About us

Who we are

Who we are

We are part of the NSPCC and funded by Sport England, Sport Northern Ireland, Sport Wales, and UK Sport.

(In Scotland, there's a similar partnership between Children First and sportscotland.)

We were founded in 2001 in response to a series of high-profile cases of abuse of young athletes. We help sports organisation to create safe and inclusive environments so that all children can enjoy and thrive in sport and physical activity. We do this by helping organisations to develop, implement and embed a safeguarding and welfare culture.  

We work directly with UK Sport Councils, National Governing Bodies (NGBs), Active Partnerships (APs) and other organisations. 

 

Further information

The NSPCC is the UK's leading children’s charity. We’ve been looking out for children for over 140 years – and we couldn’t do it without you. Together, we can stop child abuse and neglect. 

By 2031, these are some key differences we want to see. Our role within the NSPCC is to drive the NSPCC Strategy in the sport, leisure and physical activity sector, as well as to support the Sport Council strategies, so that: 

  1. everyone plays their part to prevent child abuse
  2. every child is safe online
  3. children feel safe, listened to and supported
Our aim and values

Our aim

To support the sport and physical activity sector to create a caring culture where children and young people are safe and thrive in sport.

Our values

We put children and young people first by:

  • encouraging the sport and physical activity sector to put children and young people at the centre of everything they do
  • working in collaboration to always improve the environment they take part in
  • establishing standards of best practice when engaging with children and young people

We take a stand by:

  • influencing stakeholders in sport and physical activity to embed safeguarding best practice
  • campaigning for improvements to safeguard children in sport and physical activity
  • checking and challenging poor behaviours that impact on children and young people

We work together by:

  • collaborating with stakeholders and partners to strengthen safeguarding in sport and physical activity
  • empowering others to understand the impact they have on children and young people
  • supporting stakeholders and partners to create safer sporting environments and culture

We strive for excellence by:

  • sharing learning from reviews and investigations regarding safeguarding in sport
  • pushing the boundaries of expectations to continue to learn and share best practice
  • living the values of safeguarding children and young people in our day-to-day work

We make an impact by:

  • advocating for changes in legislation and procedures to safeguard children and young people
  • assessing safeguards in sport and physical activity to ensure they meet agreed standards
  • always striving to increase practice standards through quality training
Our work

Our work with sports organisations   

We help sports organisations to create safe and inclusive environments so that all children can enjoy and thrive in sport and physical activity. We do this by helping organisations to develop, implement and embed a safeguarding and welfare culture.  

We work throughout England, Wales and Northern Ireland and offer a range of funded, free and paid-for services.   

We offer:  

We also lead the annual Keeping Your Child Safe in Sport campaign, which aims to support parents and carers whose children participate in sport or physical activity.   

Though we are happy to give safeguarding advice, we cannot investigate specific cases. If you need help with investigating a case or safeguarding concerns, please contact your national governing body or active partnership. You can also contact the NSPCC helpline by phoning 0808 800 5000 or emailing help@nspcc.org.uk 

For any questions about our funded or paid-for services, please contact us at cpsu@nspcc.org.uk   

Our impact

What have we achieved in 2024/25?

Our latest impact report highlights our headline achievements and the progress we have made towards reaching our aim to support the sport and physical activity sector to create a caring culture where children and young people are safe and thrive in sport.

We couldn't have achieved all of this without our funding stakeholders and key partners in the sector working alongside us and prioritising the welfare of children and young people.

> Download and explore our impact report, which includes our work in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and across all nations. 

> Read our latest blog: Reflecting on our year: annual impact report 2024/25

> Download and read our headline infographic. 

CPSU Impact 2024/25 - infographic

National awareness raising campaigns

Keeping your child safe in sport

Keeping your child safe in sport is our campaign to raise awareness of the important role parents play in youth sport. Each year, we hold a focused awareness week during the first week of October, where we bring together parents, sports clubs and bodies, and NSPCC ambassadors to help parents to keep children safe in sport. 

