Safety checks threaten Scout jamborees

IT WAS just over 100 years ago that a group of boys set up camp on a wooded island on the eastern fringes of the Westcountry – and in so doing started a vast movement that would become popular in almost every country on the planet.

Now, after a century of character-building and good clean fun, the innocent sights, sounds and smells of a Boy Scout camp may be coming to an end.

The proud tradition which sees the Westcountry hosting dozens of Scout and Guide camps every year and which allows Britain to stage major international jamborees could be under threat from new controversial vetting rules, according to the Scout Association.

It says new checks by the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) could mean the major gatherings of packs from around the world are cancelled.

It was on August 1, 1907, that Lieutenant General Baden-Powell held the first ever experimental Scout camp for 22 boys on Brownsea Island in Poole Harbour, Dorset. The subsequent publishing of Scouting for Boys inspired the beginnings of the Scout Movement.

Now all those campfire songs and good clean fresh air could become a thing of the past – officials have warned Children's Secretary Ed Balls that organising criminal record and other checks on the thousands of foreign Scout leaders who attend the events was "just not possible".

Under the legislation which created the ISA, any Scout leader who attended without being checked would face a criminal record and fine of up to £5,000.

It is the same sanction faced by a parent who regularly provides transport for a football team or social club without first undergoing the anti-paedophile checks.

The Scouts have also warned that the ISA system, parts of which begin this week, could strangle volunteering.

Simon Carter, spokesman for the Scout Association, said: "When we hold big international jamborees we rely on adults from other parts of the world coming in and staffing these events.

"The rules for checking people out suggest that if they were to come along and do intensive activity they would have to be checked. Clearly we cannot do that, it's just not possible."

The association has asked Mr Balls to allow voluntary groups greater flexibility within the rules of the scheme, warning that parents who wanted to try out volunteering with their son or daughter's pack could be deterred by "bureaucratic and difficult" procedures.

Mr Carter said adults who were supervised while with children should be exempted from the rules for a time.