During the abseil session with a group of brownies, an instructor who is also a trainer (in house qualifications i believe) correctly set up a releasable abseil on the tower and a safety line using an Italian hitch. She attached a child to the safety line and brought them through the barrier. Instructor fitted a carabiner and a figure of 8 belay plate to the child’s harness and attached them to the abseil line. then directed the child to the edge of the tower where the gate was already open. She untied the safety line so it was a running Italian hitch with two hands on it and was about to start the abseil. All correct.

However, instructor then noticed that the figure if 8 was set up for ideally left handed use and decided to swap it over. It really doesn't matter and is just preference, but she wanted to swap it, fine. To use your hands to do something other than hold the brake strand of the safety rope, you must either tie off the safety line or move the child back behind the barrier first. This is standard practice and basic safety. Instructor did neither. Instead, the child remained positioned backwards with her feet approximately 5cm from the edge with an open gate, completely reliant on the safety line. Instructor then crouched and used both hands to swap the plate, taking her hands off the brake strand.

An Italian hitch requires a firm grip on the brake strand to function and provides no protection without it. Nothing. I noticed this immediately, asked her to tie off the safety line, and explained why. Instead of immediately rectifying the mistake, she stated "it's fine I've got hold of it," which was incorrect as both of her hands were occupied with swapping the child's figure 8 device and carabiner. You cannot physically do both. This was a catastrophic mistake. Had the child stepped back or slipped, the system would not have caught her. Dismissing a real danger here after it has been pointed out, is quite worrying. Report med to the activity centre.