Nothing Ventured (William Warwick Novels, 1)

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Reading Paulette Jiles' revenge western Chenneville, it's easy to remember she's a poet. She plays ... English Outdoor Council, in cooperationwith the Outdoor Education Advisers’Panel (2005) High Quality OutdoorEducation I zoomed through this in a single day and I am now keen to move on to the next book. There’s no doubt that Jeffrey Archer knows how to write crime/legal thrillers. The form has, according to KathleenNicol, Training & Quality Manager atEnable Scotland, made a realdifference to the approach of staff. Shesays: “Usually the penny drops aboutthe advantages of risk taking and theimportance of not wrapping people upin cotton wool.”

Thrilling, absorbing and entertaining, Nothing Ventured introduces a character destined to become one of his most enduring legacies. Continue the series with Hidden in Plain Sight and Turn a Blind Eye.

No pain, no gain.

Developing confidence and risk judgement among young people is crucial if we are to structure a society that is not riskaverse. We need to accept that uncertainty is inherent in adventure, and this contains the possibility of adverse outcomes. Ayoung person’s development should not be unduly stifled by the proper need to consider the worst consequence of risk butmust be balanced by its likelihood and indeed its benefits. Counter-intuitively, the key to challenging risk aversion among leadersand decision makers, is the application of balanced risk assessment. It is only by objective analysis that the benefits andopportunities of an activity can be weighed against their potential to go wrong. Indeed I feel that the terminology should bechanged to ‘risk/benefit assessment’. For the most part, as previous generations have learnt by experience, it is rare indeed thata well planned exercise leads to accident. It will instead be most likely to bring a sense of enterprise, fun and accomplishment,so vital for maturity, judgement and well-being, which must nearly always offset the residual and inevitable risk. Our mantra atRoSPA sums up this approach: We must try to make life as safe as necessary, not as safe as possible. This is why I amdelighted to support the work of the OEAP and Tim Gill with Nothing Ventured. We welcome the debate this will promote. Cold War shoe banging. This blends a Daniel Silva’s art inclusion with a John Grisham legal thriller. I just like to try anything and I figured nothing ventured, nothing gained,” said Holly, 36, who works at Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship of Canada. ( The Chronicle Herald) Nothing ventured, nothing gained is a proverb that is over 500 years old. We will examine the meaning of the expression nothing ventured, nothing gained, where it came from, and some examples of its use in sentences. Young people of all ages benefit fromreal life ‘hands on’ experiences; whenthey can see, hear, touch and explorethe world around them and haveopportunities to experience challengeand adventure.

Risk-benefit assessment brings together in a single procedurean assessment of both risks and benefits. To quote thepublication Managing Risk in Play Provision: ImplementationGuide, which outlines how risk-benefit assessment can beapplied in play services and facilities, it “focuses on makingjudgements and identifying measures that manage riskswhile securing benefits”. The approach is supported byGovernment, and crucially has been recognised by the HSEas forming part of the risk management process, asrequired by health and safety regulations. Taking a risk-benefit perspective can alsofoster a better understanding about safety,and more productive dialogue, amongstall the parties involved. All too often,schools and providers can feel underpressure to respond to the fears of themost anxious parents, even when this maycompromise goals or lead to the wishes ofthe silent majority being ignored. However,where children, parents, schools andteachers, and specialist adventure activityorganisers and providers all accept thatchallenging situations will be encounteredand are to be expected, even welcomed,discussions are unlikely to lead tounproductive debates about how ‘safe’ anactivity is. This is a question that is all butimpossible to answer, because differentpeople have different interpretations ofsafety. Instead, the focus will be on thenature of the risks, how they relate tobenefits and how they can be managed. Enable Scotland is a charity thatcampaigns for a better life for childrenand adults with learning disabilities andsupports them and their families to live,work and take part in their communities.One service it offers is to provideactivities and visits for children andyoung people, including adventurousand outdoor activities. In response toworries that the activity planning wasbecoming too cautious and overlyinfluenced by the impetus to removerisk, the charity developed a risk-benefit assessment form that gatherskey information about the benefits forparticipants. The form asks about thebenefits to the person of taking part,and how would the person feel ifprevented from taking part. The formalso asks for information on whatcould go wrong – but the nextquestion is ‘what could be done to geta positive outcome?’ Nothing Ventured is the incredible and thrilling novel by the master storyteller and bestselling author of the Clifton Chronicles and Kane and Abel, Jeffrey Archer.Being clear and explicit about benefitsnot only helps with risk management, italso provides a sound basis forevaluating programmes and activities.This is an important point because oneof the criticisms of some outdoorlearning initiatives is that they are notalways well evaluated. Some local authorities are alsodeveloping procedures that allowbenefits to come into the equation.Worcestershire County Councilemphasises the importance of anexplicit consideration of benefits whenmanaging risk. Its Learning Outside theClassroom (LOtC) Guidance states: The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award (DofE)supports over 275,000 people aged14-24 in a programme that, accordingto the charity, “aims to instil a spirit ofadventure, and have a lasting impacton young people’s behaviours, skillsand life chances”. A key part of itsprogramme is for participants to carryout an unaccompanied expedition thatmust be completed through theparticipants’ own physical efforts. TheDofE’s Expedition Handbook is clearthat “adventure and discovery alwaysinvolve some measure of risk”, thatexpeditions should involve respondingto a challenge, and that one of thebenefits of doing an expedition is thatparticipants learn to manage risk.While the initial level of challenge isdetermined by the team, “the weatherand the demanding surroundings inwhich the expedition takes placealways necessitates the teamresponding to a series of unforeseenchallenges.” The Expedition Guide alsostates that, of all the qualities entailedin the safety and well-being ofparticipants doing DofE expeditions,“that of sound judgement is the mostimportant. Sound judgement, alongwith responsibility and maturity, arisesfrom effective training coupled withprogressive and varied experience overa period of time. It cannot developunless there are opportunities toexercise judgement.” Nothing Ventured... Balancing risks andbenefits in the outdoors aims toencourage readers to take a reasonableand proportionate approach to safety inoutdoor and adventurous settings, andto reassure them that managing risksshould not be a disincentive toorganising activities. It is not a ‘how toguide’. Rather, at a time when manywonder whether society has gone too farin trying to keep children safe from allpossible harm, Nothing Ventured... addsits voice to the call for a more balancedapproach: an approach that accepts thata degree of risk – properly managed – isnot only inevitable, but positivelydesirable. The method set out in Managing Risk inPlay Provision Implementation Guidedoes not involve any scoring orarithmetic, since such procedures canbe confusing and difficult to applyconsistently in play and learningcontexts, and moreover can struggle tocope with the subtleties and dilemmasthrown up by real-life situations. Instead,it puts forward a narrative approach thatsimply encourages those carrying outthe assessment to state the factors theyhave considered and the judgementsthey have reached.

