Guiding principle

Educating stakeholders on child safeguarding is a key action in the primary prevention of violence and abuse in sport.

Everyone with responsibilities for children and young people in sport, whether they are volunteers or paid staff (including coaches, sport leaders, managers and senior leadership) should have access to information, education, and training on safeguarding children in sport. Children and young athletes should also have access to information and educational materials about their rights and potential risks of violence and abuse, adapted to their evolving capacity.

Trainings should be regularly organised and developed in collaboration with relevant stakeholders and experts. Those with specialist roles in safeguarding, such as child safeguarding officers will need a higher level of training to ensure they have the right skills, knowledge and competencies to fulfil their roles and responsibilities.

 

 Tips from partners and experts when developing educational programmes and materials

  1. An educational programme on child safeguarding needs to be included in the general educational programme for coaches, sport leaders, sport managers, PE teachers, etc.
  2. Educational programmes should include information on definitions and examples of abuse and violence, relevant legal frameworks, prevention and protection and reporting and referral systems.
  3. Engage with the voices of athletes, especially people with lived experience of violence and abuse in sport.
  4. Use experts in relevant fields, e.g. psychologists, child safeguarding experts, etc.
  5. Target sport leaders, sport managers and coaches (at federation and club level), students in sport sciences, athletes, volunteers, PE teachers, child safeguarding officers and parents or guardians.
  6. Clarify who your target group is and prepare tailored educational materials. Trainings need to be arranged and tailored to specific roles and responsibilities (e.g. trainings on investigations for child safeguarding officers).
  7. Use an interactive, results-oriented approach and if targeting children, make sure to use a child-friendly format (e.g. open discussion).
  8. Use new media (webinars, online tutorials, social media and apps) but also consider the value of including face-to-face information which can be better suited to the delivery of material on the sensitive topics of abuse and violence. It is crucial to acknowledge that topics of abuse and violence are sensitive.
  9. Install an accreditation system for sport organisations to stimulate the participation of staff.
  10. Provide support for people who may be affected by training/education.
  11. Train the trainers who are responsible for the educational programmes for coaches, sport leaders, managers, etc.

The training kit, developed as part of the PSS+ project, provides information and training content to help those in positions of influence in the field of sport to prevent and react to situations of potential sexual violence in sport.

 

More precisely, it aims at helping trainers / instructors, sport leaders, coaches, physical education teachers, etc. to:

  • Understand what sexual violence is in the field of sport so as to prevent it from happening
  • React appropriately in cases of sexual violence or suspicion of sexual violence
  • Provide information on the existing support services and / or helplines
  • Implement preventive measures – avoid / reduce risk situations

Examples of practices and initiatives

Guide for the detection of child sexual abuse in sports for professionals (Campaign “Child Sexual Abuse Stays Offside” for the prevention and detection of child sexual abuse in sports)

 Organisation responsible: Official organisation: Spanish High Council for Sports (Consejo Superior de Deportes)

Supporting organisations: Fundación Deporte Joven and UNICEF Spain

Authors: F. Javier Romeo-Biedma and Pepa Horno Goicoechea (Espirales Consultoría de Infancia)

 Target groups of the practice: Coaches, sport leaders, Child Safeguarding Officers

 Background: The Spanish High Council for Sports (Consejo Superior de Deportes) started recruiting experts for the campaign “Child Sexual Abuse Stays Offside” in 2017 to act for the protection of children and adolescents in sport. Support from Fundación Deporte Joven, a foundation for the promotion of sports among children and youth, and UNICEF Spain was provided and the campaign was developed by Espirales Consultoría de Infancia, an international Child Protection Consultancy firm based in Spain.

 Summary: The campaign “Child Sexual Abuse Stays Offside” for the prevention and detection of child sexual abuse in sport includes a set of materials to present the diverse aspects that need to be tackled in trainings, matches, competitions and sport environments to reduce child sexual abuse, detect it quickly and when it happens to react appropriately.

The technical revision of the campaign products of the campaign was provided by experts in the Council of Europe and the non-profit organisation “Oro, Plata y Bronce.” The campaign was also supported by the “Start to Talk” initiative of the Council of Europe.

“The Guidewas developed to help professionals identify indicators (physical, emotional, behavioural etc) and debunk myths of child sexual abuse that can be observed in sports. Guidelines on the referral of cases to the authorities is included. “The Guide” and campaign materials are still used to provide sessions from short introductions to in-depth training in organisations.

 Timeframe: 2018

 More information available here:

 Detailed description 

Safeguarding Officers Training

 Organisation responsible: Centre for Ethics in Sport (ICES), Belgium

 Target groups of the practice: Safeguarding officers in sport federations and sport clubs

 Background: Every recognised sports federation in Belgium (73) is required to have a Safeguarding Officer (SO). Multiple federations have more than one and some non-recognised sports federations also have an SO. The SO is the first point of contact in the sports federation for anyone who has a question, comment or complaint relating to physical, psychological or sexual transgressive behaviour and integrity. Providing training courses is important to support the development of skills required for this role.

