DBS and soft play

So why do they need to be any more DBS checked than a shop assistant in the local spar. If you are there parenting your child its unnecessary

What is the point when none of the parents are DBS checked? It would give people a false sense of security.

No it isnt. It actually has its business model based much more around parents sat drinking coffees spending money than it does on kids. Are you saying you think soft play areas should be for children only, with qualified and dbs checked staff? Would you pay for this, say £50+ per hour because what you are basically asking for is fully qualified childcare with soft play facilities.

My NHS one was not renewed for 15 years neither was anyone else I had been working with long term.
If people changed jobs (even a promotion within the same department) they had to get a new one.
A friend retired from teaching but had to get a volunteer one done so she could help with a couple of big events taking a large group outside school.
At least the volunteer ones are free to the applicant and come back within the week.
What about the other parents at soft play - could be a man looking after his children and we all know from many MN threads that all men are perverts and wife beaters. Or the 17 year old who cannot get a DBS as still technically a child.

DBS only tells you that the person has not been caught yet.

Relying on it in a soft play instead of supervising your own child is beyond ridiculous.

I had a DBS check when joining the legal profession 17 years ago. It’s never been repeated since. If you make it a requirement for soft play, would you want an annual check? Also would this apply to all forms of venues where kids might go? What about someone working in an amusement arcade? What about someone working at a cafe next to a children’s outdoor playground?

If you expect this then you must also expect ANY environment where a child is not explicitly banned to have the same standards. Post office, shops etc etc etc. In those establishments the staff has about as much responsibility towards the children as the staff in a soft play centre.

I wouldn't expect it as you are present to supervise your child.

You should recognise though, from a good number of posts on here, that your local soft play is HIGHLY unique in that respect. I have literally never been in a soft play where the members of staff are on the equipment in the way you describe. Parents are usually allowed in there too, especially when to help their kid. I see what you are saying about uniform, but the reality is, if a kid gets playing with another child and that child’s parent is sat there and starts talking to them, in your kids mind they’ve just become a safe adult because they are their new friend’s dad/mum/etc. So their kid wanders off and this parent stays playing with your child, no-one nearby would realise it wasn’t their child and your kid might not even register that the adult is still there. At that point anything could happen. If they’re a paedophile they might not have been the first kids parent and might ask your child to go with them and help them find their kid that wandered off. They take hold of your kids hand, say let’s go check the toilets and 30 secs later they’re out the back door and no one has a clue.

I’d like to stress this is unlikely and not something I think is going to happen, but using it to demonstrate how easy it COULD be in the standard type of soft play where it’s very parent led.

This

There are lots of blind spaces at soft play that unless you helicopter you don't have eyes on your kid at all times.

Also, abusers work by grooming families. Who better to babysit the kids than Fred from soft play who all the kids love. Poor chaps only on minimum wage so nice for him to have a bit of extra money in his pocket.

Ian Huntley didn't have care of kids like the teachers did, but the children saw him in a trusted place, then happily went off with him out of school.

Of course nothing will come back if predatory, but not yet convicted, but a flawed system is better than no system.

I would support advanced DBS for all soft play workers with flexibility to start work whilst waiting for it to come through so long as applied for prior to start.

I may have had a police check when I started my nurse training in can't really remember, but it definitely wasent yearly.

There was definitely something needed before then, as I remember having to have a police check done on me when I was 16 as my mother was a childminder (she and my father had it done when she started) - this would have been in the 1980s/1990s

It's actually better than that with the update service, new information is added as discovered. So if you were convicted of something mid-way through the year it would flag immediately.

This. Staff aren’t in charge of your kids at soft play and requiring them to be DBS checked won’t make your kids any safer. Mr Johnny Peadophile could take his kids or grandkids to soft play and you’d be none the wiser. Same for anywhere you go.

DBS ‘s are updated yearly if on the update service

I expect all professional childcarer’s to be on the update service

staff in soft play do not look after children generally on their own so no need

but yes as children are in the premises be nice if all had a dbs

Yes I'm not it's correct that you can have 1 for 17 years.

I volunteer with a baby group run by the local church and was told they needed to get my DBS sorted really quickly as "so many" of the volunteers were about to run out and they all needed updating before the new year.

i have literally never seen staff in a soft play interact with the children or indeed go anywhere near the actual soft play area. In my local soft play there aren’t even any staff in the vicinity to oversee anything, you have to go through 2 ticketed barriers to even speak to anybody. It’s a free for all.

One soft play in Kilmarnock did recently have a convicted sex offender working in it 🙈. Needless to say, business has now folded.

You haven’t addressed the argument that the other parents present a greater risk to children than staff. What do you think about that, and how could that be improved?

Responding to this point specifically:

I suppose it depends on the layout and rules of your softplay, but at our local one I don't believe it's the case that other parents present a greater risk. For the following reasons:

The staff wear a uniform. This gives children the idea that they are to be trusted and listened to more so than another parent. I've drummed into any children I'm caring for to never go anywhere with a stranger, but I think they potentially would go with a member of staff. In fact, when we're out and talking about what would happen if they got lost I actively encourage them to seek out a member of staff for help.

Parents are not allowed on the big playframe, it is instead supervised by members of staff. You cannot see all aspects of the playframe from outside so this means there are times and spaces that children and staff members are together out of sight of parents/carers. A parent in there would be asked to leave/easy to spot as they're an adult who isn't supposed to be there.

Our softplay offers music and arts n craft classes led by the softplay staff. They don't offer any classes run by other parents. Again, this gives staff an increased level of access to the children and an increased presumption of trust.

Some parents/carers, as is clear from this thread, assume that the staff are DBS checked so are likely to place trust in them that they wouldn't place in another parent.

I don't think, on balance, softplay staff need to be DBS checked, but I do think they pose a greater risk than another parent would based on my personal experiences of softplay centres.