Big Buddy CEO says increased vetting will make kids safer

The architect of New Zealand’s most developed screening process supports the Government’s decision to toughen up on vetting rules for people working with children.

Richard Aston – CEO of Big Buddy, a mentoring agency that places screened male mentors with fatherless boys – says the newly-passed Education Amendment Act will go towards making kids safer and send a warning to people who abuse them.

“This had to come,” says Aston, who developed a world-leading 360 degree screening process that involves potential mentors not only going through a police check but being interviewed by both a coordinator and a psychologist, and needing references from – amongst others - a female relative; a work colleague; their doctor

“When I took over at Big Buddy seven years ago, I realized screening for most organizations meant doing a police check. I was staggered that people believed this was adequate – that it made kids safe when only pedophiles who had been prosecuted would show up on the check.”

“So we created our own screening process that I believe is as safe as we can get. Over seven years we have interviewed hundreds of men and accepted many of them as mentors. The strength of our screening process is evidenced in the fact that we’ve never had an abuse complaint.”

With initial support from The Tindall Foundation, Big Buddy is now developing their screening process as a professional service offering to other organizations. ProScreen will be ready to roll out in early 2011.

ENDS

© Scoop Media