 Summary: The Safeguarding Officers Training is a two-day programme:

Day 1:

  • Information about well-being and transgressive behaviours in sports.
  • Theoretical background of the Flag system.
  • Practice moment.
  • The role and function of Safeguarding Officers.

Day 2:

  • Protocol of action - what to do and how to handle complaints, presumptions or reports of transgressive behaviour.
  • Criminal law and disciplinary law.
  • Interview skills.

Following the training, the SO is equipped to:

  • Act as a contact point for integrity and communicate this to colleagues, elite athletes, members, clubs, sports coaches, etc.
  • Take part in followup days and exchange experiences with other association SOs.
  • Support club SO and club management in incidents of transgressive behaviour.
  • Contact ICES in case of questions or incidents of crossborder behaviour using Registration and Report Document.

In 2021, 11 federation and 7 municipality SOs completed the training.

 Timeframe: 2018 - ongoing

 More information available here and here
Overview of ICES workshops

 Detailed description 

Sport with Boundaries for Youngsters

 Organisation responsible: Centre for Ethics in Sport (ICES), Belgium

 Target groups of the practice: Young people aged between 12 and 18 years

 Background: Children and young athletes are constantly discovering their own boundaries and those of others. They do this at home, at school, in youth movements, in sports clubs, at sports camps or during sports training.

Understanding where an individual’s boundaries lie and responding to the boundaries of another person is not always easy. The programme offers two games to help young athletes between the ages of 12 and 18 years reflect on sexual behaviour and what they think is OK and not OK.

 Summary: The aim of the tool is to:

  • Support participants reflect on how they could react to situations.
  • Help them talk about individual differences and how they experience certain situations.

The two games are:

  1. Is it alright? Cards are put in piles (who, what, where). The athletes choose a card from each pile to compile a whole situation. They discuss in pairs whether they think this situation is OK or not OK, and why. Encourage them to think about how they would react to the situation and share responses with group.
  2. The Flag System Divide group and give them a number of situations. Have the groups divide the situations into 'OK' and 'Not OK'. They should rank all situations from 'Totally OK' to 'Not OK at all'. Have the athletes go over their rankings and explain why they think something is (not) ok. Inform them that some of the situations are examples of sexually harmful behaviour. Answers are posted on the board and linked to the six criteria of the flag system.

 Timeframe: 2020 - ongoing

 More information available here

 Detailed description 

Sport with Boundaries: The Flag System

 Organisation responsible: Centre for Ethics in Sport (ICES), Belgium

 Target groups of the practice: Coaches, sport club administrators, Safeguarding Officers, volunteers, staff sport organisations.

 Background: Since 2012, Flemish sport authorities have been implementing a comprehensive and cohesive policy to prevent sexual violence against minors in sport. This includes preventive, protective and curative measures. The framework consists of 11 instruments, includes a manual on how to start implementing preventive, protective and curative measures and the sport-specific Flag System. The framework is available to all Flemish sport organisations.

 Summary: Together with Sensoa, the owner of the Flag System methodology, ICES created the ‘Sport with boundaries Flag System which applies the methodology to sport-specific cases of sexual harassment and abuse. The flag system is an educational tool used to assess ‘sexually transgressive behaviour’ towards or among children and youth. The tool offers concrete guidelines and assessment criteria which are useful when assessing and reacting to cases of sexual harassment and abuse in sport settings. The visually attractive tool uses cartoons, depicting ‘real life’ cases of accepted and unaccepted behaviours. The tool also underlines the importance of children’s sexual development and ‘normal’, accepted sexual behaviour. Recently, two educational resources have been developed based on the Flag System, an informative website for professionals in sport, youth work and education and a pedagogical card game ‘Is it OK?’ for young athletes.

 Timeframe: 2012 - ongoing

 More information available here:

 Detailed description

Tackling Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) in sport

 Organisation responsible: NWG Network, UK

 Target groups of the practice: Sports coaches, sports safeguarding officers, club welfare officers, sports governance committees and National Governing Bodies, young athletes, children and parents.

 Background: It became clear during the research for the Voices for Truth and Dignity Project that raising awareness of abuse in sport at the local level was limited and there was a distinct lack of knowledge and understanding of how children can become victims of sexualised violence through sport. An awareness campaign was required to help raise awareness of abuse in sport, help identify abusive practices by sports coaches and staff and encourage reporting of abusive behaviour.

 Summary: The sports sector was consulted in the development of the materials to ensure the messages proposed were clearly understood and where necessary specific to a sport. The goal was to catch a person’s attention and highlight areas in sport where athletes and children can be taken advantage of. Focus groups with parents were held to ensure that parents were not put off sending their child to play sport and they understood the key messages being delivered.

The suite of resources was developed following research into sexualised violence in sport by the Voice for Truth and Dignity Project 

We used the NWG Networks membership to share the resources across over 300 dissemination points within children’s services in the UK as well as our links into the sport community. We also shared the sports specific resources with the relevant National Governing Bodies.

