Questions to ask when joining a new club

Safeguarding children and adults at risk is a responsibility for every sport and physical activity provider.  All sport clubs and activity providers should have safeguarding policies and procedures and welfare officers in place and know how to respond to concerns around abuse or poor practice.

When approaching a sport club for yourself or your child, you should feel confident about asking the sports club the following five questions, in order to keep you and/or your child and other participants safe in sport. 

 

1. Have the staff been checked out?

The club or activity provider should have a safe recruitment process for hiring staff. They should be able to tell you what’s involved in this process.

 

2. Does the club have a safeguarding policy?

The club should have in place policies to safeguard children and adults. It should be available for you to read, ideally on their website.

 

3. What happens if there’s an accident?

Ask the club if they have a first aider. They should also have contact details in case of an emergency.

 

4. Who can you talk to?

All clubs should have a person responsible for safeguarding. They should let you know who they are and how to contact them if you need to.

 

5. What training is there?

Your club can tell you what level of training their coaches have. Safeguarding training is also available to anyone working with children and adults at risk.

 

For more information, please visit NSPCC - Child Protection in Sport Unit