Safeguarding and Protecting Children 2: Reflecting on Practice (SPC2) Learning Agreement

Safeguarding and Protecting Children 2: reflecting on practice (SPC2)

Learning Agreement • Personal safety • Equity • Confidentiality • Professionalism • Ownership • Child-centred approach

Workshop Outcomes By the end of this workshop, you will be able to: • actively promote a positive and child-centred coaching environment using key principles of relevant codes of practice/conduct • demonstrate knowledge and awareness of current national legislation relevant to your role • confidently recognise, respond to and make informed decisions about safeguarding children • consider a seven-step approach to assist with decision making • respond appropriately to a disclosure or concern

GIRFEC Indicators of wellbeing SPC2 Slide 6

Recall Exercise 1 • Thinking about your own club’s code of practice/conduct, which of the following is not a key principle? • Rights – Coaches must champion the rights of every individual to participate in sport • Responsibilities – Coaches must focus on their own performance in their sport in order to provide a sound role model • Relationships – Coaches must develop a relationship with performers based on openness, honesty, mutual trust and respect

Recall Exercise 1 (cont’d) Which two of these are not part of the five Every Getting it right for every child outcomes for children and young people’s well-being? • Being happy • Being healthy • Staying safe • Enjoying and achieving • Making a positive contribution • Economic well-being • Being a good citizen • Which Act made a new offence of ‘abuse of trust’? • Sexual Trust Act 2003 • Sexual Offences of Trust Act 2003 • Sexual Offences Scotland 2003 • Sexual Abuse of Trust Act 2003

Recall Exercise 1 (cont’d) • Being the designated person in a club or other sports-related setting means that he or she: • investigates concerns about a young person when they arise • goes out to meet the parents of the young person • trains the organisation in child protection • receives any concerns about possible harm of a child or young person and decides what steps to take

Recall Exercise 1 Answers • Responsibilities • ‘Being happy’ and ‘being a good citizen’ • Sexual Offences Act 2003 • Receives any concerns about possible harm of a child or young person and decides what steps to take

Section 1 Learning Outcomes • Foundations of Safeguarding and Good Practice: Drawing on your Experiences • Actively promote a positive and child-centred coaching environment using key principles of relevant codes of practice/conduct • Demonstrate knowledge and awareness of current national legislation relevant to your role

What does Reflection Mean? • Thinking about something after the event • Learning from it • Changing/adapting behaviour in the future

What are Safeguarding and Child Protection? Safeguarding (the umbrella) –the proactive policies and procedures in place for the benefit of all children involved in our clubs and activities Child protection – one aspect of the safeguarding umbrella specific to children who are at risk or suffering significant harm

Legislation and Guidance Relevant legislation for coaches and volunteers – underpinned by the Human Rights Act and the UN Convention on the Rights of a Child Child welfare and protection Criminal offences against children Recruitment and selection of staff and volunteers Safeguarding vulnerable groups legislation (England and Wales; Northern Ireland; Scotland) Children (Scotland)Acts 1995 Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2005, Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2009 Legislation in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland differs from that in England. Familiarise yourself with the appropriate legislation where you operate. What is the relevance of legislation to your role in sport?

New Legislation • Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 • Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) • Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) and Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) merged into one organisation called DBS • To prevent unsuitable people from working with children and vulnerable adults • New definition of ‘regulated activity’ to only cover ‘unsupervised’ coaching • Each governing body of sport will be required to develop its own definition of ‘supervision’ • Still two barred lists: one for working with children and one for working with vulnerable adults

Protection of Vulnerable Groups (Scotland) Act 2007 Relevance for sport • New scheme which will replace and improve upon the current disclosure system for people who work with vulnerable groups • Individuals must register to become a ‘Scheme’ member to carry out regulated work with children or protected adults • 2 lists – children’s and adult’s SPC2 Slide 14

Protection of Vulnerable Groups(s) Act 2007 Types of Scheme Record Disclosures: • Scheme Record • Scheme Record Update • Statement of Scheme Membership SPC2 Slide 15