 Timeframe: ongoing

 More information available here

 Detailed description

Two training modules on Sexual Abuse in sport for the training catalogue of Clube Top programme

 Organisation responsible: IPDJ - Portuguese Institute of Sport and Youth in cooperation with Benfica Foundation, Portugal

 Target groups of the practice: Sport organisations, especially grassroots sport clubs, their sport leaders and staff, coaches and athletes.

 Background: The aim is to have a training resource to empower and support those in positions of influence in youth sport (managers and staff, coaches and technical team, parents, family members and older athletes) for the prevention and response to situations of sexual abuse against children and young people. The partners (Benifica and IPDJ) worked to develop and test the training resources in a pilot phase before commencing the training of trainers and dissemination of materials.

 Summary: 

The training aimed to address five key competences:

  1. Understand what sexual abuse in sport is and the myths associated with it.
  2. Understand the vulnerabilities of the sports context.
  3. Identify indicators, warning signs and strategies of aggressors.
  4. Know the main legal obligations of sport organisations.
  5. Respond appropriately in cases of concerns and complaints.

Two training modules on sexual abuse of children and young people in sport were developed:

  • Module 1: Increasing knowledge about the dynamics associated with the sexual abuse of children and young people in sport.
  • Module 2: Focus on prevention of sexual abuse in sport, with the objective of developing strategies for the primary prevention of sexual abuse in the sports context. The objective is to provide training for people with management and/or administrative responsibility in sports clubs on prevention and response to child sexual abuse.

 Timeframe: 2019 - ongoing

 More information available here and here

 Detailed description 

Activity Guides for the prevention of child sexual abuse for coaches and physical education teachers (for ages 3 to 6, 7 to 12 and 13 to 17 years old)

 Organisation responsible: Official organisation: Consejo Superior de Deportes (Spanish Higher Council for Sports)

Supporting organisations: Fundación Deporte Joven and UNICEF Spain

Authorship: F. Javier Romeo-Biedma and Pepa Horno Goicoechea (Espirales Consultoría de Infancia)

 Target groups of the practice: Coaches, sport leaders, children, adolescents and young athletes, Child Safeguarding Officers

 Background: The Spanish Higher Council for Sports (Consejo Superior de Deportes) started this campaign in 2017 with other actions for the protection of children and adolescents in sport. Supported by Fundación Deporte Joven and UNICEF Spain the campaign was developed by child protection consultancy Espirales Consultoría de Infancia. The campaign “Child Sexual Abuse Stays Offside” educates on aspects to be tackled in training, competitions and environments to reduce child sexual abuse and detect it quickly.

 Summary: 

Three activity guides for the prevention of child sexual abuse for coaches and physical education teachers offer guidelines for introducing ten key ideas through activities done during training.

  1. Respect is the number one rule in sports.
  2. It’s not your fault.
  3. Sexual abuse is abuse of power.
  4. Every person has their own role.
  5. Your body is yours and you can say “No.”
  6. Some secrets can hurt you.
  7. Sport should make you feel good.
  8. Don’t get cut off - participate in all the teams in your life.
  9. Talk, think, decide and don’t keep quiet.
  10. Take the first step: Ask for help!

The key messages are the same for all age groups but are adapted to be age appropriate. Each of activity addresses at least one key message. Some include movement like “The Pendulum” or “Blindfold Navigate”; others work on verbal interaction like “The Theatre of our Sport” or “Speak Up”, others are oriented to personal reflection, like “Good Secrets, Bad Secrets”. Available in Spanish and English.

 Timeframe: Published in 2018 (still in use by several public and private sports organisations).

 More information available here

Athlete Safeguarding Course: Safeguarding Athletes from Harassment and Abuse

 Organisation responsible: International Olympic Committee (IOC)

 Target groups of the practice: Athletes, athletes’ entourage members

 Summary: This free, 45-minute course for athletes and athletes’ entourage members is delivered by Dr Margo Mountjoy and former hockey player Mr Sheldon Kennedy. The programme provides important insights into the five categories of harassment and abuse and presents an overview of the core components for athlete safeguarding. Participants will take away an understanding of the signs of harassment and abuse, why it happens, and how to help safeguard athletes.
The course is presented in English with transcripts available in French, Spanish and Portuguese.
A certificate is available upon completion.

 Timeframe: ongoing

 More information available here

Child Protection course

 Organisation responsible: Play by the Rules, Australia

 Target groups of the practice: Suitable for coaches, administrators, officials, players, parents and spectators

 Background: The course was developed to provide free online training to build the knowledge and capacity of people involved in Australian sport to know what child abuse is and how to address it through the sport system.

 Summary: 

The course is short, user-friendly and features the latest interactive technology, including case studies, practical scenarios and a quiz. The course may be done in parts or all at once.

