Having done well over 100 residentials in my time, at the start of which there was little regulation except for good sense, these issues are close to my heart. Before the litigious culture we have today, there were moments when it was very much a case of "there but for the grace of God". I never had much formal training on what needed to be done. But I have participated in two sessions on running residentials. They were some 10 years apart and they were remarkably different. The focus of the first was almost exclusively to do with relationships with the young people involved, the intensity of contact and the dynamics of the group. The second was about the first and foremost imperative to cover your back - write everything down, just in case.
The need to do so came home to me shortly afterwards when I took a group of young people to some caravans. One of the girls on the trip started hyperventilating and we sorted her out but, as we were on the point of leaving, two other girls also started breathing in this way. I detoured to the local hospital. All the young people phoned their parents to say we would be a little delayed, though I had asked them not to say why, in order to avoid any panic. I consulted with the doctor, who told me that whatever might have caused the hyperventilating was now in the past and therefore there was little point in telling all the parents when we got home. I duly reported what had happened to the parents of the three girls concerned but not to any others.
Over the next two days, another half dozen of the girls who had been away displayed similar breathing problems. By then I had discovered that, though quite rare, this was a phenomenon that sometimes affected teenage girls. It could happen any time. I still have no idea what caused it, but when one father physically assaulted me on the Wednesday night, alleging that it was entirely my fault, I thought very seriously about ever providing a residential experience again.