A little probing will often reveal that theissues may not be so cut and dried. Theresponse ‘you can’t do that due tohealth and safety’ may not be based onreality, but on confusion,misunderstandings, anxiety and(sometimes) even laziness. Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival. While William follows the trail of the missing masterpiece, he comes up against suave art collector Miles Faulkner and his brilliant lawyer, Booth Watson QC, who are willing to bend the law to breaking point to stay one step ahead of William. Meanwhile, Miles Faulkner’s wife, Christina, befriends William, but whose side is she really on? When tryouts for the team were announced, Tanya doubted that she could quality, but she thought : nothing ventured, nothing gained. Worcestershire’s guidance, likeManaging Risk in Play ProvisionImplementation Guide, advises againsttechnical or numerical scoring systems,stating that:

no pain, no gain

The final section dealing with dueling courtroom dramas brings genuine suspense to a relatively bloodless, but thoroughly gripping, tale. Archer reinforces his position as a master storyteller." - Publishers Weekly

IntroductionChildren and young people have a thirst for adventure andchallenge. This is evident from their earliest efforts to crawland walk, and can be seen throughout childhood. What ismore, the majority of children grow up to be competent,confident people who lead healthy, fulfilled lives. Legal contextWhat does the law state about safety on visits andadventurous activities? The short answer is perhapssurprisingly straightforward. It can be captured in a singleword: reasonableness. Those organising and providingactivities outside the classroom are expected to takereasonable steps to ensure the safety of the children andyoung people taking part. The notion of reasonableness iscentral to the key legislation: the Health and Safety at Worketc Act 1974 and the Occupiers’ Liability Acts 1957 and1984. Review activity programmes andoutdoor initiatives and draw up explicitstatements about the benefits ofparticipation, including life skills andcompetences as well as curriculumbenefits. Ensure these benefits arewidely disseminated, discussed andunderstood. National Association of FieldStudies Officers (2003) Quality,Safety and Sustainability in theDelivery of Learning through theEnvironment Nothing Ventured... is aimed ateducational and recreation practitionersand managers working with children andyoung people, including teachers, youthworkers, early years, play and out ofschool professionals and others workingin children’s services. It has a focus onadventurous activities, although much ofthe content is relevant to other learningcontexts. It is written with an Englishlegal and policy context in mind, but isalso relevant to those engaged inoutdoor activities in Wales, Scotland andNorthern Ireland, and – to a degree –beyond these shores.Department for Education and Skills(2001) Health and Safety:Responsibilities and Powers (statutoryguidance note DfES/0803/2001) Of course, the key question is ‘what isreasonable’? The answer, notsurprisingly, depends largely upon thecircumstances. But two important recentlegal cases, explored in Myth 5 below,show that the law provides a sensibleframework. They bring out two cruciallegal points. The first is that the courtstake the view that risks and benefitsneed to be balanced, and any proposedpreventative measures need to take thisbalancing act into account, and also tobe proportionate in cost terms. Thesecond is that where risks in an activityare inherent and obvious, and peoplechoose to take part, the law takes acommon-sense position about the dutyof care.