Orme, Llandudno, Wales an area I have walked around personally in all weathers.

The groups original plan was to go walking up Snowdon but this had been called off due to bad weather, not uncommon up there knowing that well so the Group leader seemingly arranged for walking to take place on the Orme as a replacement activity.

Normally in scouting everything around such activities is set through POR, Policy. Organization and Rules and you can't just gather members up and go off.

First thing is there was no First Aider which is a requirement from which gather one was assumed to be going with them but upon arrival was not to be found.

It shouldn't be assumed, it needs to confirmed, recorded AND contact needs to be made to ascertain how they were to proceed such as if a First Aider was available to come out to them and clarify what activities if none wore available could be safely undertaken.

This tends to be a reason for using Outward Bound Centres and the like for such activities - they take care of all of that.

The second and in some ways more worrying aspect was how the young lad and friend became seperated from the main party that was in any event running beyond Rules which meant they had no responsible adult supervising them.

This simply should not be. The group needs to stay together unless a seperate party is formed AND that has to be supervised.

That with the absence of Map to ensure he was on safe trail has how sadly he came to lose his life.

It's hard to avoid the conclusion this affair could of been avoided had the Group Leader followed the set down procedures and rules which do exist and to which no doubt local leaders will be reminded of.

Rules can be a pain and risk assessments aren't always flavour of the month but these thing exist for a reason.