8.3 What safeguards already exist in your organisation?

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Four groups of people involved in sports. Each group is drawn inside a speech bubble. Golfers. Officials. Referees. Coaches. In the middle of the speech bubbles are three sheets of documents or forms with a tick on them. Also on the graphic are some green ticks and some question marks.

Understanding what safeguarding measures already exist across your organisation can help you identify where there may be gaps and therefore potential risks. This is the starting point for identifying priorities and developing a safeguarding Action Plan.

In the next activity, Patience shares her experience of assessing what safeguarding measures are in place in her organisation.

Assessing safeguarding measures

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A female safeguarding lead.

Listen to Patience’s explanation and the safeguarding actions she identified.

Once you have considered all the actions, identify which three actions you would prioritise.

Download this audio clip.Audio player: nc5265_2024_aug004_unicef_ii_patience-english.mp3

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Transcript

I knew from news stories and research that talented young athletes are at greater risk of being abused. So, I decided that I should assess the safeguarding measures at our National Youth Training Centre as a priority. When I looked at the safeguarding there, I found it was ‘mixed’. There were some things I think were done really well, like providing modern, clean facilities including the dormitories, and running background checks when we employ new staff, including coaches.

But there were other aspects where a lot more should be done. For example, the codes of conduct for staff weren’t very clear and mostly focused on on-field coaching behaviour. Measures to supervise the children, especially in the evenings, were not very consistent. And although our organisation had run induction sessions for athletes, we hadn’t provided any safeguarding information to them or their parents. We didn’t have a named Safeguarding Lead within the Centre.

Finding out what safeguarding measures did exist and what didn’t helped me draw up a plan to improve safeguarding at the Centre.

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All these actions will help safeguard athletes; they are all important and need to be addressed. However, Patience needed to prioritise some of these actions based on her assessment of their urgency.

Which THREE of Patience's actions do you think are the most appropriate? Vote for your top three actions in the opinion poll below Choose your three actions from a list. Please note that your vote in the poll is anonymous. Other learners cannot see how you have voted, and you cannot see how they have voted. You can see the vote tally only.

Comment

There is no right or wrong answer regarding the priorities, but it is important for you to be able to explain how you decided to order the tasks.

Here are the three priorities that Patience considered most urgent.

• Appointing a dedicated Safeguarding Lead at the centre was a very high priority for Patience since this person will drive and support all safeguarding activities and will provide a contact point for anyone with concerns.
• A code of conduct makes it clear about the organisation’s expectations in terms of standards of behaviour and Patience felt it was a fundamental early step. It provides a baseline for everyone to help identify good and bad practice.
• Adequate living conditions were also a priority for Patience because they immediately impact on the general health, safety, and wellbeing of the children.

Every organisation will have some safeguarding measures in place – even if they don’t use the word ‘safeguarding’ to describe them – and every organisation will still have work to do to strengthen their safeguarding measures. You may find that safeguarding measures are only in place for some activities, or in some facilities – and are not part of a comprehensive, consistent approach.

This is why it is so important for you to gain a picture of what measures are in place, for whom, and where, to help you plan for how to address any gaps.

You will explore this in more detail in the next section.