What is safeguarding?

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An illustration of various athletes or players performing. Running, skiing, para rugby, golf and netball. The athletes or players have a protective arch above them.

‘Safeguarding’ is sometimes used as an umbrella word: but what does it include? Let's first explore the meaning of safeguarding.

Safeguarding – in simple words

Have you heard the word safeguarding before? What do you think it means?

You may have heard ‘child protection’ used before. Safeguarding and child protection are closely linked but they mean different things.

Safeguarding means: (click on the prevention and response images for a definition)

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Quite often the term ‘protection’ or ‘child protection’ is used to describe the response – the action taken when there are concerns for a child (or adult) who may be suffering harm or abuse or is at risk of suffering harm or abuse.

Who is responsible for providing safe sport environments?

Everyone in sport has a duty to make sure activities are delivered as safely as possible.

This is part of our safeguarding responsibility.

Next, we're going to look again at the grassroots tennis club featuring Felipe.

Getting started

What does safeguarding mean in practice?