I’m involved in running a Club

ALL clubs require:

A Club Safeguarding Officer (CSO) or Welfare officer.
Ideally this person should not be a club chair or a coach. This person should be assigned the role on ENgage. CSO's need a minimum Social/Supporting membership.

A Club Safeguarding Policy
Examples, guidance and templates for creating a CLub Safeguarding Policy can be found here:
Safeguarding Policies and Documents

L2 coaches, the club safeguarding officer and other people involved in regular contact with children or adults at risk should have the relevant training.
For more information about the relevant training for club members, please visit:
Training and Education

Coaches and anyone having regular contact with children and adults at risk should have an up-to-date enhanced DBS check via England Netball. If your club has under 18 members the Club Safeguarding Officer must have a DBS check carried out via England Netball. We don’t accept DBS certificates via work or other volunteer roles.
For more information about England Netball’s DBS policy, please visit:
DBS Information

The Club Safeguarding Officer should ensure their details are publicly available and shared with players, parents, volunteers and coaches.

The Club Safeguarding Officer should keep an up-to-date record of the training and DBS checks mentioned above and ensure people renew these every 3 years

Going beyond the minimum requirements

A useful checklist for the start of each season England Netball | Club Start of Season Support(Links to EN Website, needs to be confluence)

Useful pages to assess your club’s safeguarding effectiveness: Sports safeguarding tools (thecpsu.org.uk) or Culture in Clubs & Groups Self Evaluation – Ann Craft Trust

Information on age bands, including young players ‘playing-up’ into adult teams: England Netball | Competition Governance (Links to EN Website, needs to be confluence)

Connect with your local Sport Welfare Officer (Active Partnerships) here: Sport Welfare Officer Network – Active Partnerships

Do you have following in place?

Posters or information about safeguarding, safety, inclusion, mental health, online safety and raising concerns at the club visible in club venues, websites and social media platforms (see BeSafe Posters at the bottom of this page). Useful resources here: Encouraging Parents to be Part of the Team – UK Coaching and Communicating with Parents – UK Coaching
- Regular communication with parents, carers, players and coaches about these issues
- A kind, inclusive environment in your club, your teams and into the wider netball family. Do you encourage people to challenge inappropriate or poor behaviour whoever is responsible – even if it is the coach. More information on this on our pages called – “I’m a child or young person… Adult with additional needs, Parent and Coach.” Or here: Preventing bullying in sport | CPSU (thecpsu.org.uk)
- Safe recruitment practices for coaches and volunteers (not just a DBS check) see our Safe Recruitment document at the bottom of this page
- Safe spaces and events. Click here: England Netball – Duty of Care(Links to EN Website, needs to be confluence) and here: Safe sport events, activities and competitions | CPSU
- Promotion of general wellbeing for players and the netball family (Examples here: England Netball | Wellbeing or Home – NetballHer)(Links to EN Website, needs to be confluence)

Involving parents and carers

The best clubs ensure parents know how to support their children and keep them safe. They also communicate regularly with parents and carers about safeguarding matters. Some ideas here on how to do this. Encouraging Parents to be Part of the Team – UK Coaching and Communicating with Parents – UK Coaching.(Link 404 error)

Parents are encouraged to ask questions and to contribute ideas to the club. The club should have clear expectations of parents’ behaviour towards players and coaches during matches.

This page has some more ideas on. How to improve parental involvement in your club: recommendations for coaches | CPSU.
- Or see ‘Guide for managing parent behaviour – an exercise for clubs’ in the documents below.
- This 3 minute video is really impactive too: My Magic Sports Kit (youtube.com)

The following page has advice for parents involved in netball. England Netball | I’m a netball Parent or Carer(Links to EN Website, needs to be confluence)

Involving children/young people and adults at risk

Safeguarding should be a subject that children, young people and adults at risk are familiar with in your club – not just who the Safeguarding Officer is, but where to find out more information. Young people and adults at risk should be consulted with and listened to. You could consider regularly seeking feedback via meetings, 1:1 chats or surveys about how the club is run, opinions on the coaching style etc. See here for more ideas:

Involving children and young people in their sport | CPSU

Players should be encouraged to ask questions and to contribute ideas to the club. The club should have clear expectations of players’ behaviour.

The following pages have advice for Young People(Links to EN Website, needs to be confluence), and for Adults at Risk(Links to EN Website, needs to be confluence)

Considering the role of coaches

Coaches are there to facilitate sessions that are fun and involve everyone, as well as improve technique and performance. Clubs, volunteers, parents and players should look out for coach practices that fall below what is expected, develop into poor practice or present safeguarding issues. Coaches should involve players and parents/carers; encouraging them to ask questions, to support the coach and the players and to get involved.

The following page has advice for coaches: England Netball | I’m a netball Coach(Links to EN Website, needs to be confluence)

If your club uses an external Strength and Conditioning or other coach the club should check they are DBS checked and suitably qualified

When you have a concern

England Netball’s Safeguarding Policies and Documents can be found here to view and download:
Safeguarding Policies and Documents

These external resources are also a helpful tool to help you identify and handle concerns appropriately and effectively:

For Children:
Let children know you’re listening | NSPCC

NSPCC ‘Say Something’

Responding to a Child’s Disclosure of Abuse | NSPCC

For Adults:
What should I say…? Advice for Starting Difficult Conversations – Ann Craft Trust

To raise a concern with the England Netball Safeguarding Team, please visit this page:
I want to report a Safeguarding Concern

To raise a safeguarding concern, please visit this page:
I want to report a Safeguarding Concern