Safeguarding and welfare shouldn’t be a tickbox exercise but something that is prioritised and championed. By creating safe spaces in our North East sports clubs and organisations, everyone can take part in and enjoy sport and activity.
As your sport welfare officers we work with sport volunteers, clubs, organisations and activity providers to support with creating safer and more inclusive cultures. We’ve been asking volunteers how we can best support them in their roles, particularly club welfare officers. Often we hear that volunteers would like to increase their knowledge in areas like neurodiversity and disability inclusion, and how to have conversations about mental health with members.
Everyone has a role to play in safeguarding
To address that and more, we teamed up with our fellow sports welfare officer from Tees Valley Sport for the North East Sport Welfare event at St James’ Park on Saturday 21 June.
The event brought together more than 100 volunteers from clubs and organisations from across the North East. It gave them the opportunity to learn from experts in a range of safeguarding and welfare topics based on the feedback we’d been hearing. It was fantastic to see more than 20 sports represented from handball to swimming, power chair football, badminton, cycling and running – to name a few! The event aimed to foster connections to support volunteers to share best practice, learn from each other and from the experts in room.
The event kicked off with three amazing keynote presentations. First up was Dave from Durham FA who gave an insight into how youth voice is embedded across the organisation at all levels to ensure young people’s voices are not only heard but shape ways of working. We were privileged to be joined by Oli from the FA Youth Council who delivered the second part of the presentation to let us know about his experience as part of the national FA Youth Council and the importance of youth voice inclusion. Oli gave a fantastic presentation that hopefully encouraged everyone in the room to prioritise youth voice in their own clubs and organisations.
We were deeply honoured to be joined for our second keynote presentation by Dion – a survivor of abuse in football – who bravely shared his powerful and deeply personal story. His words moved the entire room. With raw honesty, courage, and incredible strength, Dion brought to life the painful realities faced by those who have experienced abuse in sport. His talk was not only profoundly emotional but also a stark and urgent reminder of the vital role each and every one of us must play in protecting children and adults from harm. The impact of his voice will stay with us all for a long time.
There are lots of ways to make sport safer and more inclusive
The final keynote presentation was from the wonderful Pool Youth FC Ladies Recreational Team who spoke about what they’ve done to create a space that’s welcoming and inclusive to everyone and which supports neurodivergent members to be fully included. There were some fantastic points to take away and each table had the opportunity to discuss how they could make changes at their clubs to support neurodivergent people.
We were pleased to be able to offer delegates the opportunity to attend two workshops in the afternoon, all delivered by experts from partner organisations covering a range of welfare topics. These included safeguarding adults in sport with the Newcastle Safeguarding Adults Board and Northumbria Police; mental health and suicide awareness with Washington Mind; online safety with the NSPCC; youth voice with the Durham FA youth council; banter v bullying; the importance of taking notice with Dion and Rowena; transgender inclusion in sport with Sport Welfare Officer Laura from North Yorkshire Sport; and disability sport inclusion with GB Wheelchair Basketball and the North East Warriors. The interactive workshops enabled great discussions, learning, and lots of ideas for everyone to take back to their clubs.
It was fantastic to hear the rich discussion happening throughout the day and suggestions shared across sports to support clubs to be safer and more inclusive. A huge thank you to everyone who was part of the day.
Clubs have voiced a clear desire for more opportunities to connect and collaborate – and this is just the beginning. Stay tuned, there’s much more to come. Hopefully we’ll see you at the next event!
Top tips for keeping people safe in sport
- Stopping abuse and neglect is everyone’s responsibility and anybody can raise a concern
- Be ‘curious’ not ‘furious’ – asking open questions and offering the right support is key to helping children have safer experiences online
- Speak up and support others – encouraging open conversations and creating safe spaces empowers people to challenge inappropriate behaviour and seek help when needed
- Including young people in your club helps to break down generational barriers
- Recognise that something may not be right
- Have the conversations necessary to keep your participants safe
- Understand the importance of being open to starting conversations about mental health with those who are struggling
Find out more
Take a look at the Rise and Tees Valley Sport’s safeguarding and sport welfare pages to see how we can support you.
Join our safeguarding Facebook page and sign up to our newsletter to keep involved with future opportunities.
Here are some other organisations that could help you:
- Newcastle Safeguarding Adults Board Resources for Practice – Newcastle Safeguarding
- NSPCC learning NSPCC Learning | Safeguarding and child protection
- Washington Mind Home – Washington Mind
- NWG network Voices in Sport Voices in Sport – NWG Network
- Community Led Inclusion Partnership CLIP – Hartlepool’s Community Led Inclusion Partnership
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