Safeguarding Children In Sport
Sport Northern Ireland recognises its moral duty and legal obligation to
protect children and vulnerable adults in sport through the creation and
promotion of a safe environment which protects from abuse.
Sport has a power to be a positive influence on children and vulnerable
young adults, providing the supporting structures and sporting environment
places welfare first. Therefore Sport Northern Ireland is working in partnership with the Child Protection in Sport Unit to encourage Sports Governing Bodies and clubs
to implement the standards of practice outlined in Code of Ethics and Good
Practice for Children’s Sport. By encouraging all sporting organisations to
implement these Sport Northern Ireland believes that everyone in children’s
sport will benefit – children, parents/guardians and sports leaders.
Sports organisations must recognise their “Duty to Care” within the activity
they are organising. They must also realise that due to the often positive role
sport plays in a child’s life they have a duty in recognising and responding
to concerns that a child may be being harmed within another setting, such as
the family home.
Often it is difficult to believe, or indeed accept, that child abuse happens
in Northern Ireland and could occur in sport. The harsh reality is - it does! and
the evidence to support this has attracted wide media attention over the
years with few sports going unscathed or perhaps undetected. It is only
more recently that sporting organisations or leisure facilities have seen the need
to address this more directly. Please see:
Basic Information about Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups (NI) Order
Background to Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Legislation
Following the murders of Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells by Ian Huntley (a school caretaker) in 2002, the Bichard Inquiry was commissioned to examine the reasons why this happened and the lessons to be learned. One of the key issues this
Inquiry looked at was the way in which organisations recruit people to work with children and vulnerable adults. The Inquiry asked whether the way organisations check the background of applicants is reliable enough and also whether organisations should be responsible for deciding whether a job applicant can be safely employed.
One of the Inquiry’s recommendations was the need for a single agency to determine if individuals who want to work or volunteer with children and vulnerable adults are suitable to do so. The Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 established the Independent Barring Board (known as the Independent
Safeguarding Authority (ISA). The ISA started operating on 2 January 2008 to fulfill this role across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Scotland is developing
a complementary scheme, which will work closely with the ISA. The Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups (NI) Order 2007 mirrors those provisions of the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006, which do not extend to Northern Ireland and will establish a new Vetting and Barring Scheme.
How will the Vetting and Barring Scheme Work?
Every person who wants to work or volunteer with children or vulnerable adults must be registered with the ISA. In Northern Ireland applications for ISA
registration will be processed by AccessNI.
AccessNI will receive applications for ISA registration and will gather and forward information to the ISA. Having considered this information the ISA will register an individual where there is no known reason why they should not work with children
or vulnerable adults. Individuals registered with the ISA will be continually
monitored and the ISA will remove their registration if they subsequently do something which makes them unsuitable to work with children or vulnerable adults.
The ISA holds a list of all those who are barred from working with children and a
list of those barred from working with vulnerable adults. Barring decision-making
by the ISA started in Northern Ireland on January 2009. under the existing decisions of POCVA and List 99. From 12 October 2009 the ISA will be making barring decisions under the provisions of the SVGA. From this date, employers/deployers of staff/volunteers will have a duty to refer names of people presenting relevant concerns, who will be considered for barring under the new scheme. In practice this means that referring individuals working with children and/or vulnerable adults who have exhibited inappropriate behaviour or activity will be mandatory. Anyone who is barred from regulated activity with either children or vulnerable adults will not be able to do this work, and will commit a serious criminal offence if they do so. A club or employer will also commit an offence if they knowingly employ or use a barred individual (in either a paid or voluntary capacity) in any regulated activity.
Cost
The cost for registering with the ISA for those in Norhtern Ireland will be £58 per person (this includes the cost of an enhanced disclosure). Volunteers who
currently meet AccessNI’s criteria for free disclosure checks will not pay for ISA registration.
The fee will cover the following administrative and operational costs:
- The application and registration processes;
- The employer registration of interest facility;
- The online checking system; and
- Continuous monitoring of individuals who are ISA registered.
Implications for Sport
From 12 October 2009:
Sports Governing Bodies (as regulated activity providers) have a legal duty to
refer individuals who pose a risk to children or vulnerable adults. This means that Governing Bodies who take disciplinary action against an individual due to safeguarding concerns, must refer to ISA, it is no longer acceptable to simply ask that individual to leave your organisation.
