Safeguarding and child protection in sport seminar

1. Safeguarding and child protection in sport seminar Paul Stephenson

2. Agenda • An Update for sports on the Disclosure and Barring Service and what impact will this have for sports clubs. • Disciplinary procedures: How do sports current procedures address issues of safeguarding i.e. bullying or social media.

3. Short History of vetting • 1981 Pre-Employment Consultancy service (PECs) • 2002 CRB established in Eng & Wales • 2003 Protection of Children & Vulnerable Adults Order (POCVA implemented 2005) • 2007 Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups (NI) Order • 2008 AccessNI established • 2012 Protection of Freedoms Act

4. Disclosure and Barring Service Update Disclosure checks available in NI • Enhanced disclosure with a barred list check • Enhanced disclosure without a barred list check • Standard disclosure check • Basic disclosure check Only staff and volunteers working in regulated activity (as redefined) will be able to be checked against the relevant barred list prior to their appointment.

5. What is a barred list check? A barred list check identifies whether an individual is barred from working with children or vulnerable adults. If an individual is on the barred list it is an offence for them to apply for a regulated activity post. It is also an offence for an employer/ voluntary organisation to knowingly recruit a barred person to work in regulated activity.

6. What is regulated activity - for those working with children and young people? (a) it is one of the activities listed; and (b) is done “regularly”, with the exception of health care and relevant personal care which is regulated activity even if carried out once; or (c) it is carried out in a specified place.

7. (a) The activities include: • teaching, training or instruction; • care or supervision, including health care and relevant personal care; • advice or guidance provided wholly or mainly for children relating to their physical, emotional or educational well-being; • moderating a public electronic interactive communication service likely to be used wholly or mainly by children; • driving a vehicle being used only for conveying children and carers or supervisors. Day to day management or supervision on a regular basis of a person carrying out one of the activities listed above is also a regulated activity.

8. Activities that are excluded from the definition of regulated activity are: • activity or participation of children that is merely incidental to what would normally be an adult activity; • “supervised activity” - an individual who is under reasonable day to day supervision by another person engaging in regulated activity; and • activity by a young person in a group assisting or acting on behalf of, or under direction of, another person engaging in regulated activity in relation to children. This is the “peer exemption”.

9. (b) ‘Regularly’ is defined as: carried out by the same person frequently (once a week or more often), or on 4 or more days in a 30-day period, or overnight**. **Definition of “overnight” - In relation to teaching, training or instruction; care or supervision; or advice or guidance, it is also regulated activity if carried out (even once) at any time between 2am and 6am and with an opportunity for face-to-face contact with children.

10. c) specified places, includes schools and day care premises, where an activity with children is a regulated activity if it is carried out regularly by the same person in connection with the purposes of the place where it is carried out. This could include, for example, sports coaching in a school. The supervised exemption also applies in a specified place but only where the activity is carried out by a volunteer.

11. How will organisations decide if a post is unsupervised or supervised? The law makes three ponits; 1) Supervision of the individual is provided by a person in regulated activity in a more senior position than the individual. Peer to peer supervision does not mean the individual is in a formally supervised position.

12. 2) Supervision is regular and day to day, i.e. that supervision must take place “on a regular basis”. This means that supervision must not, for example, be concentrated during the first few weeks of an activity and then tail off thereafter, becoming the exception rather than the rule. It must take place on an on-going basis, whether the worker has just started or has been doing the activity for some time. It must be consistent and on every occasion the individual is working/volunteering.

13. 3) Supervision must be reasonable in the circumstances for the purposes of child protection. Your organisation must consider if you can ensure a consistent level of supervision at all times to ensure that it would not impact on the safety of children in your care if a barred individual was in this “supervised” position.

14. General developments • 1st of April introduction of requirement to carry out at least 20 checks per year. • Portability in Eng & W - Spring /summer 2013 • Portability in NI Spring 2014 (issuing of one certificate only). Fairer, Faster Justice bill - DOJ • NISF considering registering to become an umbrella body.

15. Dealing with complaints and disciplinary issues. Consider your own sports written complaints and disciplinary procedures in how your sport would deal with the complaints brought to your attention.

16. Dealing with complaints and disciplinary issues. • What are the principles for dealing with young peoples concern? • Who should and shouldn’t deal the concern? • Should there be a charge for lodging a complaint? • How and who can complain/appeal? • How do you get the best information from young people? • Should there be a time limit on dealing with a safeguarding complaint?

17. Principles of safeguarding apply to the process of managing a case, not just the decision made! All stages of case management process need to consider the impact on the child (as victim, witness & accused) and needs to avoid focussing exclusively on the process of managing the individual whose behaviour has harmed or put a child or children at risk of harm. Often the accused becomes the centre of the process “by default” during an investigation, risk assessment and disciplinary process.

18. Examples 1) Team A’s coach is so concerned that the referee (who is linked to the opposing Team B) is not preventing dangerous tackles that he decides to remove his team from the game. • Team B put in a complaint to the league that Team A should be punished for abandoning the game. • Team A put in a complaint that the match referee was not considering the young people’s safety when making decisions.

19. 2) A child reports to his/her parents that he/she is being bullied by a particular child from his/her sport who belongs to a different club. They only meet at competitions but play at the same level. The parent complains to their own club’s DSCO.

20. 3) An experienced coach posts a comment on their facebook page stating that a young player was not trying hard enough and that was why he was substituted. Other young people start teasing the boy about the comments and the parent complains to the governing body about the coaches actions.

21. Social Media Principles • Club page - Followers not friends / moderator • Individuals- Lock down page to non-friends, those in authority should not have under 18’s as their friends, do not comment on individual players • Respond to online bullying - what is said online should be treated as if said in real time

26. Future Training • Anti-bullying workshop • On-line refresher course

28. GAA Anti-Bullying workshop for Clubs, Coaches, Players and Parents GAA TacklingBullying

29. This workshop and accompanying resources were developed in response to a growing awareness of the impact of bullying on young people in our society and in particular, in sport. Background

30. Definition of Bullying Bullying behaviourcan be defined as repeated aggression, be it verbal, psychological or physical, conducted by an individual or group against others.

31. BULLYING CAN HAPPEN FROM Young Person To Young Person Young Person To Adult Adult To Young Person Adult To Adult

32. Outcomes Club personnel will be able to: • Understand bullying and its possible impact particularly in the context of a GAA Club • Identify a range of approaches in relation to preventing bullying • Identify a range of approaches in relation to dealing with incidents of bullying • Explore the role of the Children’s Officer relating to incidents or reports of bullying • Introduce the GAA Anti-Bullying Policy to their Clubs • Implement ‘a whole Club approach’

33. Contact Details Child Protection in Sport Unit 0203 222 4246 07866545229 pstephenson@nspcc.org.uk www.thecpsu.org.u k NSPCC Helpline 0808 800 5000 www.nspcc.org.uk