Writing a sport safeguarding plan

Getting started

What is a safeguarding plan?

A safeguarding plan, also known as a safeguarding action plan or implementation plan, helps you and your organisation to deliver your safeguarding responsibilities.

Your sport safeguarding plan should capture all the safeguarding work taking place within your organisation as well as the work you intend to do. It should also be aligned to your organisation’s vision and business strategy.

In this video presentation, we discuss how to use our resources to create effective safeguarding plans.

Can’t see the player? You can also watch this video on the NSPCC's YouTube channel

Why you need a safeguarding plan

By setting safeguarding goals, actions, timeframes and accountability, which is regularly reviewed, a safeguarding plan will help make sure safeguarding activities are prioritised and resourced.

It will also give you the opportunity to review your current safeguarding practices, identify training needs, understand how confident your staff and volunteers are and work out how you will communicate this plan to the wider organisation and your participants.

Getting people involved

Although it is the responsibility of the designated safeguarding lead to own the plan, it shouldn’t be developed alone.

Decide who needs to be involved in the development of the plan, this might include:

welfare officers, coaches, volunteers
senior management and board safeguarding champion
children, young people and their families
partner agencies, such as the CPSU or your funding body

It also makes sense for some actions within the plan to be owned by other people in the organisation and getting them involved at the beginning will lead to better understanding, engagement and accountability.

Related resources

What to include

What a safeguarding plan should include

A good safeguarding action plan is a working document. It should be used to guide safeguarding activities, as well as be reviewed regularly. It should include all the following:

SMART goals that align with business objectives and the Standards for safeguarding and protecting children in sport
Clear actions against all goals
Names of people who are accountable against actions
Details of resource allocated against actions
Dates and timings to achieve actions and goals
Notes and updates against each action and goal
Signed off by senior management and board champion

SMART safeguarding goals and actions

Your goals will vary depending on if you are a national governing body, a local club or a community activity provider. Regardless, when you know what you are trying to achieve, make sure your objectives and goals are SMART.

Specific – be clear and detailed.

For example, carry out a training needs analysis to work out how confident staff are in dealing with concerns. The analysis will include...[etc]

Measurable – how you’ll know progress is being made

For example, we will include a benchmark survey before the analysis to understand our starting point.

Achievable – break goals into smaller actions

For example, first we will meet with workforce lead and check qualification and training records of all staff. Then we will...[etc]

Realistic – be practical about what can be achieved, and the resources needed

For example, we have 100 staff and want an analysis on all staff. This will be done through desktop records, surveys and 1:1.

Time bound – use timescales and deadlines to stay on track

For example, 50% of staff analysed in first 3 months, 100% staff done by the end of the year.

Share responsibilities

Everyone has a role to play in creating a positive culture. Against each goal and action assign a person, with their agreement, who will be responsible. Try to include enough detail in the plan that each person can carry out their action and encourage people to make notes against the progress they make.

If you carry out personal development plans, supervisions or appraisals, see how some actions can be embedded into individual goals.

Identify resources

Consider what is needed to achieve each stage of the plan.

These resources could include staff, time or funding.
Consider who is responsible for making these resources available and their role in agreeing the plan or any subsequent decisions to reprioritise resource.
Try to develop contingency plans for if resources are not available, including timescales.

Set timescales

Setting realistic timescales can make actions more achievable. Break actions into smaller steps with timings and review as you go.

Regularly monitor and review your plan

Monitoring your progress means your plan is always up to date and you can see what safeguarding activities need prioritising and what you have achieved. To help you do this effectively, confirm:

who, how and when the plan will be reviewed and updated
what success looks like against each goal and how progress against specific actions will be measured
how incomplete actions will be reviewed and progressed
how you will keep staff updated on the progress against the plan
if you want to involve children, young people and their families in any of the review process

Communicating your plan

Communicating the safeguarding plan to others

Once you have a signed-off safeguarding plan, you need to make sure the people across your organisation are aware of the safeguarding work taking place and understand their own role in keeping children safe.

The best way to do this is through a dedicated communication plan. This plan can be part of your overall safeguarding plan or separate. If there is someone in your organisation whose role includes communication, you may wish to include them when developing this section.

The aim is to plan how and when you will share key safeguarding information with young people, parents, volunteers and coaches as well as welfare officers or other safeguarding leads.

Include:

accessibility and understanding needs
the key audience groups and what information each needs to know
channel of communications. This might include things like email, face to face meetings, video or printed information.

Always follow your organisation’s communication and social media policy.

Safeguarding plan template

To get you started, we have a simple safeguarding plan template you can use and adapt for your organisation.