Young Shooters - what do other clubs do?

[Individual]

We allow them with Parent/guardian must be supervised 100% of the time.

Thats how one of the clubs i'm do it,the other is considering a child protection officer so i've just seen.There'll be plenty hands up for that job.

Yep. There's always plenty of folk complaining that our sport is dying from lack of new members, but ask for help to do something about it and suddenly they are all busy rushing home to watch Strictly Big Brother.

[Mike357]

Problem solved Mr Smith, I'm going to volunteer. I'm already PVG/CRB checked up to my eyeballs anyway and have done a lot of work on this elsewhere. Joy!

[John25]

Problem solved Mr Smith, I'm going to volunteer. I'm already PVG/CRB checked up to my eyeballs anyway and have done a lot of work on this elsewhere. Joy!

BZ Mike

[Individual]

Problem solved Mr Smith, I'm going to volunteer. I'm already PVG/CRB checked up to my eyeballs anyway and have done a lot of work on this elsewhere. Joy!

Good for you mate. :goodjob:

I've just skimmed the 40-odd pages of Guidance downloaded from the NRA and the duties of the CPO don't look too bad. I might volunteer myself. Seems to me there is little actual work to do unless there is an incident of some kind.

http://www.nra.org.uk/common/asp/ChildP ... p?site=NRA

Also I can find nothing that implies or even suggests that a club should insist that a parent or guardian is present........
or that doing so would absolve the club from needing a CPO.

My reading of it is if there are any under - 18s shooting at your club then you need a Child Protection Officer even if their parents are there with them - am I right do you think?

[mr smith]

God you've got to love a volunteer.

:lol:

[IainWR]

The practicalities of the NRA process are that:

NRA gets requests for young persons to shoot. The requests get fed to me.
I ask for details of their shooting experience, competence, club status etc.
Based on that I issue a blanket authorisation to shoot at Bisley within certain limits, some of which are discretionary and one of which is electronic notification to key staff that the child will be on Bisley ranges on specific dates.
That authorisation requires, amongst other things, the Club to take responsibility for enforcing Child Protection Policy.
The authorisation contains a trigger for its review (usually the award of a Certificate of Safety & Competence or an age boundary).

We have separate processes, following the principles of the NRA policy, in place for the NRA Kids Club including CRB checked staff in the key appointments and a protection policy operating "out of sight" of the participants. Kids Club had a very successful first outing last autumn, from which pilot event we are developing a more sophisticated programme - watch the website and the NRA Bulletin for more as the team in charge get the detail ready for release.

Iain

[shugie]

The practicalities of the NRA process are that:

NRA gets requests for young persons to shoot. The requests get fed to me.
I ask for details of their shooting experience, competence, club status etc.
Based on that I issue a blanket authorisation to shoot at Bisley within certain limits, some of which are discretionary and one of which is electronic notification to key staff that the child will be on Bisley ranges on specific dates.
That authorisation requires, amongst other things, the Club to take responsibility for enforcing Child Protection Policy.
The authorisation contains a trigger for its review (usually the award of a Certificate of Safety & Competence or an age boundary).

We have separate processes, following the principles of the NRA policy, in place for the NRA Kids Club including CRB checked staff in the key appointments and a protection policy operating "out of sight" of the participants. Kids Club had a very successful first outing last autumn, from which pilot event we are developing a more sophisticated programme - watch the website and the NRA Bulletin for more as the team in charge get the detail ready for release.

Iain

Excellent. My lad, aged 11, wants to shoot, and there is another chap in my club with a son of much the same age and interest. I can't imagine many youngsters being able to get to Bisley without a parent transporting them, so I doubt that there is a lot of need for the child protection malarkey (on the rebuttable assumption that the presence of a parent negates the need for child protection). Most clubs don't seem to allow under 14s.

[IainWR]

If you feel the need for an age limit, 14 is one that has a basis in law - it's the minimum age for issue of a FAC. NRA uses 10 - the age of criminal responsibility - in several situations, and I would require a very good case to issue an authorisation for cartridge firearms on NRA ranges below 10 - nobody has asked as yet. There is actually no age limit in law for membership of a Home Office Approved club.

Iain

[Individual]

Excellent. My lad, aged 11, wants to shoot, and there is another chap in my club with a son of much the same age and interest. I can't imagine many youngsters being able to get to Bisley without a parent transporting them, so I doubt that there is a lot of need for the child protection malarkey (on the rebuttable assumption that the presence of a parent negates the need for child protection). Most clubs don't seem to allow under 14s.

As far as I can tell, and its early days in this adventure - presence of the parent does not negate the need for a child protection officer.

[Individual]

The practicalities of the NRA process are that:

NRA gets requests for young persons to shoot. The requests get fed to me.
I ask for details of their shooting experience, competence, club status etc.
Based on that I issue a blanket authorisation to shoot at Bisley within certain limits, some of which are discretionary and one of which is electronic notification to key staff that the child will be on Bisley ranges on specific dates.
That authorisation requires, amongst other things, the Club to take responsibility for enforcing Child Protection Policy.
The authorisation contains a trigger for its review (usually the award of a Certificate of Safety & Competence or an age boundary).

We have separate processes, following the principles of the NRA policy, in place for the NRA Kids Club including CRB checked staff in the key appointments and a protection policy operating "out of sight" of the participants. Kids Club had a very successful first outing last autumn, from which pilot event we are developing a more sophisticated programme - watch the website and the NRA Bulletin for more as the team in charge get the detail ready for release.

Iain

Thanks Iain - very useful. So from what you have said so far the NRA does not insist that the child's parent or guardian is present?

Think I saw something about Kids club in the latest journal? - will certainly sign mine up for the next version of it.