Hi John,
Welcome back to your England Netball Safeguarding Newsletter! 🏐
With the new year now in full flow, we want to talk to you about safeguarding and keep you fully informed for 2024...
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We would like to introduce you to EN's new Safeguarding and Welfare manager – Dickon Turner. 👋
Dickon joined EN on 6 November after a long career in the police and now works with Carolina Hutchinson, as Compliance Coordinator, to complete the Safeguarding team. Dickon works Monday-Thursday and Carolina works Monday-Wednesday.
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Dickon and Carolina are hosting informal drop-in sessions on Zoom for club and county safeguarding officers, and anyone else who wants to join, to answer all of your safeguarding questions. 💻
Feel free to come along to the following sessions (more will be publicised soon):
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Last week, you should have received an email about our Safeguarding Survey – here we would like to hear about your experience with safeguarding and how you have found our safeguarding process and team at EN. Not completed it yet? Fill out the short survey below to have the chance of winning one of these two prizes:
Roses signed Gilbert netball 🏐
£50 voucher for the online EN store 💸
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| Survey closes 1 February 2024. |
📲 Look out for new and amended guidance on the EN website's Safeguarding Policies and Guidance page, covering Day Trips, Overnight or Foreign Trips and Extreme Weather.
The Safeguarding web pages will be updated in January to make information easier to find, and new sections for parents, young people and coaches will be added to keep content specific. Any suggestions on topics to include are welcome – please contact BeSafe@englandnetball.co.uk.
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This new year, Sport Welfare Officers will start arriving in your area. 63 people are being recruited by Active Partnerships, funded by Sport England. Their role will involve training clubs' Safeguarding Officers, promoting best practice, visiting and supporting clubs with welfare issues, although they will not be investigating or holding safeguarding cases.
The officers will support all sports and so will have to prioritise their work. EN will brief them about netball, so please take advantage of their position. 👇
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For all clubs with any under 18s or adults at risk (those with care and support needs) you MUST have the following:
- A club Safeguarding Officer – listed on ENgage and that everyone knows how to contact them.
- Up-to-date DBS checks are in place for all coaches or volunteers undertaking regulated activity. An up-to-date and secure record is kept of this in the club. View our guidance here.
- The necessary safeguarding training. An up-to-date and secure record is kept of this in the club. View our guidance here.
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To promote excellent safeguarding, please consider:
- Promoting safety and welfare information with parents and young people, e.g. Sharing NETBALLHer website with members.
- Ensuring everyone knows what is expected. Consider a newsletter, section on your website or regular safeguarding updates on your club's social media feeds. You may find these links useful: Keeping Your Child Safe in Sport campaign | CPSU or Parents in Sport | CPSU.
- Creating an environment where everyone feels safe to challenge poor practices or to raise concerns. E.g. The Safeguarding Officer has a single email address that only they can access. Perhaps an annual parent survey.
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Finally, we would like to share some cases of concern we experienced in 2023 to help make 2024 a better year for safeguarding. 👫
Last year, we had to suspend one coach, investigate another coach and a handful of clubs because of safeguarding and poor practice concerns. The most common themes emerging were:
- Coaches shouting and swearing at young people.
- Using physical exercises or repeated goal shooting as a punishment – sometimes in front of other young people
- Coaches being intrusive about young players’ exercise routines and weight management including weighing players at practice sessions.
- A coach becoming too powerful so that committees, parents or young players feel unable to challenge the practice for fear of being deselected from a team, ostracised, targeted or reduced club successes.
None of the above is permitted in netball and we are trying our best to make netball a welcoming and safe place for everyone. You can find useful links on this subject below.
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As Safeguarding Officer, you should encourage committees, and everyone involved in netball, to challenge poor behaviour when they see it, and directly with the person. People should be encouraged to share concerns with you and they should always be taken seriously. If you notice any repeated poor practice, it should be reported to BeSafe@englandnetball.co.uk.
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