Nothing Ventured (William Warwick Novels, 1)

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There is an emergingconsensus that our society has becometoo focused on reducing or eliminatingrisk in childhood. For instance, we help children tolearn how to manage the risk ofdrowning not by keeping them awayfrom the sea, rivers or lakes, but byteaching them how to swim, and how tomanage the water environment.

Over the last twenty or thirty years ormore, their movements have becomemore restricted, their free time morecurtailed, and their behaviour moreclosely monitored by adults.Learning this skill will be of valueto young people both in the work placeand in other aspects of their adult life. Moreover, whileanecdotal evidence suggests that someclaims are today being made forincidents that in the past would havebeen put down to bad luck, the typicalamounts involved are by any measurevery small. The activities on offer mayinclude building dens, using knives andtools, and fire-based activities, withchildren being given significant choiceand control over what they do.

Since 1996 (when these sorts of casesstarted to receive more official scrutiny)just two teachers have been convictedafter failures relating to an accident onvisits or outdoor activities. When William, fresh out of King’s College with a degree in art history, announces his intention to enroll in Hendon Police College, his father realizes that he’ll have to count on William’s older sister, Grace, to carry on the family’s tradition in Her Majesty’s courts. Risk-benefit assessment brings together in a single procedurean assessment of both risks and benefits. Only by facing, dealing with, or subjecting oneself to difficulty or hardship will one truly improve or progress.Those organising and providingactivities outside the classroom are expected to takereasonable steps to ensure the safety of the children andyoung people taking part.

The first is that the courtstake the view that risks and benefitsneed to be balanced, and any proposedpreventative measures need to take thisbalancing act into account, and also tobe proportionate in cost terms.While William follows the trail of the missing masterpiece, he comes up against suave art collector Miles Faulkner and his brilliant lawyer, Booth Watson QC, who are willing to bend the law to breaking point to stay one step ahead of William. Another sweltering month in Charlotte, another boatload of mysteries past and present for overworked, overstressed forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan. Shesays: “Usually the penny drops aboutthe advantages of risk taking and theimportance of not wrapping people upin cotton wool. The first, Tomlinsonv Congleton Borough Council, was acivil liability claim arising from a youngman who suffered permanentlydisabling injuries as a result of divinginto shallow water in a lake in a countrypark. Taking a risk-benefit perspective can alsofoster a better understanding about safety,and more productive dialogue, amongstall the parties involved.

OFSTED judged thecare, support and guidance of thechildren to be ‘outstanding’ and theschool’s SATS results are the bestsince she arrived. The childrenand staff wrote the risk assessmentstogether – for the play equipment, theplayground and ultimately forsnowballing. This is a question that is all butimpossible to answer, because differentpeople have different interpretations ofsafety. I then spotted the digital switching service in my Daily Mirror and decided to give it a go - I thought nothing ventured, nothing gained. One example from education is thewidely-held belief, especially amongstearly years practitioners, that eggboxesand toilet rolls are banned from use incraft activities, due to the risk ofbacteriological contamination.In the same way the Scouts Association,which has its own in-house insurance,contests all claims where it believes it isnot at fault.