Partnership Child Protection Work

Background

Through the delivery of the Active Sports programme Sport Across Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent has made significant progress in the area of Child Protection.  Now the Partnership has moved away from direct delivery to become a County Sports Partnership with a wider remit and more strategic function its role in relation to Child Protection has also changed. The Partnership is now placing a greater emphasis on supporting and influencing Partners to further improve the measures in place to safeguard young people in sport.

The focus of Child Protection work by Sport Across Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent will be to:

• work with Partners to raise the standard of safeguarding in sport across Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent
• develop stronger links with the Local Safeguarding Childrens Boards and Childrens Trusts
• achieve the Intermediate Level of the National Safeguarding in Sport Standards
• provide an effective child protection training programme for all those working in sport

National Safeguarding Standards

In 2003 the Child Protection in Sport Unit (CPSU) introduced the national Standards for Safeguarding and Protecting Children in Sport with the aim of improving safeguarding provision in sport. The Standards make it possible for the CPSU to quality assure the child protection policies and procedures for all the Sports Partnerships and NGBs accessing funding from Sport England. Working towards and achieving the Standards is and will continue be a condition for accessing funding from Sport England for Sport Across Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent.

There are currently ten Standards that cover all aspects of protecting and safeguarding children in sport. The Standards are split into three levels, which are the Preliminary, Intermediate and Advanced Level. Details on the content of the standards can be found at www.thecpsu.org.uk

Partnerships Current Position

Sport Across Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent has achieved the Preliminary Level of the National Standards through developing and implementing its own Child Protection policy. The Partnership has now successfully achieved the Intermediate Level of the standards having demonstrated a good level competency across a number of areas including:

• Standard 2 - Procedures and systems for reporting problems and raising awareness
• Standard 3 - Prevention - What the Partnership is doing to prevent abuse and poor practice in sport
• Standard 7 - Education and training - What training we provide for our staff and the staff of key Partners
• Standard 8 - Access to advice and support - How we access specialist advice and how we sign-post other people to where they can get further information on safeguardiing
• Standard 10 - Influencing -The proactive steps SASSOT is taking to make other organisations improve safeguarding in sport

The independent panel that assessed the Partnerships safeguarding portfolio described it as:

'a portfolio that demonstrates the commitment of SASSOT to safeguarding and child protection'  

The Partnership also organises child protection basic awareness training for coaches, volunteers and other sports staff. 

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