Under 18's & Caving FAQ

[mikem]

Taking under 18?s caving (parent / child type excepted) is going to require rules regulation and ?qualified? ?instructors?, whether Scouts or not. (Should it be any other way ??). There is no way to get away from this like it or not.

Clubs would still require their own guidelines, permission slips & "cleared" individuals, but don't have to go to the expense of full qualifications, even DBS/CRB for volunteers is free (although there may be an admin charge, depending where you get it done). It just needs enough people to be able to give up their time to make it work.

From AALA:

A voluntary association (a non-profit making membership organisation, commonly a club) does not require a licence to provide activities to its own members or, by arrangement, to the members of another voluntary association. They can also hold open days or taster events to interest members of the public in their activities or to attract new members so long as no individual non-member participates this way on more than 3 days a year. If the voluntary association sells activities to the general public or to a school, a licence will be needed.

Mike

 

[mikem]

I'm surprised nobody has pointed out that DCC have a page on their website:
https://www.derbyscc.org.uk/caving/caving_young_people.php

Mike

 

[Pitlamp]

Good. I admire their spirit.

If it wasn't for people like them then nobody would do anything, anywhere, ever.

And, deep down, we all know that we've done something equally stupid ourselves sometime...

I admire their spirit too - and agree with everything you say here.

Yes - I've done plenty of stupid things myself. Mind you, they were generally thought out carefully. A great many years ago, when I was very young, a couple of us made a ladder out of electric wire and copper pipe. It took ages to get all the knots in the right place . . . 

We took this to a local crag to try it out, whereupon most of the proper climbers lambasted us mercilessly. Except for one. He'd seen that we'd also taught ourselves exactly how to set up a safe lifelining system. He took the time to chat to us and soon realised we'd done our best to do this "training" as well as our childrens' budgets allowed, whilst also ensuring it was safe. He ended up congratulating us and giving us encouragement, together with some sensible advice. Top bloke; I wish I knew who he was as I'd love the chance to reminisce with him now. (Our "ladder" was discarded that evening.)

Learning how to do things oneself, from basic principles, is a good way to develop self sufficiency. Many of our best cavers started out like this. I realise we live in different times now and I'm not suggesting youngsters should be encouraged to go out and do everything for themselves. But including at least an element of it in younster training has great value. This might be as simple as letting each group member lead and find the way for a while (in safe circumstances). Or letting the whole group find their way, on their own, through a known (safe!) through-cave, as a final part of an introductory caving experience.

By the way, thanks IanP - your summary of the situation (above) is very helpful.

 

[Cookie]

I'm surprised nobody has pointed out that DCC have a page on their website:
https://www.derbyscc.org.uk/caving/caving_young_people.php

Mike

In a similar vain http://british-caving.org.uk/wiki3/doku.php?id=legal_insurance:legal_issues

 

[phil lilley]

As a DCC member i was asked to look into the number of request the club got from scouts requesting trips into the mines at Alderly Edge. As a Lcmla holder it was an easy enough task to contact the local scout county and set up what they call an active support unit. If im honest the local county where a bit upside down and back to front about the whole thing. So after 12 months of trying i gave up. 
Not to be defeated i contacted a neighbouring county who already had a caving team.  So i signed up with them. Did their child safegaurding course and now we are derbyshire north west scout caving team.  Funding was found kit was purchased (all paid for in the first 2 years). We have grown from just me to 5 scout permited leaders. All of whom came from scouting back ground. All are now decent cavers in their own right.
Setting up a scout team is easy really easy. If your keen to get kids out caving do what i did. In 2 years we have given almkst 2000 kids their first ( some of them have had 4 trips) caving experience.  We have paid for all the equipment  with cash to spare. We have along  the way  raised several hundred quid for cave rescue along the way

 

[Ian Ball]

Good for you Phil 

All you need for caving is a torch.