Child injured at actvity , follow up to previous thread.

[CharlesChickens]

Some of you may remember my thread last month. I had to ask for it to be deleted, as there were concerns it might compromise legal action.
So- my dd was seriously injured at a drama class that she does out of school. She was put on a table and told to fall backwards, for other children to catch her, as a “trust” exercise. The children failed to catch her, and her head took the full force of the impact. No mats, concrete floor. She has fractured her skull and had a severe concussion. She is recovering but not yet back to normal.
The activity took place at a local theatre, and had a small voluntary committee of parents, of which DH was one. (No one as far as we know, including the chair, knew the group leader was doing these trust exercises). The activity has been run at the theatre for decades and has a good reputation locally- I trusted the group partly because I trusted the reputation of the theatre.
The group leader was not insured, and although it states on the room hire agreement ( that DH had never seen before as it wasn’t his role, and the room had at times been given free) that proof of insurance must be shown or the room will not be given, the theatre had never checked that the GL had insurance.
We have spoken to a solicitor who felt that the GL would be found liable, but as he has no insurance or assets then there is no point in suing him.
The theatre did not report the event to RIDDOR , we ended up reporting it ourselves. The response from the theatre has been shocking, they clearly do not care about my child or us as a family.
DH obviously left the committee, but the new committee have insisted that the actvity was properly risk assessed and safe, and intend to continue with the same GL. He is a professional person who works with children. They are all voluntary parents, some of whom are friends of his.
We want to ensure no other child is injured, we have spoken on the telephone to the chair of trustees, he, like all the theatre people, is extremely defensive. They don’t seem to want to talk to us at all.
How to proceed ? I’ve left out a lot of detail re the GL and his behaviour after my dd was injured, but he didn’t call an ambulance and has focused on saving his own skin. Pretty much the same response from everyone.
We have had the worst few weeks of our lives, and are upset, stressed and I’m having nightmares and not sleeping well. Dd is back at school but only part time and I’m wondering if even that is too much.
We are not sure what to do now. Any advice welcome.
Sorry this sounds so stilted, I’m trying to get the main facts down without too much extraneous info.

I’ve put in legal, but my last thread was in chat, not sure which is the best place to post.

I remember your thread. So sorry to read that your daughter is still recovering

Even though the GL isn't individually insured, is the group itself as an "organisation"?? I assume you and the solicitor have gone down this path to no avail but it just sounds incredible that there's no recourse etc.

Even if not, is it plausible to "threaten" to sue for them to take the event seriously and put something in place to prevent a reoccurrence?

Speak to a lawyer. Soon.
I've been through similar and a decent lawyer will take all the stress off you and deal with it on your behalf.

We have spoken to one, but not seen anyone in person. No the group wasn’t insured, apparently it is usual for the person running the activity to have liability insurance, and for the theatre to check. At least that is how it works at two other local organisations.
Thanks for the kind words about dd. I am very worried about possible long term consequences, but we just don’t know at this stage.

Theatre have their own lawyers and they are insisting that the responsibility lies with the GL. I feel they are also culpable, but I can see that legally they may not be. They have been keen to tell us of their lack of culpability!
Meanwhile we have an injured child, we’ve had weeks of fear and worry and ‘phone calls to all and sundry ( Health and safety etc) while the people who should have taken responsibility and should be taking it now, are just covering their own backs. We’ve had no apology, nothing. No one has been to see us, called to ask how dd is, sent her a card, nothing.

I remember your thread. Have you seen this "risk assessment"? How dare they say it was safe given the actual outcome.

I'm sorry I have no knowledge on the legal side but surely as a professional person he will have some assets, does your solicitor not think it worth pursuing? It seems the theatre have also failed to follow their process to check the insurance so I would think it's possible you might have comeback against their own insurance but solicitor ought to know.

I wonder if there's any point speaking to the police to see if there's any question of criminal negligence here.

Ime It is usual to either check public liability insurance is held by the group (not necessarily the individual in charge) or if not, for the venue to extend theirs for a fee. Would HSE be able to advise you? Did they record it in an accident book?

That's shocking. I remember your last thread.

I've no advice but wanted to say I hope dd makes a full and quick recovery and that you get the resolution you deserve.

We haven’t seen the risk assessment. A few days after the injury We asked if one had ever been done, there was radio silence until the new committee , with more parent members, called DH to a meeting and apparently the risk assessment had been found, a month after dd was hurt.

