This week (7 – 11 October 2024) is NSPCC Child Protection in Sport Unit ‘Keeping your child safe in sport week’ – a national campaign that aims to support parents and carers so they feel confident leaving their children at clubs, groups and activities.

Sports and activity are important parts of childhood and parents play a big part in encouraging children to participate.

But where do you begin with the volume of activity clubs, camps and organisations available?

The best place to start is to ensure that the provider take the safety and wellbeing of your child seriously. Check the safeguarding policies and procedures they have in place. At Kings Camps our Child Safeguarding policy is accessible at the bottom of every page on our website and can also be accessed via our ‘How it Works’ page.

Key things to look for:

A Safe environment: this includes risk assessments for the venue and facilities (available on camp)

An appointed officer: check that they have a designated welfare, safeguarding or child protection officer (available here)

Consent and emergency processes: you should be asked for participation consent, completed contact details and relevant medical details (completed on your account at the time of booking and requested to validate prior to attending)

Procedures & processes: You should be able to access clear processes for raising concerns and complaints (see posters on camp and also available here)

Safer recruitment policy: recruitment process should include appropriate references, DBS/PVG requests, training/qualifications (available here)

Safeguarding training: all staff should be trained in Safeguarding and Child protection (all on camp staff complete Interactive Online Training and complete Online Learning courses and our Head Office team have training delivered by NSPCC on safeguarding)

Suitable supervision and ratio’s: we follow Ofsted guidance to ensure the safety and care of every child (read more here)

Code of practice, conduct and behaviour: Outline of boundaries that staff and children should respect (available here)

“We must make sport safe for children and make it easier for parents and all people in sport to recognise and understand how they themselves can support a safer sports environment” Sir Bradley Wiggins, advocate for the Keeping your Child Safe in Sport campaign.

Please contact us if you have any questions on our practices.

If you’d like to find out more about the NSPCC – Keeping Children Safe in Sport campaign visit https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/away-from-home/sports-clubs/