Summer is coming again, so let’s make it a safe summer for our children.  

The T20 Cricket World Cup is fully underway, the Euros have started, Wimbledon is looming and the Olympics and Paralympics are just around the corner, We all hope that our sports stars will embrace the challenge, win with respect and act at all times with dignity and grace no matter what the results. Hopefully, many of our children may be inspired to either take up a sport or work to improve their game on the backdrop of what we hope will be a summer of sporting success.  

Last week we saw some of our top Tennis stars perform at the Nottingham Open as a precursor to Wimbledon, the former US Open Champion Emma Raducanu and the UK Number 1 Katie Boulter were playing and hoping to show some form ahead of Wimbledon later this month. This event is always very well attended and attracts a lot of young aspiring tennis stars to watch their heroes play. 

We all hope that more children will be encouraged to participate in sporting activities this summer especially as the summer holidays beckon and children break up from school for 6 weeks.  

This is a timely reminder to all parents who may be struggling to juggle increasing work commitments and looking after their children during this long break. With the ongoing cost of living crisis still evident and so many parents having to work long hours or multiple jobs to simply get by, finding activities for their children can be challenging.  

The market in summer sports camps and activities has increased significantly in recent years with many sports providers delivering high-quality sports activities that children can access. However, parents need to be mindful that this area of children’s provision is largely unregulated and as such parents need to do their “due diligence” before letting their child attend.  

Over the past few years, we have seen numerous reviews of how children have been abused and treated appallingly within their chosen sport, more recently with Swim England and British Gymnastics who have both produced comprehensive reviews of their sport and have plans to implement culture change across their organisations.  

On a practical level, what questions do you need to ask to ensure your child is safe whilst participating in their chosen sport or physical activity, do you know who to approach if you have a concern and would you be sure that your child knows who the clubs/providers safeguarding/welfare officer is. Would you be confident that your child could tell you if something was wrong at their club?  

To help parents, children and sports clubs The NWG Network in partnership with our colleagues from the Lawn Tennis Association has developed a campaign called “Safe to Play”. We have produced a suite of short videos accessed using the QR code below, the resources include a short story highlighting how a coach “groomed” a family to gain access to their child, a video specifically for parents which has all the information needed to be considered before a child attends their chosen sport, a short story aimed at sports coaches to help them think about keeping their sport as safe as possible for players and fellow coaches and finally we hear from young Jamie speaking directly to other children to encourage them to talk to someone if they are not happy themselves or maybe worried about another child, a unique video from a child to other children. 

Please access the suite of videos by using the QR code via your mobile phone or tablet and share the QR code across your network.  

To access the Lawn Tennis Association’s comprehensive set of resources use the link below which will take you to their dedicated website for their campaign. 

https://www.safetoplaytennis.co.uk

For parents whose children attend Martial Arts clubs the link below will take you to the Safeguarding Code for Martial Arts, this website will give you a wealth of information about keeping children safe in their chosen sport and an interactive map of clubs across England that are fully signed up to the code, do have a look and share this link across your networks.  

https://www.safeguardingcode.com

As always colleagues the NWG Networks sports team are happy to talk about any aspects of safeguarding in sports especially our Safe to Play campaign and our Bystander Intervention training for sports coaches, we are also happy to talk about any aspects of the broader field of child exploitation.   

Please share the QR code and the links to the Lawn Tennis Association Campaign and the Safeguarding Code for Martial Arts and let’s keep our children safer this summer. 

Kevin Murphy  Safeguarding in Sport Lead 
NWG Network 

Office: 01332 585371 

Mobile 07399 449045 

Email:  [email protected]  

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