Protection of Vulnerable Groups(s) Act 2007 • Information from a number of sources continually fed into scheme making the system more proactive • Organisations still have a duty to refer individuals to Scottish Ministers where grounds for referral met (criteria expanded) • Central Barring Unit will make decisions on barred status SPC2 Slide 16

Safeguarding and Protecting Children in the Context of the Legal Framework Duty of care • If you represent your club or organisation as a coach for your sport, you have a legal duty of care • If you are involved as an individual, you have a moral duty of care Positions of trust • With the children and parents/carers • As a representative of your club or organisation, sport, profession and/or role

Code of Practice/Conduct • Working document to support best practice in the club or organisation • States the rights and responsibilities of individuals when participating • Relationships between all parties that are open and honest • Promotes positive behaviour, challenges poor behaviour • Benchmark for raising concerns

Responsible Encouraging Sporting Positive Enjoyable Considerate Tolerant With thanks to the RFL for their permission to reproduce the RESPECT cover

Section 2 Learning Outcomes • Identifying Signs of Abuse or Harm: the confusion of Signs and Indicators • Confidently recognise, respond to and make informed decisions about safeguarding children • Consider a seven-step approach to assist with decision making

Reflection Exercise • Think about an incident, or a situation that occurred over time, that caused you concern. Be specific in what it was that actually worried you and where it happened • Give a description of the child (gender, age, ethnicity, any disability, his or her performance or any other general features of his or her membership of the club) • What did you feel about the situation? • What did you do? Did you talk to anyone? Was it helpful and in what way? • What happened next? How did you feel about the outcome? • What did you learn from the incident? Would you do anything different next time? Did your policy, procedures or code of practice/conduct help you?

What is Child Abuse? • Term to describe harm to a young person (under 18) • Harm is actively done • Failure to protect a child • Abuser is likely to be an adult • Could be another young person • Males and females abuse • Prudent decisions need to be taken to minimise risk to children and adults

Truth or Myth? • We don’t have any cases so it doesn’t happen in our sport • Most of our sport is female so we don’t have any problems like that • If our club or organisation uses a proactive system of recruitment and induction, it will help us recruit safely • If we do DBS checks on everyone who comes into contact with the children, we don’t need to worry • We support our coaches through their qualifications and ongoing professional development

Truth or Myth? (cont’d) • Our club welfare officer can come to committee meetings if she has anything to say • We have known all our coaches and volunteers for years so we don’t have any concerns • Adults working as coaches and volunteers need to protect themselves from false allegations • Children don’t often lie when they are telling someone they trust about an issue • Our committee members don’t come into contact with children so it doesn’t apply to them

Truth or Myth? Answers • Myth 6. Myth • Myth 7. Myth • Truth 8. Truth • Myth 9. Truth • Truth 10. Myth

What are the Different Types of Abuse? Physical Emotional Sexual Neglect Bullying

Types of Abuse Physical abuse • occurs when someone causes physical harm or injury to a child Emotional abuse • is a type of abuse in its own right and also present with the other forms of abuse • is the emotional ill treatment of a child, resulting in severe and persistent adverse effects on emotional development Sexual abuse • occurs when adults or other young people (both male and female) use children to meet their own sexual needs Neglect • occurs when adults fail to meet a child’s basic physical and/or psychological needs, and is likely to result in the serious impairment of the child’s health or development

Bullying Bullying • is deliberately hurtful behaviour • is usually repeated over a period of time • occurs where it is difficult for those being bullied to defend themselves • can be verbal, written or physical Give examples of signs and indicators of each type of abuse from your sport

Other circumstances leading to abuse Other forms of abuse can have a significant impact on physical, social and emotional wellbeing: • Domestic Abuse • Substance Misuse / Substance dependency • Bullying (by adults and other children) • Grooming / Internet Safety • Abuse by other children SPC2 Slide 30

The Impact of Abuse on Children NB: Effects may be individual to the child • Could include: • Physical delayed development, lack of friends • Emotional delayed development, difficulties in trusting • Sexual general fearful outlook, withdrawal; conversely, overly affectionate • Neglect delayed emotional and/or social development • Bullying low self-esteem, difficulties in social relationships • How might the effects show in your sessions?

