Club Welfare Officer Update

We all want our young people to feel safe and to be able to talk to a trusted person about issues or concerns whilst they are training.

From April 2023 it will be mandatory for all clubs with members under the age of 18 years to have a Club Welfare Officer. This was ratified by the BJA Board of Directors and is in line with the outcome of the recent Whyte Report following the investigation into British Gymnastics.

Many clubs have already started to recruit volunteers from within their membership to take on the role and some have even recruited two people to perform the role to give extra support and resilience.

Ideal candidates for the role are parents who regularly come to watch their children train and want to take an active role in the club, individuals who have an understanding of current safeguarding guidelines and experience through employment (for example, teachers, social workers, police officers etc.) However, anybody who wants to care for and support the young people at their club can be trained to perform the role.

Ideally, individuals related to the coach should not perform the role of CWO in their own club but might be able to share a CWO with a neighbouring club. Neighbouring club coaches may act as the CWO for each other’s club. However, we will review individual cases where there is a reduced option for somebody to perform the role.

Where a club is located within school premises and is linked to the school, the Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) for the school is recognised as the CWO and there is no need to physically recruit somebody else to perform the role. Similarly, where a club is located in a Local Authority Sports facility and they have a trained, recognised and advertised Safeguarding officer, there may not be a need for an individual CWO.

It is appreciated that there is a cost to complete the training, it is hoped that the club will be able to support this.

Anybody taking on the role of CWO will require the below to be completed:

• Club Welfare Officer application form
• Membership of BJA, recreational membership is free, or we will make a contribution to a full adult license on renewal. In addition, one child in their household will be entitled to free membership.
• Enhanced DBS check covering child workforce, a link can be issued for this to be completed. Existing DBS can be accepted following physical inspection of the certificate to confirm authenticity, or via the update service.
• Complete a Level 2 safeguarding and protecting children workshop (SPC) initial safeguarding course must be face-to-face, subsequent alternate revalidation courses can be virtual / online.
• Complete a Time to Listen course (TTL) this can be face-to-face or virtual, however, an SPC course must have been completed prior to attendance on a TTL course.
• Read and sign a copy of the GDPR policy.

The initial course for anybody completing SPC must be completed via a face-to-face delivery. British Judo do not provide this training, but are striving through the club support officers to ensure that enough courses are available in the Areas. it can be completed via any other National Governing Body (NGB) of sport or local Active sports partnership. i.e., a course being delivered by your local rugby or netball club. Courses can be located via the BJA website or a search on the internet via NSPCC /CPSU / Sport Structures / Wessex Training as a few examples.

For revalidation courses – https://www.ukcoaching.org/courses

For TTL courses – The CPSU and sports structure both offer regular online (virtual classroom) TTL courses.

https://thecpsu.org.uk/training-events/

https://www.sportstructures.com/education-training/

Please contact marina.dain@britishjudo.org.uk to answer any questions you might have and to support you through the process.

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