From 26 July 2010 new recruits or those moving into ‘Regulated Activity’ should register with the ISA.
- Applications for registration will be submitted through AccessNI [new entrants and job movers];
- Individuals who become ISA-registered will be subject to continuous monitoring;
- Employers/Volunteer Managers will be able to check ISA registration by way of a free on-line check and will be able to register an interest in employees/volunteers;
- Members of the Scheme will be assessed against any new information from police, employers, social services or other sources and will, if necessary, be barred;
- Employers or sports governing bodies, who have registered an interest in
- an individual, will be advised if the status of an individual within the Scheme changes;
- Offences relating to requirement to be registered and check registration commence on the 1st November 2010; and
- Phasing of existing staff in accordance with phasing strategy from November 2010.
Individuals will register with the ISA before taking up employment/volunteering in regulated activity. An organisation must check that the person is registered with the ISA before allowing them to commence employment/voluntary work. This will determine whether or not the sports organisation can allow the individual to take up, for example, the post of coach, volunteer driver, instructor or volunteer, and may affect what activities they can undertake.
Regulated activity with children includes work, paid or unpaid, frequently or intensively, to provide:
- Teaching, training or instruction;
- Care or supervision;
- Advice or guidance relating to children's physical, emotional or educational well-being;
- Treatment or therapy; and
- Transport specifically for children
In addition, any frequent or intensive contact with children in certain specified places (e.g. schools, children's homes, relevant childcare premises) is regulated activity.
A similar definition applies in relation to regulated activity which is targeted specifically at vulnerable adults. ‘Vulnerable adults’ are clearly defined in the legislation and would include instances where activities are arranged specifically
for a group with disabilities. It would not include situations where an adult who happens to have a disability participates in general activity targeted at those without disability.
The terms frequently or intensively mean you will be affected by the Scheme if
you work or volunteer frequently (once a month or more), or intensively (three days or more every 30 days), or overnight in any of the following: Teaching, training or instruction, care supervision of children or vulnerable adults.
Only an ISA-registered person can undertake regulated activity – it will be illegal
to employ (either in a paid or volunteer capacity) an unregistered person and
those who do can be fined up to £5000. In the context of the Vetting and Barring Scheme, an unregistered person is someone who has not registered with ISA. A person is guilty of an offence if he knowingly employs a barred person in regulated activity. This can result in a fine of up to £5000 or a term of imprisonment.
Regulated Activity Provider (RAP)
A regulated activity provider is an organisation responsible for the management or control of regulated activity, who makes arrangements for a person to engage in that activity. There is no need for a contract to be in place for an individual or
body to be a regulated activity provider and the definition applies to both paid
and unpaid work.
The Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups order clarifies where the responsibilities lie within an employer’s organisational structure. The responsibilities are assigned to the top of the structure: in the case of corporate bodies, this means the corporate body itself. The effect is that in a large and complex organisation such as a local council, the employer’s responsibilities under the Order generally attach to the council itself, rather than to any committee or officer. This is intended to ensure that employers take their responsibilities seriously. If the organisation is an unincorporated association, the responsibilities attach to the person or people responsible for managing and controlling the association.
In addition to these responsibilities at the corporate level, the Order specifies that the responsibilities can attach to individual staff of the organisation, who can also be held liable for any failure to apply the requirements of the Order. This covers
the scenario where the organisation at the corporate level makes arrangements to comply with the Order but an individual manager does not apply them.
Governing bodies, if they employ or manage a volunteer directly, are known as Regulated Activity Providers, but in most cases the sports coach or volunteer will be managed a club level and therefore
For more information visit: www.dhsspsni.gov.uk/index/hss/svg.htm/
Or www.isa-gov.co.uk
Vetting and Barring Scheme Guidance October 2009
Vetting and Barring Scheme Questions and Answers
The Wider Picture
Children can be subjected to many forms of unacceptable treatment by adults
or indeed by their own peers, which we may never consider being abuse, but
none the less the impact of such ill treatment is wide-ranging and impossible
to quantify. At a personal level, such ill treatment can completely destroy a
child’s sense of worth attacking their self-confidence and self-esteem. At its
worst some children can feel that their situation, which if it goes unchallenged, is
so hopeless that suicide is their only option. Definitions of abuse:
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