The course covers the following topics: 

  • What is child abuse?
  • Rights and responsibilities under child protection laws.
  • How the laws apply to sporting organisations, clubs, their employees, and volunteers.
  • When, where and how to report incidents.
  • How to establish a welcoming and inclusive environment at your club or organisation.

Users who successfully finish the course and assessment quizzes can print a certificate of completion. The course has been updated on a two-yearly basis and is very popular with thousands of registrations and completions each month.

 Timeframe: existed for 10 years

 More information available here

Child protection in sport (Online course)

 Organisation responsible: National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) and Child Protection in Sport Unit (CPSU), United Kingdom

 Target groups of the practice: National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) and Child Protection in Sport Unit (CPSU), United Kingdom

 Summary: Do you come into contact with children and young people through sport or physical activity?

Whether you’re a sports coach, an official, a paid member of sports staff or a volunteer, it’s important you understand your role and responsibilities in protecting the children you work with.

As experts on safeguarding, the NSPCC’s introductory Child protection in sport and physical activity e-learning course (previously known as Child protection in sport training) will help you to gain an understanding of your role in protecting children from abuse or harm and what to do when concerns arise.

 More information available here

Consent in Sport / What is Consent? - Animated video and accompanying webpage

 Organisation responsible: International Olympic Committee (IOC)

 Target groups of the practice: Athletes, young athletes, athletes’ entourage members.

 Background: Athlete365 encourages athletes to lead, shape and progress the conversations and activities across sport to deliver an athlete-led approach.

Athlete365’s main objective focuses on key areas that address an athlete’s needs no matter where they are on their journey. Athlete365 provide them with a platform to share their experiences, effect changes and make decisions that shape the future of sport.

 Summary: The primary purpose of consent is to mutually agree to something before it takes place. Consent creates an understanding between you and whoever it may be that you are with. Consent cannot be forced and may be withdrawn at any time.

Talking about consent is important, and the Consent in Sport video and What is Consent? webpage provide information about safe sport explaining what consent means in a sporting context and helping athletes recognise if someone is breaching boundaries.

The video highlights the importance of the right of every athlete to say no. It also states that consent is not just the absence of saying “no”, and implied consent does not exist. If someone cannot vocalise and express their consent, then they are not capable of giving it.

Video in English with subtitles available in French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic and Chinese.

Partners involved: IOC Athletes’ Commission, IOC Athletes’ Entourage Commission, Olympic Funding, Athletes’ Declaration, Athletes’ Commission Directory.

 Timeframe: ongoing

 More information available here

Draw the Line – A learning tool for youth athletes

 Organisation responsible: International Olympic Committee (IOC)

 Target groups of the practice: Young athletes, athletes’ entourage members

 Summary: This bite-sized, interactive, scenario-based learning tool has been developed specifically for young athletes. Through ten scenarios participants discover what harassment and abuse in sport means, the forms it can take, how to identify and prevent it and ultimately how to protect themselves and others.

The tool is available in English, French, Spanish and Russian and a certificate is available upon completion.

 Timeframe: ongoing

 More information available here

Engaging people with lived experience of childhood sexual abuse

 Organisation responsible: National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) and Child Protection in Sport Unit (CPSU), United Kingdom

 Target groups of the practice: Sports organisations as a whole

 Summary: This resource has been created to help sports organisations to positively and meaningfully engage with people who have lived experience of childhood sexual abuse.

Research studies such as the VOICE project — which included interviews with 72 people with lived experience of sexual violence in sport — recognised that sports organisations need to move beyond simply listening to experiences and start to actively work in partnership with people with lived experience of childhood sexual abuse.

To develop this guidance we took what we learned during the production of our podcast Learning from lived experience of childhood sexual abuse with Karen Leach, former swimmer, VOICE ambassador and member of the Sport England Safeguarding Advisory Panel. We also included advice from Karen, based on her experiences of working with a wide range of sports organisations and the media.

 More information available here

Erasmus+ Sport Collaborative Partnerships Project: Halting Harassment and Abuse in Sport Using Learning Technologies (HALT)

 Organisation responsible: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece

 Target groups of the practice: Young athletes, academic experts and sport sector stakeholders

 Background: Since 2007 the European Commission has been issuing policies emphasising the need to protect (young) athletes from acts of violence, particularly gender-based violence. These policies highlight the importance of raising awareness and implementing prevention initiatives to fight gender-based violence in and through sport. According to EU the main focus of policies is on prevention and protection actions with the focus on children and youth.

 Summary: The HALT project aims to:

  • Develop the awareness and knowledge about harassment and abuse in sport among athletes, academic experts and sport sector stakeholders.
  • Sensitise the target groups about harassment and abuse in sport.
  • Support sports people to (i) recognise and (ii) avoid harassment and abuse.
  • Increase sport stakeholders' awareness of the benefits of using online communities.

HALT exploits Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and especially an online community of practice to achieve its main objective. HALT supports the need for transforming and gamifying digital informative content to motivate target groups to become aware of the risk of harassment and abuse in sports.

