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Developing a Child Protection Policy for Your Club
Keeping children and vulnerable adults safe in sport is not just about ensuring that those who work in sport are suitable to do so. A trusted coach or leader may be the person a child trusts to tell about something that is happening in their life outside of sport. Those involved in delivering sport to children need support to be confident about safe practices and the action they should take if they have any concerns about a child.
Developing a Child Protection Policy
A child protection policy and procedures in place at your club will help to protect your junior members while also protecting your volunteers. All procedures should be specific to the particular circumstances of your sport and your club. Many Governing Bodies have their own guidelines on Child Protection for clubs and where these exist they should be followed. We recommend that you contact your National Governing Body as a first step to determine what arrangements they have already made. Where there is not a policy that you can adopt from your NGB, there are a number of other ways to help you in developing your own.
Several templates are available on the "Useful Club Documents" page of this site and can be adapted for your club to use or contact the Club Development Officer on 0131 529 7860 for further advice.
Child Protection Training
Appropriate and relevant training is an important part of equipping volunteers working with children and young people to be confident and competent in protecting children. There are a number of child protection workshops currently available to sports clubs.
These include:
scUK Safeguarding and Protecting Children Workshop organized by sportscotland. A three hour basic child protection awareness course that helps participants to identify good coaching practice and understand what constitutes abuse and how to take appropriate action if abuse is suspected.
In Safe Hands Workshop organized by the Child Protection in Sport Service. A three hour course designed for those acting in sports clubs as the Child Protection Officer. It focuses on helping clubs to put child protection policies into practice by identifying and planning action required in the club to keep children, and those who work with them, safe.
For further information on Child Protection Workshops click on the following link: Child Protection Training
Club Child Protection Officer
It is recommended that all clubs appoint a Child Protection Officer. This volunteer can help the club to develop and implement the child protection procedures, as well as be the first point of contact for concerns about a child. See above for information on specific training available for the Club Child Protection Officer.
Safe Recruitment and Selection of Volunteers
All clubs have a responsibility to ensure that all reasonable steps are taken to prevent unsuitable people from working with children. Procedures on the safe recruitment and selection of volunteers should therefore be incorporated into your club’s child protection policy. This subject is no more important than any other aspect of your child protection policy, however the issue merits being raised here in that many clubs are still looking for specific support in a particular aspect of the recruitment and selection of volunteers - disclosure checking.
To access disclosure checks we recommend that you first check with your NGB if it can process checks on your behalf. If not, there are other avenues such as the Local Sports Council or the Volunteer Centre that may be able to do this for you. If there is not an organisation who can do this for you locally, you can register directly with the Central Registered Body in Scotland who will process Disclosure checks free of charge for volunteers.
RECOMMENDED MINIMUM OPERATING REQUIREMENTS TO PROTECT CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE IN SPORT
The Child Protection in Sport Service is a partnership between CHILDREN 1ST and sportscotland. Started in 2002, the service assists and supports sporting organisations in Scotland to establish policies, procedures and programmes which promote the protection of children. The Service offers advice, consultancy and training on child protection.
Assuring the quality of the arrangements for protecting children in and through sport has been the subject of much debate in Scottish sport since 2002. Sports clubs are often faced with varying demands for child protection policies and procedures from Scottish governing bodies of sport, local authority sport and leisure teams, and local sports councils.
It has therefore been recommended that one set of minimum operating requirements are in place for sport clubs throughout Scotland . This was agreed by Scottish governing bodies of sport and local authority sport and leisure teams in February 2007, and listed below are the recommendations.
The final stage of consultation in this important area is to gather the views of volunteers and coaches who work with children and young people in local sport clubs. This will help identify if the recommendations are useful and practical, and gather ideas of how sports clubs can best be supported in implementing effective practice in protecting children in their sports clubs.
Recommended Minimum Operating Requirements for Sports Clubs
1. A Child Protection Policy which reflects national guidelines, adopted by the Management Committee of the club
2. A Code of Conduct for working with children and young people
3. A procedure for the recruitment and selection of those who work with children and young people, including access to Disclosure Scotland checks
4. A procedure for responding to concerns about the welfare or abuse of a child- within or out with sport
5. A Disciplinary Procedure for managing concerns and allegations of poor practice, misconduct and child abuse and includes provision for referrals to the Disqualified from Working with Children List
6. A procedure for reviewing the management of concerns about poor practice, misconduct and/ or child abuse.
7. A named contact for the co-ordination of child protection within the club (including a role description) who has attended recommended training
8. A variety of child protection training offered at appropriate levels for those working or volunteering with children and young people
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