Welfare - it is everyone's responsibility

Athletics is about running, jumping and throwing as fast, as high and as far as you can. England Athletics aims to create an environment where everyone involved in athletics feels safe and secure to enable them to achieve their potential – to run, jump and throw, to coach, officiate or to support those who do.

Welfare - what it means

Welfare covers a range of issues such as safeguarding and protecting children, anti-bullying, equity, poor practice in coaching and disciplinary and grievances matters. It encompasses policies and procedures to set out minimum standards of expectations, such as codes of conduct, procedures to follow for dealing with child protection concerns, other welfare issues or complaints, and to ensure that EA, clubs and associations meet their statutory responsibilities to safeguard and protect children. Welfare is essential to contribute to good practice within the sport, develop performance and to ensure the safety and enjoyment of athletes, coaches, officials and volunteers. England Athletics believe that all children have the right to be protected from abuse.

It is everyone’s responsibility to ensure the welfare of all those who participate in athletics.

England Athletics has been working in partnership with UKA and the home countries to review and update the Welfare Policy for Athletics. The new policy has been approved by the boards of EA, UKA and the other home countries and can be downloaded from here now. There are also some Child Protection Referral forms which should be used by clubs to record and report any concerns that they may have.

Advice and support regarding any welfare issues can be obtained by contacting the England Athletics Welfare Officer who is Jane Fylan at jfylan@uka.org.uk or call on 0161 223 4246.

Supporting Documents

As part of the new Welfare Policy there are also a range of supporting documents that might be useful to clubs and that can also be downloaded from here (very soon!).

Codes of Conduct
We have produced some templates for codes of conduct which can be adopted by clubs or adapted as necessary to meet their needs. The codes of conduct cover athletes, coaches, officials, parents, clubs and sports therapists.

Anti-Bullying Policy
There is a template anti-bullying policy which clubs can adapt and adopt for their own use as necessary. The policy is produced by Kidscape.

Volunteer Recruitment Form
Clubs are advised that it is good practice to ask volunteers to complete a volunteer recruitment form and to obtain references for all club volunteers. This form should be used especially for volunteers where they may not require a CRB check but it is important for the club to verify their background. The form can also be used for volunteers who are under 18 years old and therefore cannot be subject to CRB checks.

Club Welfare Officer Roles and responsibilities
This is a guidance document which sets out the general responsibilities of the club welfare officer and the athletics club in relation to welfare issues.

Welfare within an Athletics Club

Within an athletics club ALL club officers and committee members have responsibility to uphold the welfare policies and procedures, to adhere to good practice and to respond to any suspected breaches. It is strongly recommended that every athletics club appoints at least one welfare officer (preferably two – one male and one female). The Welfare Officer’s role is to advise and support the club officers and committee to implement welfare policies and procedures, to respond to any concerns regarding child protection and to ensure that all coaches/officials/volunteers have completed CRB and Independent Safeguarding Authority checks as required. The Welfare Officer should have attended Safeguarding and Protecting Children Training and Time to Listen Training for Club Welfare Officers within the last 3 years. Information about this training and advice, support and information about the welfare responsibilities of athletics clubs and welfare officers can be obtained from the England Athletics Welfare Officer.

Information Sharing Protocol

England Athletics recognises the importance of sharing information appropriately in the interests of protecting children from harm. In line with good practice England Athletics has adopted an Information Sharing Protocol based on the protocol drawn up by the Child Protection in Sport Unit. The purpose of the protocol is to provide a framework within which England Athletics, other sports organisations, statutory bodies and relevant others can share information appropriately, clarify the principles upon which information will be shared, how it will be shared, with whom and for what purposes. Any queries regarding the Information Sharing Protocol should be addressed to the Welfare Officer.

Information in different formats

If you require any information or documents from this page in a different language or format e.g. large print please contact Jane Fylan.