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It is important that clubs follow the policies and procedures that their governing body has in place to facilitate staff/volunteers in reporting safeguarding concerns or disclosures should the need arise. Contact your sports governing body for further information.
It is not your sport’s responsibility to identify and investigate possible instances of child abuse. This is the role of the statutory agencies and in Northern Ireland these are the Health and Social Care Trust and Police Service. It is your responsibility though to report any child protection concerns.
It is important that your sport has procedures in place for dealing with child protection concerns/disclosures/allegations in order to support staff/volunteers, young people and parents through the process of reporting a disclosure or allegation.
If staff/volunteers become aware that a young person is possibly suffering any abuse no matter how trivial they should report this to the designated safeguarding children officer and complete an
Sample Incident Record Form (PDF, 100KB)
.
Any incident reported to the designated safeguarding children officer should be responded to immediately, taking all necessary steps and reporting the incident to the appropriate authorities when required.
Health and Social Care Trusts
Health and Social Care Trusts have a statutory duty under the Children (NI) Order 1995 to ensure the welfare of a child. Where there is a risk that a child is in danger of abuse or serious neglect Social Services must always intervene to safeguard them. In other situations where a family needs support or additional services to help them cope, Social Services may be able to help or offer advice, or may ask another professional or a voluntary agency to help.
Gateway Teams - these are the first point of contact if you have concerns about a child or family. They will treat all contacts as enquiries in the first instance. Enquiries can include requests for information, advice and concerns about a child or family. An enquiry is always completed first; it is an initial filtering system before a referral is taken. If you contact by phone, the duty worker will seek some general information about you, the child or family and the nature of your concern. On the basis of this information they will be able to judge whether or not the enquiry should be progressed to referral. For further information visit the Health and Social Care Trusts websites.
As well as reporting allegations to appropriate authorities, you should follow your own organisation’s internal disciplinary procedures. In Northern Ireland, the governing body should facilitate and support you in your club's referral to the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA).
A referral to the ISA is appropriate when you remove an individual from your organisation or an individual leaves your organisation before you have had an opportunity to remove them. This may be because:
Further information
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Curtain Road, London EC2A 3NH. Incorporated by Royal Charter. Registered charity number 216401. NSPCC, charity registered in Scotland, charity number SC037717.