The HALT project is a consortium of seven partners from six countries, Greece, Cyprus, Austria, Portugal, Spain and Slovenia.

 Timeframe: January 2019 - December 2021

 More information available here

Female Athlete Health: Interactive learning tool

 Organisation responsible: International Olympic Committee (IOC)

 Target groups of the practice: Athletes, athletes’ entourage members.

 Summary: This 13-module series focusses on topics important to female athlete health including; injury prevention, nutrition, menstrual health, sexual harassment and abuse.
Each module takes approximately 15 minutes and badges are awarded for each module completed system.

 Timeframe: ongoing

 More information available here

FIFA GuardiansTM Safeguarding in Sport Diploma

 Organisation responsible: FIFA

 Target groups of the practice: Course One: FIFA Guardians Safeguarding Essentials is designed for everyone in football, indeed any sport, to gain a basic knowledge of safeguarding. The whole programme, courses one to five are specifically aimed at Safeguarding Officers/Focal Points.

 Background: The FIFA Guardians Safeguarding in Sport Diploma was developed to address the need to build capacity and professionalise the role of the Safeguarding Officers in football around the world.

In the absence of any academic pathway into the profession of safeguarding in sport, this education programme offers a foundational route through which individuals can develop and consolidate their skills, knowledge and expertise.

 Summary: Developed by FIFA and Open University (OU), FIFA’s Guardians Safeguarding in Sport Diploma is an open learning experience available in English, French and Spanish. This new global education programme is designed to strengthen and professionalise safeguarding standards across football. The programme consists of five online courses aimed at training and supporting Safeguarding Officers from FIFA member associations (FIFA Learners). FIFA Learners will have access to dedicated webinars, online discussion forums and must participate in a residential workshop. This pathway is open to FIFA Learners only.

Although the programme is aimed at designated Safeguarding Officers from FIFA’s 211 Member Associations, FIFA has made the five online courses freely accessible to any learner (open learners) from any sport or sector who want to learn more about safeguarding in sport. Successful completion of all five courses will result in being awarded FIFA Guardians Safeguarding in Sport Award by the OU.

 Timeframe: ongoing

 More information available here

Booklet and Curriculum “For Respect and Safety” - Handreichung & Curriculum “Für Respekt und Sicherheit”

 Organisation responsible: 100% SPORT, Austria

 Target groups of the practice: Persons with responsibilities in sport

 Background: Building on the EU Proposal for strategic action on Gender Equality in Sport (2014-2020), the Austrian Ministry responsible for sport introduced a Gender Equality Strategy with a focus on the prevention of sexual harassment in sport. Since then, a cross-organisational working group co-ordinated by 100% SPORT has been working on the campaign “For Respect and Safety in Sport” (Für Respekt und Sicherheit im Sport) to raise awareness, build capacity and educate the sport movement.

 Summary: 100% SPORT together with the ministry responsible for sport published the booklet “For Respect and Safety in Sport” to establish and increase awareness for the prevention of sexual harassment in sport. The booklet contains information about the prevalence of sexualised violence in sport, how to recognise sexualised violence in sport and how to handle suspicion and reports of sexualised violence. Checklists for safety in sport venues, training and a blueprint for ethical codes are also provided. The booklet is the basis for educational courses for national trainers and coaches.

Partners: Content for the booklet was conceptualised by the cross-organisational working group of 100% SPORT and consists of experts from sport organisations, academia and victim support organisations.

The booklet has been well received by the sport movement. The third edition is underway. In addition, the content will be available as an e-learning course. The course will be available from May 2022.

 Timeframe: 2017 - ongoing

 More information available here

International Safeguards for Children in Sport and Accompanying Guides

 Organisation responsible: International Safeguards for Children in Sport Initiative

 Target groups of the practice: Sport organisations staff

 Background: The International Safeguards for Children in Sport (the Safeguards) were developed by a group of 60 organisations from around the world united in their aim to make sport safe for children. Drawing on the Child Protection in Sport Unit’s Standards for Safeguarding in England and Keeping Children Safe’s international development sector standards, the Safeguards were developed over three years with sport organisations around the world and involved testing them in a range of contexts.

 Summary: The International Safeguards for Children in Sport and accompanying guidance are designed to support sport organisations on their safeguarding journey.

The Safeguards cover eight core elements in their approach to safeguarding in sport, highlighting why the elements are important and including the main points.

The eight safeguards are: 

  1. Have a safeguarding policy.
  2. Know what to do if worried about child.
  3. Provide advice and support to staff and children.
  4. Understand and address risk.
  5. Agree what is acceptable and unacceptable behaviour.
  6. Safely recruit and train your staff.
  7. Share safeguarding with your partners.
  8. Monitor, evaluate, and learn.

The accompanying guide has five key steps for embedding safeguarding into an organisation:

  1. Preparing for the safeguarding journey.
  2. Preparing to implement safeguarding.
  3. Developing the Safeguards. 
  4. Implementing the Safeguards.
  5. Embedding the Safeguards.

