Safeguarding Children and Young people

Child Protection in Sport Unit has a self-assessment tool which organisations can use to check that they are doing everything they can to keep children and young people safe in sport. The tool will take you through the standards for safeguarding children in sport developed by the Child Protection in Sport Unit. There are simple questions for each of the nine standards elements which will help you assess what your organisation still needs to do. There is an information pack to guide you through each step in a bit more detail.

The CPSU website provides information, guidance and good practice to ensure all sports organisations have access to the resources they need to safeguard children. It features a free resource library containing video clips, best practice, template forms, policies and toolkits, all of which will help organisations ensure they have the right safeguards in place. Click here to visit the website.

Whether you're a sports coach, club volunteer or committee member – or otherwise involved in delivering youth sport – I'm Involved - The CPSU's free e-learning training course is for you. This e-learning course will guide you through why, what and how to effectively involve children and young people in decisions that affect them. It should take around 20/30 minutes to complete. Click here for more information.

For those of you who haven't seen the revisions to the Working together guidance yet, CPSU have summarised the key points for sport on their website.

The NSPCC have launched a campaign called ‘Share Aware’. The campaign is aimed at parents and carers of children aged 8-12 – the age at which they start doing more online, become more independent and use a greater range of devices. The campaign aims to encourage parents and carers to understand online safety and to have conversations with their children about keeping safe.

For more information click here.

The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) has produced 2 YouTube videos, one aimed at applicants and one aimed at employers, to show you how the Update Service can work for you. They can be viewed here (employers) and here (applicants).

DBS Checks in Sport - Working with Children - the latest updates

The Ann Craft Trust is a useful resource designed to assist you in achieving best practice in safeguarding; to understand how legislation applies to adults in sport and activity; and to know, beyond the legal requirements, the best practice for keeping adults safe within your organisation. Take a look.

The above statutory policy has been updated to include new guidance affecting sport organisations. For full details please click here.

To support your ongoing activity with GDPR, Sport and Recreation Alliance has been working with their partners Wright Hassall LLP to develop the second in a series of real life questions posted from their working group, which combines sporting organisations and legal expertise to help support your organisation or club. The link to the real life questions can be found here.

This edition of the NSPCC’s national safeguarding Standards and accompanying guidance is designed to help non-statutory organisations put in place clear safeguarding arrangements for children, young people and young adults up to the age of 25. You can download it here.

They are aimed at voluntary and community organisations, as well as social enterprises and not-for-profit organisations that may not consider themselves to be within the voluntary, community and faith sectors.

The standards help organisations to take responsibility for keeping children, young people and young adults safe; have a practical approach; and comply with legislation and national guidance. They provide useful templates, examples, and links to further information, and are designed to be used alongside the NSPCC safeguarding tool.

The Safeguarding Code in Martial Arts recognises clubs or providers in England who have demonstrated that they have reached and maintained good safeguarding standards.

The group encourages Governing Bodies, associations, organisations, and franchisers to register interest and support the Code and activity deliverers can work towards attaining recognition along with clubs and individual instructors, coaches and teachers outside of a club structure.

The scheme empowers parents/carers and educational establishments to make informed decisions when selecting a club or provider for their child/children, young people or adults in their care.

The Safeguarding Code has been developed through close consultation between Sport England, representatives from martial arts governing bodies and those with years of expertise in safeguarding.

Support was also provided by the Child Protection in Sport Unit, the Ann Craft Trust and NWG Network.

It is funded by the National Lottery and was launched by the Sports Minister in early 2018.

Further advice, guidance and details can be found here. 

The NSPCC has produced a new e-learning training tool to keep you up-to-date on teaching children the principles of online safety, helping to prevent abuse from happening. Click here for more information.

The below resources are available to support with your understanding around online safety:

• Childline website:  newly updated, includes videos on a range of topics, its pretty amazing!

• Childline Zipit app 

• Childine partnership with IWF - Sexting and sending nudes

• #listentoyourselfie video Childine 

• NSPCC website online safety   

• Schools Resources

• CEOP - child exploitation

• Parents Vs Kids Game

• Netaware

MyTutor offer useful tips and advice for parents to help their teens overcome body image issues, academic anxiety, peer pressure and cyberbullying, including links to other important teen mental health resources.

For more details visit: https://www.mytutor.co.uk/blog/teen-mental-health-a-guide-for-parents/

The page helps children identify different forms of abuse, signposts a variety of online resources and provides guidance on how to seek support, either from a trusted adult or Childline’s services - https://www.childline.org.uk/somethings-not-right

The CPSU and NSPCC have produced some guidance to support activity deliverers, including being able to deliver virtually.

Read the guidance here.

Your child might, understandably, have some concerns about returning to sport as lockdown restrictions in the UK begin to ease and organised sport starts up again. Some children might feel nervous about meeting and mixing with peers after so long away from social interactions.

Others might be concerned about coronavirus (COVID-19) itself and might have worries about contracting the virus or how COVID secure a setting will or will not be.

There are lots of ways you can support your child and reassure them about why getting back into physical activity might be important to both them and their physical and mental wellbeing.

Read more here.

Non-statutory guidance for organisations or individuals who provide community activities, tuition or after-school clubs for children (also called out-of-school settings) has been developed by Department for Education and can be accessed here