Welfare and Safeguarding Resources for Coaches
DSW believe that coaches and volunteers are essential to the creation of fun, safe and inclusive physical activity (including sport) for all (disabled) children and young people. In ensuring that activities offered through Disability Sport Wales always represents best practice we encourage and support all coaches and volunteers to gain appropriate qualifications, attend useful continuing professional learning opportunities, have experiences of working with other coaches and volunteers so that ideas can be shared, and to ensure all of this links to a focus on participant-centred delivery.
Where Welfare and Safeguarding are concerned there are some fundamental things you should make sure you do:
- If you are working in Regulated Activity (which you are likely to be if you are coaching or leading sessions with children and young people frequently and in an unsupervised setting) make sure you have a current DBS check
- Make sure you have attended the UK Coaching Safeguarding and Protecting Children workshop or the Safeguarding and Protecting Children and Young People Renewal workshop
- Also and ideally attend a Protecting Adults workshop (Ann Craft Trust e-learning or other delivery formats)
- Ask the club you are coaching for if you can have a copy of their Welfare Policies (or if you work directly for DSW get access to our policy and toolkit)
- Check the role description the club, NGB (or DSW) have for the coaching or volunteering role you are doing
- Always ensure that there is an appropriate risk assessment conducted or available for the sessions you are involved with
- Be aware of the ratios the sport recommend for the group you are coaching. The specifics of these numbers will be provided by your National Governing Body.
