CHILD WELFARE
SAFE and SOUND
The NSPCC’s Child Protection in Sport Unit (CPSU) has been working with leading sports bodies for over a decade to protect children from harm. Now it’s turning its attention to the leisure sector. CPSU director Anne Tiivas and senior consultant Nick Slinn explain
What does the CPSU do? AT: The Unit was set up in 2001 following a number of very high-profile cases of child abuse in sport, initially in swimming, yachting and football. This had a very negative impact on the sports in question, and they came to the NSPCC for help with creating policies and procedures. It quickly became clear that a more joined-up and long-term approach was needed, so the CPSU was formed as a partnership between the NSPCC and Sport England; Sport Northern Ireland and Sport Wales soon came on board too. Sport Scotland has a similar partnership with the charity Children 1st and we share information. Our primary aim is to work with
the UK sports councils, National Governing Bodies of Sport (NGBs) and County Sports Partnerships (CSPs) to help them reduce the risk of children coming to harm while participating in sport. We published our minimum Standards for Safeguarding and Protecting Children in Sport in England in 2002, and subsequently published similar standards in Northern Ireland and Wales. Since then, around 200 sports bodies in the UK have met them, including every CSP in England. Most importantly, we’ve seen a major
shift in mindset within the funded sports sector, from seeing safeguarding as being just about catching dangerous people to being about creating positive,
Anne Tiivas Nick Slinn
child-friendly environments where harmful things are less likely to happen in the fi rst place. In 2010, we also launched the multi-
agency Sports Safeguarding Children Initiative in England to enable a more collaborative approach. Participating groups include not only Sport England, NGBs and CSPs, but also UK Sport, which focuses on Olympic sport; the Sport and Recreational Alliance; sports coach UK, the national coaching agency; the Youth Sport Trust; a disability sport representative; and school partners.
There aren’t yet any industry-wide standards specific to leisure centre or health club operators that cater for children. Is this something you’re looking to address? AT: It is. However, historically our funding has come from the sports councils and we’re very small, so we have a limited capacity in terms of what we can focus on. That said, there’s huge potential to help the leisure sector develop industry-wide standards. We’re not funded to do that at the moment, but the relationships have been building and there are a lot of stakeholders that want this to be the next step. The key stakeholders we’re pulling
together to work with us on this include local leisure heads and leading trade bodies such as CIMSPA, the Amateur Swimming Association and
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Quest – the Sport England-backed quality scheme for sport and leisure. NS: We also welcome involvement from the private sector. Any health clubs or other organisations that provide services to children – either as a core service or as part of a wider service to adults – ought to have safeguarding measures in place, and have a key role to play in any move to develop and promote safeguarding practice across the wider leisure industry.
When you talk about safeguarding children, what does that cover? AT: In the beginning, the focus was on preventing the appalling cases of sexual and physical abuse we were seeing by adults in positions of trust. Now our remit has broadened to address a whole range of potential forms of harm.
August 2014 © Cybertrek 2014
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