Safe Club Support Visits

Scottish Gymnastics is expanding the Safe Club Support Visits programme and will be contacting your club soon to invite you to participate.

As the national governing body of gymnastics in Scotland, it is Scottish Gymnastics’ duty to promote the safety of all those who train, coach, officiate and volunteer or otherwise participate in our sport. Our vision is an uplifting gymnastics experience for all. We live by the shared values of being inclusive, supportive, and aspirational to ensure that gymnastics is enjoyable, safe, and open to everyone, and are therefore committed to supporting and enabling gymnastics clubs to ensure that at least the minimum safeguarding standards – as detailed in Children First/sportscotland’s national Safeguarding Standards for Child Wellbeing in Sport – are met (good practice), if not exceeded (best practice).

As the safety and wellbeing of children is of paramount importance to Scottish Gymnastics, to be eligible for Scottish Gymnastics membership, clubs must meet the following criteria:

• Have a set of clear safeguarding standards that have been implemented within the club.
• Ensure that there is strong awareness of the of the safeguarding policies, procedures and how to report a concern.
• Have at least one safeguarding officer at the club and ensure all safeguarding officers have the relevant training and engaged in their role of supporting the club to promote a positive safeguarding culture.
• Ensure all staff and volunteers are safely recruited, hold an up-to-date PVG certificate and relevant qualifications for their role.

The purpose of the Safe Club Support Programme is to assist clubs to meet these requirements and to attain and maintain the minimum safeguarding standards that all Scottish sports clubs are required to adhere to – Children First/sportscotland’s national Safeguarding Standards for Child Wellbeing in Sport. The Safe Club Visits support clubs to ensure that the minimum requirements of the Standards are being met and that clubs are building on them to become as safe as possible.

The process consists of a mix of in person visits, online meetings and access to sportscotland’s Child Wellbeing & Protection in Sport Clubs (CWPS) self-assessment tool.  Our Safe Sport team will work together with those involved using the CWPS tool to identify the club’s current position in relation to the safeguarding standards, identify areas of strength as well as areas for development, and to create an action plan.

Safe Club Support Visits aim to support:

• Embedding good practices within your club.
• Robust safeguarding governance.
• Promotion of concern reporting mechanisms.
• Improving knowledge and confidence for those with safeguarding responsibilities in the club.

Please note, all Scottish Gymnastics member clubs will be required to complete the programme.  We recognise that each club is different and clubs will not be judged or penalised based on their current position; this is a supportive project to help clubs ensure their safeguarding standards meet – or even exceed – the required minimum, so that together we can ensure gymnastics is enjoyable, safe and open to everyone.

Benefits to your club

The benefits of participation in the Safe Club Visits programme include (but are not limited to):

• Identification of areas of existing strengths in your club.
• Identification of areas that may need development to make your club even better.
• Achievement of the minimum safeguarding standards required by all Scottish sports, ensuring your club is operationally and legally compliant.
• Ensures that your club, its staff and volunteers are supported to understand and meet their safeguarding responsibilities.
• Staff and volunteers feel more confident to be able identify and respond to concerns by ensuring all the relevant policies and procedures are in place, up-to-date and communicated effectively.
• Demonstration to members and parents/carers that your club takes safeguarding very seriously.
• Ensures a safer environment for your members.
• Reduction in complaints relating to poor practices or safeguarding of members.
• Gives parents/carers more confidence that their children will be well looked after while attending your club, which makes your club more attractive for parents in your community to send their children to, thereby potentially increasing membership and retaining members for longer.
• Members feel safer and confident that any concerns they have will be taken seriously, they will be listened to, and a resolution will be reached with no negative consequences for them.

The Safe Club Visits Process

The Safe Club Support Visits are intended to help gymnastics clubs better embed safeguarding and provide a safe environment.

Who conducts the Safe Club Support Visit?

The visits will be conducted by a member of the Scottish Gymnastics Safe Sport Team or an independent representative should there be a conflict of interest.

Who should attend from your club?

The club Safeguarding Officer, Head Coach, relevant Board/Committee members and any other decision makers at the club who can take the work forward.

How are clubs selected for a Safe Club Support Visit?

