How should you report concerns in your organisation?

Every organisation should have a clear way for people to report concerns about poor practice or abuse.

Why are internal reporting systems important?

As people become more aware of what safeguarding means in your sport, they will be more likely to raise safeguarding concerns, so internal reporting processes need to be ready for this.

Internal reporting processes must be linked to external expertise and the authorities (e.g. the police and child protection services) in each country. Poor practice concerns can be handled internally by the relevant disciplinary or ethics procedures of your organisation.

However, if a possible crime has occurred, it must be reported to the authorities.

What process should you follow?

Click on the image below and then follow each pathway through the slides. Think about who from your organisation should be part of your reporting process.

If your organisation’s process is unclear, or you don’t have one in place yet, you should work with local experts, such as social services, child protection services, the police and expert non-governmental organisations (NGOs), who can offer professional help to develop your system and make sure cases are properly investigated.

It is also a good idea to discuss this with other sports bodies, such as your Sports Federation, National Olympic Committee or Commonwealth Games Association, or other sports authorities.

For more details visit www.safeinsport.org [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] and see Safeguard 2: Developing a system to respond to safeguarding concerns of the International Safeguards for Children in Sport.