COMMUNITY SPORT
IN SAFE HANDS
The NSPCC’s Child Protection in Sport Unit has been working with leading sports bodies for over a decade to protect children from harm, but now it’s raising the bar even further
RHIANON HOWELLS R
esearch shows that participating in sport from an early age has enormous benefits for a child’s physical, emotional and social development, as most of us
who were given that advantage ourselves can surely testify. But for an unfortunate few, who fall victim to predatory adults or harmful practices in sporting environments, the experience is not so positive. It was to protect young people such as
this that the Child Protection in Sport Unit (CPSU) was created in 2001. Formed as a partnership between the NSPCC and Sport England, the CPSU published its Minimum Standards for Safeguarding and Protecting Children in Sport in England in 2002 and
Nick Slinn (left), senior consultant at CPSU and Anne Tiivas, CPSU director
since then, around 200 sports bodies in the UK have met the standards, including every County Sports Partnership (CSP) in England. In 2010, the Sport Unit decided to go even further by launching the multi-agency
Sports Safeguarding Children Initiative (SSC) in England, with the aim of improving collaboration not only with other sports bodies but also with the statutory sector: the police, children’s services and local safeguarding boards. With the initiative due to be reviewed next year, what impact has it had? And what can CSPs, NGBs and grassroots organisations do better to protect the children in their care?
CHILD-FRIENDLY ENVIRONMENTS By the time SSC was launched in 2010, the CPSU had already made great headway with implementing its standards in England – almost every CSP had achieved them and the NGBs were not too far behind, but as
More than 200 sports bodies have signed up to the minimum standards for safeguarding children in sport guidelines, published in 2002 66
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