 Timeframe: since 2012

 More information available here

Learning from lived experience of childhood sexual abuse (podcast)

 Organisation responsible: National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) and Child Protection in Sport Unit (CPSU), United Kingdom

 Target groups of the practice: Parents, coaches, sports leaders, sports organisation staff

 Summary: In this podcast episode, we talk with former swimmer Karen Leach about her experience of childhood sexual abuse and what we can learn from it to keep children safe in sport.

We discuss the importance of creating a culture of safety where children are heard and robust policies and clear codes of conduct mean rule breaks can be challenged.

 More information available here

Multi-level “safeguarding training system”

 Organisation responsible: 100% SPORT, Austria

 Target groups of the practice: Persons with responsibilities in sport

 Background: Against the backdrop of the CSiS project the educational system of 100% SPORT has been further developed and the training of Child Safeguarding Officers has been integrated in the multi-level training system.

 Summary: Level 1 is provided through an e-learning format open to everyone and begins with basic information. Content: Participants gain insights into facts and figures of the prevalence of (sexualised) violence in sport, learn about risk factors, how to recognise potential abuse and where to go to for support.

Level 2 requires successful completion of the e-learning course. Content: Participants gain further insights into different forms of violence, safeguarding standards, how to respond to concerns and deal with reports.

Level 3 requires completion Level 1 and 2 and is for those designated to become future safeguarding officers. Content: Participants learn how to support organisations set up safeguarding structures and establish a prevention and safeguarding plan.

Partners: The cross-organisational working group of 100% SPORT and the Austrian Safe Sport network.

 Timeframe: 2017 - ongoing

 More information available here

Practical guidelines for detecting abuse in a sport organisation

 Organisation responsible: Estonian Centre for Integrity in Sports in co-operation with Ministry of Justice and the Social Insurance Board, Estonia

 Target groups of the practice: Employees of sport organisations, coaches etc.

 Background: Co-operation between Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Social Affairs, Ministry of Culture, Estonian Olympic Committee, Sports Training and Information Foundation and the Estonian Centre for Integrity in Sports led to an international training seminar in Nov 2019 “For Better Sport: The Role and Responsibility of Coaches and Sport Organisations.” The practical guidelines were prepared for the seminar which marked the start of closer co-operation between sport and child protection organisations.

 Summary: The main objective was to inform sport organisations about the issue, its consequences and possible solutions. The guidelines consisted of following topics:

  1. Code of ethics for coaches,
  2. General signs of misconduct,
  3. Signs of physical misconduct,
  4. Signs of sexual abuse,
  5. Signs of negligence, 
  6. Detection and intervention,
  7. What to say to the child,
  8. Possibilities of assistance,
  9. Restriction on working with children,
  10. Possible action plan for the coaches, sport clubs etc. to prevent the misconduct.

It was developed through intensive consultations between Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Social Affairs, Ministry of Culture, Estonian Olympic Committee, Sports Training and Information Foundation and the Estonian Centre for Integrity in Sports.

After the guidelines were completed, they were distributed to sport organisations which helped to raise their awareness on the issue of detecting abuse.

 Timeframe: 2020 - ongoing

 More information available here and here

Protecting children from grooming and sexual abuse

 Organisation responsible: National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) and Child Protection in Sport Unit (CPSU), United Kingdom

 Target groups of the practice: Everyone working and/or volunteering in sports

 Summary: Everyone working and volunteering in sports and physical activity needs to be aware of the grooming process so that steps can be taken to prevent children from being sexually harmed.
This article includes information regarding: grooming, who harms children, signs of grooming, children at risk, secrecy and prevention.

 More information available here

Recognising and responding to harmful sexual behaviour displayed by young people (briefing and webinar)

 Organisation responsible: National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) and Child Protection in Sport Unit (CPSU), United Kingdom

 Target groups of the practice: Parents, coaches, officials

 Summary: This briefing on Recognising and responding to harmful sexual behaviour displayed by young people in sport outlines what is normal sexualised behaviour and how to recognise and respond to concerning behaviour.

 More information available here

Safe Sport Allies: Safeguarding children from violence and abuse in local sport clubs

 Organisation responsible: Thomas More University of Applied Sciences, Belgium

 Target groups of the practice: Local sport club members

 Background: Too many children experience sexual, psychological or physical violence during their participation in organised sport. Following disclosures and studies on prevalence of abuse child protection and safeguarding practices are being developed and implemented throughout European sport. To date, these initiatives lack solid evidence of impact. Monitoring and evaluation data barely exist which compromises the evaluation of their effectiveness. Grassroots sport clubs seldom have designated staff to adequately implement the required procedures and practices.

