Introduction

Who is this course for?

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This short course on Safeguarding Essentials is designed to support everyone involved in sport whether you are in a voluntary or paid role either for an international sports organisation, for a national sport association, for a sports club, or as an athlete or player, a coach, manager, official or other role, such as a safeguarding or child protection lead, physiotherapist or medic.

The course is designed for everyone from grassroots to the elite. It is divided into three 30-minute sessions for you to complete at your own pace. The course explains how safeguarding is everybody’s responsibility.

This course is free and open to all, and you are welcome to study it without enrolling. However, if you want to earn an Open University digital badge for your learning, you’ll need to enrol on the course.

This course is the first in a collection of three online courses that are free, and anyone can do.

Learning outcomes

As a result of studying this course, you will be able to:

Describe what is meant by safeguarding in sport.

Recognise safeguarding risks in sport and how you can help to reduce risks.

Understand how to report safeguarding concerns so that they can be responded to properly.

Start making plans for how to take your next steps in safeguarding.

The course follows a linear, page-by-page progression and by following this through you will complete all the course material. However, if you wish to go back to look at something again, the content of this course can be accessed from the course menu on the left-hand side of your screen.

Your welfare

During this course you will be asked to think about different types of harm that children and adults can experience. You may have your own lived experience of harm and abuse, and may find some of the content in this course difficult and upsetting.

Please make yourself aware of the support services that are available to you through your manager, your organisation or within your community before starting the course, so that you know how to access this support if you need to.

In the box below, there are various download options. This is useful if you wish to study the course content offline for a period or you have issues with internet bandwidth or connection. There is a download box at the start of each part of this course.

Now go to the first part [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)]   of the course.