CHILD PROTECTION AWARENESS PROGRAMME
RESOURCE MATERIAL
Guidance Sheet: Ratios
Due to the number of potential variables, it is not possible to recommend “one size fits all” guidance
to cover all activities involving children and young people. There are, however, a number of key
principles that are recommended as good practice:
Employees/volunteers (especially within the context of youth organisation/group activities
involving large numbers of young people) are recommended to make sure that there is
sufficient help available for activities to be organised in a way that maximises fun, learning,
safety and participation. When dealing with group members of mixed sex, it is important
that there are sufficient adults of both sexes to properly manage all activities and areas of
any premises in use.
The minimum adult/young person ratio in any group should ideally be one adult per group
of ten plus one other adult, and allowing an additional adult for each group of ten
thereafter. Local circumstances, the ages of the children, the experience of the workers
should be taken into consideration. Safety, ability/disability of young people and the nature
of the activities being undertaken may require that these ratios be considerably lower.
Many groups/organisations have a system to allow young people who are under 18 to act as
‘junior leaders’, but this should be about developing a young person’s sense of belonging &
responsibility rather than depending on them to take full responsibility for managing a group
of children. Junior leaders under18 years can supplement the numbers of adult leaders
supervising the activity but should not be counted as part of the core ratio.
NATIONAL YOUTH COUNCIL OF IRELAND │ 3 MONTAGUE STREET │ DUBLIN 2 │ +353 1 478 4122 │ [email protected]│WWW.YOUTH.IE
© National Youth Council of Ireland 2014
1