One of the most devastating factors in too many stories of violence against young athletes is the phenomenon of bystanding. Even though child abuse is in most cases a repeating event, signs of abuse are still often overlooked, or bystanders decide not to act upon them. Passive bystanding contributes to the continuation of children’s suffering and protects the abuser. In order to stimulate prosocial bystanding, it is crucial to educate sports club stakeholders on when and how to intervene in case of a report, disclosure, or concern.

 Summary: This European collaboration aims to use an evidence-based approach in setting up, implementing, and evaluating bystander interventions. A multidisciplinary group of sport administrators, survivors, safeguarding practitioners and researchers will develop an educational programme for athletes, coaches and parents and a policy roadmap for club managers. To test effectiveness a longitudinal evaluation study with an intervention and control group will be conducted in two countries.

The project will provide useful insights in developing, implementing, and evaluating an intervention programme to stimulate prosocial bystander behaviour and safeguard children in grassroots sport clubs. Findings will be disseminated through workshops and educational materials.

Partners: Thomas More University (BE), Centrum Ethiek in de Sport (BE), Mulier Instituut (NL), De Stilte Verbroken (NL), Open Universiteit Nederland (NL), , Finnish Olympic Committee (FI), Cyprus Sport Organisation (CY), Athletic Club Foundation (ES), Terre des Hommes (RO)

 Timeframe: 2021 - 2023

 More information available here

Safeguarding Training Guidance for Sports Organisations

 Organisation responsible: Sport Ireland, Ireland

 Target groups of the practice: 

  • SG1 – Any person working with or who is involved in the planning/ administration of activities or events with young people (according to the requirements of National Governing Body).
  • SG2 – Any person taking on the role of Club Children’s Officer.
  • SG3 – Any person taking on the role of Designated Liaison Person.

 Background: Sport Ireland’s remit is to develop and disseminate guidelines and training standards that promote best practice for the protection of children in sport consistent with child welfare and protection guidance and legislation. Safeguarding 1, 2 & 3 workshops must be recognised across all sporting organisations. This guidance can form part of the Safeguarding Statement required by governing bodies under the ROI Children First Act 2015 Section 11(3) and as a good practice in Northern Ireland.

 Summary: 

SG1 - Sports Leaders will be able to:

  • Implement best practice in protecting the welfare of participants.
  • Create a child-centred environment within the sports club.
  • List categories and indicators associated of abuse.
  • Make appropriate response to a disclosure.

SG2 – Club Children’s Officers (CCO):

  • Understand how to communicate with young people.
  • How to deal with safeguarding issues.

SG3 – Designated Liaison Person (DLP):

  • Provide training to DLP responsible for reporting allegations or suspicions of child abuse to TUSLA Child and Family Agency and/or An Garda Síochána.
  • Describe how the child protection system and its associated processes work.
  • List role and responsibilities of the DLP in relation to protecting and safeguarding children.
  • Communicate with parents and/or agencies.
  • Carry out reporting procedures.

Who provides Safeguarding training?

  • The Local Sport Partnerships
  • National Governing Bodies of sport.

 Timeframe: Evolving since the early 2000s

 More information available here

Take action! Counter Bullying in Sport

 Organisation responsible: Sport’Aide, Canada

 Target groups of the practice: Athlete, parent, coach or administrator

 Background: Being concerned by the phenomenon of harassment and cyberbullying in sport and knowing nothing existed at the time to prevent, educate or raise awareness among the various sports stakeholders, Sport'Aide developed a unique, positive, and inclusive approach inspired by best practices and adapted to the reality of the sporting community to prevent and counter bullying.

 Summary: 

The objective: Educate and equip the entire sporting community with awareness activities and tools to tackle this societal problem.

The partners: Sport’Aide, Ministry of Family, and Cindy Ouellet, a Paralympic athlete who represented Canada at four Paralympic Games.

How it was developed: We documented the problem and tried to identify existing programmes. With nothing available we turned to the education sector where certain approaches had been developed to prevent and counter bullying in school environments. We developed a positive and inclusive approach adapted to the reality of the sports community. We are in the process of adapting materials for different realities (i.e., cultural communities, First Nations, gender identity, adapted sports).

Actions put in place: Implementation of Take action! Counter Bullying in Sport was in May 2019 with tools and activities. We publish comic every month (100,000 readers).

Results obtained: Awarded 2019 Together Against Bullying Award.

 Timeframe: Launched in May 2019

 More information available here

The Adventures of Cindy: A Book by Sport’Aide

 Organisation responsible: Sport’Aide, Canada

 Target groups of the practice: Young people and their parents or teachers and people involved in sport

 Background: Being concerned about the phenomenon of harassment and cyberbullying in sport and knowing the importance of education at a young age on such issues, we produced this book inspired by the success of our comics which are published in two youth magazines.

We wanted to develop a tool that would allow discussions between children and adults (parents, coaches, or teachers) and develop a model of female success for young girls while providing a sporting hero which promotes reading among young boys.

 Summary: 

The objective: Explore bullying issues in sports while providing possible solutions.

