The compensation culture is still going strong and it seems we need to have health and safety training just to sneeze these days. In fact, I bet, somewhere in this crazy world, someone has managed a compensation claim from a higher authority after a place wasn't thoroughly dusted, bringing on a sneezing fit and causing a whiplash injury.



This need for health and safety training to cover every possible eventuality has put tremendous pressure on businesses and authorities and makes our lives that much less enjoyable. Companies fear getting sued for not implementing health and safety training for features of the workplace that would otherwise have been expected to be put down to common sense. Receiving thousands of pounds in compensation because your contract does not state that you shouldn't balance a chair on a chair on a table and then try to stand one legged to change a light bulb is simply ludicrous.

These difficulties have reached as far down the scale as to be seen as a problem even in the school classroom - and not by teachers, but by pupils. Children have accidents. They have a distinct lack of fear and will push boundaries continually to work out their own limits. So how come, then, was 2 pounds million paid out in compensation in one year alone to pupils?

The claims worked out to be the equivalent of one a day and they were of the nature that would normally have been put down to general accidents, the accidents of life that we should grow up getting used to dealing with instead of looking to place the blame on someone else or to not take responsibility for ourselves. Yet, in this world of money grabbing, everyone is looking for the first opportunity to make a fast buck and compensation claims are currently the way to go.

Manchester City Council recently paid out 5,000 pounds to a pupil who slipped on leaves in the playground. Well, excuse me but playing in leaves was a favourite childhood past time of many children, me included, and we never needed health and safety training to partake, slips and bumps were all part of the fun!

Another of those childhood games that have been around since time immemorial is 'tag'. Yet one child in Rotherham was awarded over 21,000 pounds for a broken ankle that occurred during one such game. Granted, a broken ankle is going to hurt a lot and will involve time off but what is the alternative and how does it justify this sort of money?

A similar amount was given to a youngster with no health and safety training on how to use a climbing frame before falling off. No, there was no major head trauma of paralysis, just the usual childhood bumps and scrapes.

How does this possibly teach a child to grow into a responsible adult, to take responsibility for their own actions, to learn that life will have its ups and downs, it will have its scrapes and its pains and yes, it will still go on? Quite simply it won't teach them and there are parents who would rather see the education system lost its money to ridiculous claims than spent on our children's education itself.

Before much longer, these children will end up staying indoors, wrapped in cotton wool and undergoing extensive health and safety training for life rather than being outside in the fresh air enjoying themselves.