I didn't see your last thread, but am absolutely shocked and appalled at what happened to your DD. I can't answer your question, I'm afraid, I just wanted to say that I wish very much that I could help you. I hope you get a satisfactory outcome, and that your DD makes a full and speedy recovery.

Also, please take care of both your and your DH's mental health too, as this will have been a massive trauma for you.

Wishing you all very well.

We don’t know about the accident book. We do know that the theatre manager did not report it, even though he knew the circumstances and that my child had been in hospital.
They told DH that it didn’t need to be reported.

The voluntary committee... does it contract the GL? I.e., did the committee members seek out the GL and ask him to come and do his role for money? I think the chap in charge has been pretty negligent but from a legal POV I wonder whether it may be argued the committee should have done due diligence. Is the theatre just a hired space? Does the committee pay for the hire of the room or does the theatre organise the whole thing?

I hope your DD gets better soon. Xx

ShovingLeopard that made me cry, thank you for being so kind. DH couldn’t speak properly for days after it happened. He has been terribly stressed, and I can’t sleep, I keep imagining my dds beautiful head flying to the air towards that floor. I thought she might die.

This is absolutely dreadful. I am so sorry OP, for your poor daughter, and for you and your husband. One of my children had a serious concussion this year and was hospitalised and it must be a frightening time for all of you. I wish her a full and speedy recovery.

You absolutely MUST take this further. Legal, police if necessary, whatever.

The fact that there has been no apology or recognition AND that the proper insurance and procedures were not in place makes it even MORE important that you press on and fight for those responsible to be condemned; just in terms of you "doing the right thing" even if no actual compensation etc would be forthcoming.

I honestly feel so upset for you. So so wrong. Please don't give up the fight; this is truly shocking.

The GL has run it for many years, 15, maybe 20? Could be more, he wast the first person to run it but he took over a very long time ago. He ran it alone, and then he fairly recently asked some parents to step in and help keep it running. Specifically DH was asked to help with one area. It was one of the original user groups when the theatre was set up, and they receive a lot of funding because they “support” this group and a handful of others.

*wasn't the first person, sorry I missed a letter out there.

Ps I also thought my child might be forever changed, or worse, due to their head injury and my heart goes out to you and your dh.

Oh and yes, the committee pay for the room, but for a very long time it wasn’t paid for at all, they gave it free of charge ,I assume because 5ye benefitted from the funding.

Coconut I hope your child has recovered.
Dd has been very different for weeks, explosive, detached, veering between over chatty and unnaturally quiet, very very anxious and clingy. This past ten days her personality is returning, her humour is coming back, and she is more empathetic. I did really worry that she would never return in her old form. I’m still worried about that slightly, but also about any long term issues that might arise.

Yes thank God he completely recovered, but it was very up and down and scary for some time. Take each day as it comes; two steps forward but maybe one back. Please please fight for some justice with this and don't give up. The outcome could have been even worse, and 100% heads need to roll with this. Xx

I am the chair of a similar group most such groups are members of NODA and hold their liability insurance through NODA.
We work with several theatres and ever year have to provide a copy of our insurance certificate showing a minimum of 2.5million cover.
Both the group and the theatre have failed.
The group should have a team running the theatrical side and then one licensed chaperone per 12 children, one of whom should be a first aider. The group should have their own accident book, when we are at a theatre and an incident occurs both the theatres and our own accident book need to be completed.

I’m so sorry to hear about what’s happened to your daughter OP. Legally, there may be a way of identifying an insured defendant but it’s complicated and you’d need a v experienced PI lawyer to look into it for you to ensure that you’ve covered all the possibilities. You could search the Legal 500 or Chambers for recommended firms, but if you’re happy to say where you are I or other posters may be able to recommend.

I remember your previous thread too, I'm sorry that the Theatre and the Committee have not been more helpful.

I hope you are all doing as well as you can in the circumstances. I would also want to take this further.

If the GL is a professional, does he not have insurance through a professional body?

This wasn’t run at all like that. The teacher person is the only adult there, number of children varies but is usually around a dozen or so I suppose. I was getting very disenchanted with it anyway as they seemed to just play games and do some improvisation. They haven’t done any shows or anything. Dd1 stopped going as she didn’t enjoy it any more but dd2 wanted to continue, so DH felt he should help out.

I don’t understand why the youth worker /leader didn’t have insurance. He works with vulnerable young people, but recently has a full time job so I assume is insured through his workplace now, but it seems highly likely he may never have had insurance. As he was running the group and then asked parents to help with admin/ fundraising, I think it is probable that the other two parents assumed that it was all sorted because everything had been running for so long, but I don’t know.