One of the phrases of modern life that is guaranteed to divide opinions is ‘Health & Safety’. This is very often seen to be a shorthand for ‘over the top’ bureaucracy and regulation, or to stop people from doing things. With children and health and safety in particular, it is often portrayed as stopping kids from doing anything, whether that is playing conkers, playing in the schoolyard or preventing them from going on school trips. Many believe more time is obviously spent on so-called risk assessment, which ultimately stops anything from being done, especially from a fear of an organisation being sued by an irate patient or parent, than actually considering what activities children or others should be doing.

The truth is, as very often, a bit different to that. My own feeling is that, simply, health and safety legislation over the last few years has saved lives and prevented injury. There are people here today who might not otherwise have been but for reasonable compliance with health and safety. There is obviously a need to have a bit of common sense, but the idea of stopping kids from being kids is a bit silly.

As a father myself, I know this only too well. My youngest son Billy is coming up to being four, and seems to have set himself a challenge to see what is the highest thing he can jump from. He is currently trying to graduate from chairs in the front room or his bed to higher and higher stairs. He is obviously pushing himself and feels a real sense of achievement when he does the jump, very much what a four year-old little boy would want to do. It is a constant battle at the moment to try and stop him from doing this – a delicate balancing act of praising him when he jumps but trying to reason as much as possible with him to show that he might break his neck if he goes too far.

Billy is our fourth child and it doesn’t seem to get any easier with practice or the more kids you have. With the older ones, it is now a question of balancing giving them their freedoms whilst teaching them to be responsible - to encourage them to enjoy themselves whilst having respect for other people, to trust people and try to be friendly whilst at the same time warning them of the potential dangers of meeting up with strangers or chatting to them on the Internet.

So as a parent I’m very conscious of the balance to encourage kids to enjoy themselves whilst acting responsibly and safely. That is why I’m really pleased that schools in Hartlepool have been able to get involved with the ‘Crucial Crew’ event that took place at the power station last week. Crucial Crew is a modern and sensible way of teaching safety or common sense to 8-11 year olds. Phil Wilson runs the event but has involvement from a whole range of partners like the Police, Fire Service and others.

I have attended the Crucial Crew event every year since I became MP. I was pleased to have been able to attend again last week and I was really impressed yet again. The workshop I attended was one on road safety, where a cyclist had been knocked over. The interaction between the children and the people running the workshop was great, and I’m sure that the kids will remember the event for a long time. In many respects, it was just common sense – things like wearing the right clothes when riding a bike at night, not going into a stranger’s house when calling for help – but the way in which the Crucial Crew did it was exciting and the kids really enjoyed it. Much of it was common sense but, as I stated earlier, I think that is what health and safety is essentially all about.