I was chatting to my sister last night and she asked me ‘what would you do if a parent with a child who has special needs came to you and asked if their child could join Beavers, Cubs or Scouts?’ So I said I have a chat with the parents, see what their child’s needs were, check with the District’s special needs advisors and then if the child was able to join us draw up a ‘contract’ between the Group and the parents stating what we can and can’t do, what help we’d need from the parents and reminding the parents that we’re not child care professionals, but we will do our best to get their child to join in and enjoy Scouting.<\/p>\n
She was a bit shocked as a colleague of hers had been told by a client (they’re both psychologists dealing with children with special needs), that a local group had turned their child down flat!<\/p>\n
As we’ve had two young people in the Group in the past who’d both had Asperger’s Syndrome I was a bit shocked. You don’t just say ‘No’.<\/p>\n
Scouting should be available to all young people irrespective of their background or circumstances. Even if they couldn’t accommodate a young person with special needs, at least they should have tried and then seen if there were alternatives. Saying ‘No’ is just not on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I was chatting to my sister last night and she asked me ‘what would you do if a parent with a child who has special needs came to you and asked if their child could join Beavers, Cubs or Scouts?’ So I said I have a chat with the parents, see what their child’s needs … <\/p>\n