Ultimately, all clubs will be required to complete the Safe Club Visits programme, but to ensure sufficient SG staff resource capacity, it will be conducted in a structured invitational process.

The selection process will be random, however some clubs may be prioritised for the following reasons:

• Scottish Gymnastics has become aware of information which raises concerns about the club’s safeguarding practices
• Clubs proactively volunteer to participate
• There is or has been a serious safeguarding issue at the club
• The club is in receipt of funding or benefits from Scottish Gymnastics

Self-assesment

At the point of notification, the club will be required to register for the CWPS self assessment tool and complete the self-assessment.

Survey

Clubs will be provided with a survey link which is to be circulated to the relevant club members:

• Coaches, helpers, volunteers and officials
• Gymnasts
• Parents and guardians

Feedback from the survey will be collated and anonymised by the Scottish Gymnastics Safe Sport Team. The report will provide feedback from the members around their awareness of safeguarding, and the club’s effectiveness at implementing safeguarding procedures. This will help Scottish Gymnastics to identify any areas to be focused on during the physical visit and provide clubs with the opportunity to reflect on the feedback from its members. The anonymised report of the survey results will be shared with the club to facilitate this.

Physical Visit

Scottish Gymnastics commits to conducting Safe Club Support Visits in a fair and open manner, with integrity and respect to the time and effort given by the clubs.

The club’s Safeguarding Officer and main club contact will be contacted to facilitate visiting the club venue. In most circumstances, meetings will be conducted online, and Scottish Gymnastics will physcially attend the venue on a separate date to check and support progression of implementation.

During the physical visit, Scottish Gymnastics will:

• Speak to relevant people responsible for running the club and ask them questions around the national  Standards for Child Wellbeing & Protection in Sport
• Speak to some randomly selected individuals, which could include coaches, volunteers, gymnasts, etc.
• Conduct a visual assessment of the venue and its safeguarding practices
• Review survey feedback from members

Scottish Gymnastics may attend the club at another date with limited or no notice to conduct further checks should that be considered necessary.

Should any serious safeguarding concerns be identified during the process, these may be required to be referred to the satutory agencies for investigation where appropriate.

Action plan

Where a club has not achieved all the Standards, they will be provided with an action plan on how to achieve them and a reasonable timescale agreed to complete this. 

Follow up

Where a club has been given an action plan, they will be required to submit the evidence to Scottish Gymnastics once they have completed the required actions.

Where a club has successfully met the Standards, recommendations will be made on how the club can exceed them to move from Good Practice towards Best Practice as desired.

If a club has not completed their actions within the agreed time, efforts to identify what additional support is required to complete them will be made.  Where a club fails to engage in the process or refuse to make the required efforts to meet the minimum Standards, they will be escalated to the Head of Wellbeing and Safe Sport for further review.

Isn’t this more work for our club?

Scottish Gymnastics recognises that there may be concerns around the generation of yet more work for staff and volunteers who may already be burdened to capacity. However, all sports are required by Children First and sportscotland to comply with the national Standards for Child Wellbeing & Protection in Sport to ensure the minimum safeguarding procedures are in place to keep children safe while participating in sport.

The majority of clubs will already be meeting some if not most of the Standards.  Furthermore, a large proportion of the action plan will involve utilising ready-made templates with access to a dedicated member of the Safe Sport team to provide advice and guidance every step of the way. 

Additionally, there is no expectation that everything will require to be in place by short-term deadlines.  Your club will be given reasonable agreed timescales and support to make any necessary changes.

It is recommended that a number of leaders from your club take part in the process to ensure that any work that is generated is shared so that no one person is over-burdened.  Running a gym is a collective responsibility, therefore the club’s staff, volunteers and board/committee members need to work collaboratively to ensure that all safeguarding processes are put in place to the required standards.

Action now

Look out for an email from one of our Safe Sport team members who will contact you to invite your club to begin the participation process.  You may wish to begin preparing by reviewing your current policies and procedures to ensure they are up-to-date and that all those who require to be PVG Scheme members have joined and shared their results with Scottish Gymnastics within the prescribed time limit.

If you have any further queries regarding the Safe Club Support Visits, please email safeguarding@scottishgymnastics.org.