The partners: Sport’Aide, Ministry of Family, and Cindy Ouellet, a Paralympic athlete who represented Canada at four Paralympic Games.

How it was developed: Inspired by the success of our comics published in two youth magazines we adapt the stories and supplemented them with advice and solutions.
We introduced the real story book of Cindy Ouellet who suffered various manifestations of bullying in addition to having an inspiring story giving resilience all its meaning.
Before publishing we consulted experts recognised for their knowledge of bullying to validate the content in The Adventures of Cindy.

The actions: The book launched in November 2020 with a PR campaign. Special promotion for sport clubs who could purchase at cost and use as fundraising tool. Preparation of second volume is underway and third volume is scheduled with arrival of another superhero.

Results obtained: Sold nearly 5,000 copies.

 Timeframe: Launched in November 2020

 More information available here
Book available here

The Basics of safeguarding (podcast)

 Organisation responsible: National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) and Child Protection in Sport Unit (CPSU), United Kingdom

 Target groups of the practice: Sports organisations as a whole

 Summary: In this podcast, we discuss the basics of safeguarding for sports organisations and provide useful guidance to help sports clubs and organisations put these safeguards in place.

Whether you’re just getting started on your safeguarding journey or listening to this podcast as a refresher, hopefully you’ll pick up some useful information about what's required of your organisation.

 More information available here

Training curricula about abuse

 Organisation responsible: Estonian Centre for Integrity in Sports in co-operation with Ministry of Justice, Social Insurance Board and Sports Training and Information Foundation

 Target groups of the practice: Employees of sport organisations, coaches etc.

 Background: Co-operation between Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Social Affairs, Ministry of Culture, Estonian Olympic Committee, Sports Training and Information Foundation and the Estonian Centre for Integrity in Sports led to an international training seminar held in Nov. 2019 “For Better Sport: The Role and Responsibility of Coaches and Sport Organisations. The seminar had more than 150 participants and was opened by the Minister of Culture, Tõnis Lukas.

 Summary: The main objective was to inform coaches and employees of sport organisations about the issue of abuse, its consequences and possible solutions.

Academic curricula (two and four-hour sessions available):

  1. Types, causes and consequences of abuse.
  2. Risk factors for abuse in sport.
  3. The impact of abuse on young athletes and the importance of preventing abuse.
  4. Examples of abuse in sport - examples from Estonia and other countries.
  5. Abuse indicators - how to recognise and read signs.
  6. A child in need and at risk - when and how to intervene. Coach opportunities for intervention when a child in need or at risk is noticed. Barriers to asking for help for a child.
  7. Rules for intervention in sport organisation.
  8. Possibilities of assistance in case of suspicion of abuse in Estonia.
  9. Prevention of abuse and ensuring welfare of child by sport club and coach.

The issue of abuse was also addressed during different seminars at sport federations.

 Timeframe: 2020 - ongoing

 More information available here and here

Understanding sexual offending and the grooming and entrapment process (webinar)

 Organisation responsible: National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) and Child Protection in Sport Unit (CPSU), United Kingdom

 Target groups of the practice: Sports organisations as a whole

 Summary: In this webinar, CPSU senior consultants Paul Stephenson and Liza Ware discuss sexual offending and the grooming and entrapment process.

Paul and Liza examine a specific model of how child sexual offenders operate and explore what this means in the sporting environment. The consultants also talk about some of the things sports can do to address the specific risks of child sexual offending within sport.

 More information available here

Workshop ‘How to cope with violence and abuse in sport clubs?’ and the ‘Grenswijs’ System

 Organisation responsible: Centre for Ethics in Sport (ICES), Belgium

 Target groups of the practice: Coaches, sport club administrators, Safeguarding Officers, volunteers, staff sport organisations

 Background: Since 2014, the Centre for Ethics in Sport (ICES) has been offering workshops about sexual violence and abuse in sport to federations and club members. During the workshops participants expressed the need for education focussing on sexual, psychological and physical violence and abuse in sport. In response ICES reworked existing workshop materials so the broader topic of interpersonal violence, including physical, psychological and sexual violence is covered.

 Summary: In this workshop ICES aims to educate coaches, club administrators and Child Safeguarding Officers about physical, psychological and sexual violence and abuse in sport. The workshop focusses on facts and figures, scoring the seriousness of cases via the ‘Grenswijs’ System and offers advice on how to react to cases in sport. The workshop makes use of the ‘Grenswijs’ System of Sensoa, Icoba and Pimento, our expert partners. The ‘Grenswijs’ System is an extension of the Flag System (Sensoa) and allows professionals to estimate the seriousness of cases of physical, psychological and sexual violence (the Flag System is only applicable for cases of sexual violence and abuse). It offers six criteria. Based on the score of each criterion, one can assign a seriousness assessment of the situation, categorised as green (behaviour = OK), yellow (behaviour = not really OK), red (behaviour = serious and not OK), or black (behaviour = very serious and totally not OK).

 Timeframe: 2020 - ongoing

 More information available here and here