Safe Sport | Duty To Care Highlighted with SportScotland Tool
Scottish Gymnastics’ vision is an uplifting gymnastics experience for all. We live by the shared values across the sport of inclusive, supportive, and aspirational to ensure that gymnastics is enjoyable, safe, and open to everyone.
The wellbeing of members is key, so everyone feels safe and supporting through positive practice and the highest wellbeing and protection standards and systems. Part of this is to support and empower clubs so they are well managed and accountable for keeping children and young people safe.
We want clubs to embed a safeguarding culture and confidently meet and deliver their duty of care and safeguarding obligations in line with the standards for child and wellbeing and protection in sport (CWPS). The CWPS club tool helps us do that as part of our safe sport club support programme.
The programme involves around eight clubs in year one, who are supported through visits and online meetings. They are initially shown how to use the CWPS tool, then they complete their assessment which allows them to complete an action plan of what they need to do. Our wellbeing and safe sport team reviews this before the first club visit, and the insights from a survey we ask the club to send to parents, children, coaches and volunteers.
Once we have understood the level of support needed, we meet with the committee, safeguarding officer, and head coach. The goal is for the club to become compliant with the standards for CWPS through the club tool, and that safeguarding becomes constant item on the committee meeting agenda to ensure that safeguarding and wellbeing is integral to their operations.
The safe sport club visit programme will be rolled out in subsequent years so all Scottish Gymnastics clubs regularly use the CWPS tool and embeds a safeguarding culture.
Speaking about the CWPS tool, Scottish Gymnastics head of wellbeing and protection Lindsey Booth said:
It is an easily accessible tool which is clear and simple to use. For us, it is important that clubs are supported beyond the tool. Safeguarding is not just about ticking a box and that’s why we have taken a holistic approach and integrated the tool in our wider programme of support.
You can find out more about our programme of safe sport support on the dedicated section of our website, where you can also find links to the tool.