Rowing Ireland is proud to support this year’s Safeguarding Awareness Week, focused on “Keeping Your Child Safe in Sport.” From October 7th to 11th, we’ll highlight the crucial role parents and carers play in ensuring the safety of young athletes.
All persons working with or coming into regular contact with Junior members of Rowing Ireland should be vetted by Rowing Ireland through either Garda Vetting (Republic of Ireland) or AccessNI in Northern Ireland.
Sport NI have worked with iCoachKids to create an e-learning course to support coaches and coach developers working with children and young people. These e-learning courses will be free of charge to all learners, and will provide in-depth learning opportunities across the following three themes:
1 – Developing Effective Environments for Children in Sport
2 – Child and Youth-Centred Coaching
3 – Coaching Children: Planning, Doing and Reviewing
The three online courses can now be accessed via: www.sportnicoachkids.net
Safeguarding Training
Sport Ireland offers three workshops in the area of Safeguarding and child protection. The details of the three stages of training are outlined here as follows
Safeguarding 1 – Child Welfare & Protection Basic Awareness Workshop
Safeguarding 2 – Club Children’s Officer
Safeguarding 3 – Designated Liaison Person
Club Children’s Officers (CCO)
Club Children’s Officers should be child centred in focus. Their primary aim is to establish a child centred ethos within the club. The CCO is the link between the children and the adults in the club. They also have responsibility for monitoring and reporting to the Club Management Committee on how club policy impacts on young people and Sports Leaders.
Designated Liaison Person (DLP)
Every club/organisation should designate a person to be responsible for dealing with any concerns about the protection of children. The Designated Liaison Person is responsible for reporting allegations or suspicions of child abuse to TULSA Child and Family Agency or Social Services (NI) and/or An Garda Siochana / PSNI. It is recommended that this person is a senior club person. However, if there is difficulty identifying a separate individual to take this role, the Club Children’s Officer can be appointed as Designated Liaison Person once the club/organisation is clear about the responsibilities of each role. The organisation’s child protection policy and procedures should include the name and contact details of the Designated Liaison Person, and the responsibilities attached to the role.