Close the Loophole

Until June 2022, a loophole in the law meant that some adults who hold a position of power over a young person aged 16 or 17 (including sports coaches) could legally have sex with them. This was unlike teachers, for whom this would be a serious criminal offence.

The NSPCC campaigned to get this law changed and, in March 2021, the Ministry of Justice announced that the law was being extended to see sports coaches and faith leaders included alongside roles like teachers and social workers. This went into effect on Tuesday 28 June 2022, with sports coaches and faith leaders now being recognised in law as being in 'positions of trust'.

For further information, please see our FAQs about the changes to the law and listen to our Changes in positions of trust legislation podcast.

Meet the team

Meet the team

We have 25 years’ experience supporting the sport sector with safeguarding and welfare training, guidance and support. Our staff come from a range of different backgrounds, including social work, education, sport development, youth justice, child protection, and marketing and communications. In addition to our years of experience supporting the sport sector, as part of the NSPCC we have access to the latest research and leading experts on specialist areas such as grooming, online safety, policy and legislation, child sexual abuse and many more topics.

Bespoke safeguarding in sport training and consultancy team

The bespoke safeguarding in sport training and consultancy team offers industry-leading services to help you keep children and young people safe. Whether it's places on our national training programmes, training tailored to your organisation's needs or you'd like independent assessments, reviews or event support, our team can help.  

To learn more about what we can offer, please visit our webpages

FA 365 project team: Denise, Tom, Emma

England

The England team work to support and improve safeguarding and child protection practices within sports National Governing Bodies (NGBs) and Active Partnerships in England. This involves training, consultation and conducting annual safeguarding reviews to ensure safeguarding is being maintained and embedded within organisations. As part of this work, the England team aim to:

  • build the capacity and knowledge within sport organisations
  • enable sports organisations to recognise and respond to concerns relating to children
  • play an important role in Sport England's Uniting the Movement, working to ensure equity of safety for all children by building a shared understanding of the risk's minority groups face

England team - Jude, Carole, Liza, Saara, Rebecca, Helen, Joe, Rachel

Northern Ireland

Paul Stephenson is our Senior Consultant for Northern Ireland. He works to support sports governing bodies to achieve and maintain their safeguarding standards. Paul assists organisations in having robust safeguarding policies and procedures but also encourages self-reflection to enable sports to examine their own culture and communication with their own stakeholder.

The Northern Ireland project supports sports organisations to:

  • engage parents to help their child to enjoy their sporting experience and fulfil their full potential
  • engage with young people and listen to their voices when shaping the delivery of sports activities and competitions
  • understand the role they have in supporting a young people's mental health and wellbeing
  • raise awareness of sexual abuse prevention

Northern Ireland team - Paul

UK Sport

The UK Sport team provide safeguarding and child safeguarding guidance, support and training to UK Sport sole funded organisations. The team supports performance organisations to maintain and embed safeguarding standards to help create safer sporting environments and cultures for elite and talented young athletes.

UK Sport team - Carole, Liza, Dannii

Wales

Our Wales team support and guide the Welsh National Governing Bodies and National Partners Organisations with their child protection and safeguarding provisions within the sector.

This is implemented through our CPSU framework for safeguarding and protecting children in and through sport in Wales. We work with the organisations on safeguarding aspects such as, policies and procedures, case management processes, engaging and consulting with children and young people, education and training, implementation and monitoring and influencing. Overall enabling them to maintain and embed a safeguarding culture and promoting best-practice safeguarding throughout the organisation. 

Wales team - Cerri, Graham, Hannah

Information, content and digital production

The information, content and digital production team work closely with colleagues from across the CPSU team, the wider NSPCC and specialist subject matter experts to develop and review digital content to help sports club and activity providers to keep children and young people safe in sport. The team find new and informative ways of getting safeguarding information to the sports sector.