Opinion: To the point - The nanny database
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
This is not the best way to safeguard, says Childcare Corporation chairman Alan Bentley.
The publicity over the database extension set up under the Independent Safeguarding Authority has given many of us food for thought as to how we can best protect children in our care.
The first thing to catch my attention was the total lack of certainty as to when the provisions of this new legislation would bite, and whom. Surely, any law that could have catastrophic effects on a person's career and future needs to be couched in certainty, not clouded in ambiguity.
Phases like 'frequent or regular access' when related to the number of times a neighbour might deliver your child to school or a youth club are unhelpful. They are simply examples of a legislative process that is either under too much pressure to draft important legislation correctly or is caught on the current and, some would say, deliberate 'wheel of uncertainty' which pervades so much political thinking these days.
Correctly worded legislation is probably the best frontline protection available to those responsible for children in a commercial or state-run environment, but I am far from sure that it should further erode the ever-declining status of parents by regulating or limiting those they trust. Who is the better judge of a 'safe pair of hands': parents judging those they get to know well over time - neighbours, friends and work colleagues, for example - or the state, acting through yet another database?
Sadly, the track record of state involvement in choosing who is the best person to protect our children leaves much to be desired. From Victoria Climbie to Baby Peter, those with impeccable social credentials and clearances have repeatedly failed children. Further, there are times when having a security clearance plays into the hands of those who would seek to harm children. It can, and often does, lead us into a false sense of security. A database is only as good as the information it records.
Finally, we should never underestimate the value those who act in a voluntary and neighbourly capacity bring to our society. Putting such people through administrative hoops, and charging them in the process, is not the way to encourage this valuable behaviour.
This all comes back to the perennial 'Nanny State' question. Who knows best when it comes to us bringing up our own children?
