Trips are off because of a couple of adults and what they did?

[girlfriend44]

I volunteer at a centre and we do trips out for centre users?

On the recent trip out a couple of the adults got in a strangers car and now the boss has said there are no more trips because of what they did? Is this harsh?
The adults that did this were Ok by the way?

Yup was definitely luck rather than judgement. If things had turned out differently your project would likely be closed down and members of staff involved might have found themselves in a coroners court.

@girlfriend44 maybe speak to the centre manager and explain why it's more important for them not to be big meanies than to properly safeguard their service users.

Vulnerable as in say recovering drug users or young Mom's etc so educationally and developmentally old enough to make thee decisions or vulnerable as in learning disabilities etc so not able to make these decisions safely? I'm assuming the latter.

So half the team failed at their job to safeguard their clients and they ended up getting into a car with strangers which could have led to them being mugged, raped or murdered, and half the team are minimising it "oh why can't we all go out??"

Bloody hell, I'm glad my loved one doesn't use your services.

YABVU. I think you need safeguarding training.

It is very concerning that you have no concept of safeguarding, given your OP.

these are vulnerable adults. They could have come to great harm.

you need to educate yourself if you wish to work with vulnerable people. Safeguarding is always paramount.

The issue is that if you have had a previous trip where vulnerable service users have been able to wander off, get lost and get in a car with strangers then you have a fundamental failure of your processes.

They should never have been able to wander off.

If they were judged to be capable of leaving the group and going for a walk then there should have been contingencies in place in the event they got lost ie provided a basic mobile phone with an emergency contact number on it.

So until your management can revisit that procedure, arrange any training that might be needed and re-assure themselves and any regulatory bodies that the gaps have been rectified, they cannot allow any trips.

It terrifies me that you don't understand why the excursions have to stop

Maybe they'll start up again in future, but only if / when staff / volunteers can demonstrate that they can be relied upon to keep vulnerable adults safe

Yep, trips have to stop unless they can be done safely. Vulnerable adults who are paying to be cared for have a right to be kept safe.

Just as an aside, volunteers at centres like this sometimes do have milder learning disabilities themselves. They’d not be responsible for the safety of centre users and obviously their roles would need to be appropriate to abilities & interests. But it’s ironic to suggest volunteers must be “thick as mince” in a thread about vulnerable adults.

The boss has made the right decision.

OP imagine if you'd seen the following post - what would your reply have been?

"On the recent trip out a couple of the 7 year olds got in a strangers car and now the boss has said there are no more trips because of what they did? Is this harsh?"

I suspect you would have been outraged.

You made your initial story sound as if the management were being completely unreasonable - but if you'd said "clients" or "vulnerable adults" the whole sceneraio would have made a lot more sense.

Fucking hell. I've seen the consequences of vulnerable adults with learning disabilities being allowed to make unsafe choices and it can be absolutely horrifying. I've seen what unscrupulous outsides will do in terms of exploitation and abuse if they get the opportunity to latch onto someone with LD... your service got incredibly lucky... this time.

I spend a lot of time trying to get across to support staff and carers just how vulnerable even their most "able" service users can be - how they hide their lack of understanding and can seem to understand so much, but they're just drifting along with the routine and how absolutely vulnerable they are. The idea of what you've just dismissed as happening but it's OK now is chilling.

Definitely this.

OP, if the service user was your mum, or brother, or someone you loved and you heard about this incident from the centre, would you think it was appropriate that the centre continues to run excursions without investigating what happened and how it could be avoided in future?

Trips are not off because of what a couple of adults did. Trips are off because of shat members of staff were unable/failed to do....ie safeguard the vulnerable adults in their care.

Until management are confident they can manage similar situations safely (more staff, additional training, new processes?) they are taking the only legal and moral action available.

I think I see what you mean op. It's disgraceful and a major safeguarding failure on behalf of the carers. To blanket ban all trips for all vulnerable service users is not acceptable though. The management should be looking at where their safeguarding processes failed and implementing change to ensure this doesn't happen again.

It's unfair to deny vulnerable service users the service they need and pay for due to inept management and or staff.

'yes agree, they arent going to happen again though, they are off now.'

It could though because it's not the service users fault. It's the staffs fault.

Op. This is how vulnerable people are kidnapped and god knows what happens to them. I don’t think y put grasp the gravity of the situation. Vulnerable adults are easily exploited for many things. What would of happened if the pair of them couldn’t be relocated? Next thing you know something happens and the centre could get sit down This all could of been avoided by someone being near not close to them. Please realise how dangerous this was and how bad the possibilities could of been.

Why is everything a question?

If you don't know that obviously the trips would need to stop because the service users are not being looked after properly, should you be volunteering there at all?

I’m none the wiser why the OP has posted - what’s the point they are making?

My DS (20) is non verbal and doesn't understand danger. Him getting lost and not being able to communicate, asking for help, is my greatest fear. Your attitude that the vulnerable people were OK is rather cavalier.

Who are you asking was BU?

If you mean you, then YABVU

Trips are off because of a couple of adults and what they did?

I've just spotted the heading of your post. You appear to be blaming the vulnerable adults for the trips being cancelled. It's not their fault

given your complete inability to form a coherent post about what’s happened then I do feel that maybe you are not best placed to take vulnerable adults out on day trips.

Sorry to be rude but either compose a first post with the relevant details or don’t bother. Cannot abide posters that post half arsed sentences and expect others to play twenty questions just to get some basic context!!

It's a massive safeguarding issue. Who was supposed be be supervising the vulnerable adults ?

Why do you use question marks at the end of statements that aren't questions?

In general it seems pretty clear that this incident indicates that you aren't currently able to run these trips safely, given that vulnerable adults were left in the centre's care and were allowed to wander off on their own and get into what was potentially a very dangerous situation. Until the centre gets to the bottom of how that happened and can put in place a fail-safe system to ensure there will be no repeat, they are right to stop the outings.