The Seven-step Approach What is your concern for the child? What might be the child’s worries or concerns? What are your worries and concerns? What are your options? What are the obstacles? What are your actions? Record, record, record!

Section 3 Learning Outcome • Taking Appropriate Action • Respond appropriately to a disclosure or concern

Recall Exercise 3 • If you have a concern that could be about child abuse, you should first: • tell the child or young person about your concerns • refer to the police and children’s social care for investigation • tell the parents/carers • speak to your club welfare officer, designated person or senior member of staff • Say that anything he or she says will be kept confidential • Reassure him or her that he or she is not to blame • Find out as much as possible • See if you can guess what the problem is • Stay calm • What are two of the four recommended responses when you have a concern about a young person?

Recall Exercise 3 (cont’d) 3. If you see a coach in your club displaying poor practice, what would be the two actions you could take? • Tell the children in that group that the coach is rubbish • Go directly to the coach and appropriately challenge what he has said or his actions • Rush over to the coach and, in front of the children or young people, threaten to report him if he carries on • Provide a verbal or written report to the club welfare officer, designated person or head coach of what you have seen and heard and why you were concerned

Recall Exercise 3 Answers • Speak to your club welfare officer, designated person or senior member of staff – unless the concerns relate to him or her, or there are concerns about a conflict of interest • Reassure him or her that he or she is not to blame – children often blame themselvesStay calm – children need to see that you are in control • Go directly to the coach and appropriately challenge what he has said or his actions – (depending on the issue) it may be the coach is unaware he is exhibiting poor practiceProvide a verbal or written report to the club welfare officer, designated person or head coach of what you have seen and heard and why you were concerned – this will provide information to key members of the club so that the situation can be dealt with appropriately

What is a Disclosure? • When someone (child or adult) tells you something, usually sensitive or personal • Unlikely to be shared widely • Reflects level of trust

Responding to a Disclosure • Considerations: • Timing and location • Responding to a child • Recording the concern • Any other sources of concern? Refer to your governing body of sport/county sports partnership (CSP) reporting procedures

Where you have Concerns • You are not expected to be an expert, nor to start an investigation or to find additional evidence • You have a responsibility to act if you have any concerns about the behaviour of an adult or a child towards another child

What is your Responsibility? Pass on your concerns to…? You haveconcerns + = You’re notan expert –don’t start to investigate

Information Sharing • Check your governing body of sport/local authority/club or organisation policy and procedures • Information on a need-to-know basis • Confidentiality must be respected • Club protection officer/designated person/head coach • Governing body of sport/ lead officer for child protection • Neither data protection nor human rights legislation overrides the responsibility to share information if there are potential concerns about the safety/welfare of a child/children

Celebrate the support Greatest asset Worstliability Challenge appropriately Parents How do you use your parents code of practice/conduct? Parents

Where Next? • Additional activities and information in your Safeguarding and Protecting Children 2 resource • For further information on safeguarding children, visit: www.childprotectioninsport.org.uk • For further information on the DBS, visit: www.gov.uk/disclosure-barring-service • For further information on sports coach UK workshops, visit: www.sportscoachuk.org

Workshop Outcomes By the end of this workshop, you will be able to: • actively promote a positive and child-centred coaching environment using key principles of relevant codes of practice/conduct • demonstrate knowledge and awareness of current national legislation relevant to your role • confidently recognise, respond to and make informed decisions about safeguarding children • consider a seven-step approach to assist with decision making • respond appropriately to a disclosure or concern

Safeguarding and Protecting Children 2: Reflecting on Practice (SPC2) Learning Agreement