3.3 Getting your policy formally approved

With support from your manager and external experts, and using the templates provided in Course 2, you may have already developed or refined your organisation’s safeguarding policy. If not, now is a good time to go back to Course 2: Session 5 Policies, procedures, and codes of conduct and work through this process.

Your safeguarding policy provides an overview of the organisation’s responsibilities for – and commitment to – safeguarding, and the main actions to be taken. You should consult widely on the development of your policy internally and externally, including with other staff, athletes, athlete unions/representatives and survivor groups where applicable. You should do this for all the policies and procedures you develop as part of your role, to make sure they are person-centred.

The final version of the policy must be formally endorsed by your senior management group or Board before it is promoted and put into practice. Senior management approval is what gives the policy its status and authority.

In the next section, you explore how other policies of your organisation link to safeguarding.