All registered clubs are required to have a nominated Welfare Officer. The appointed person must have completed all safe recruitment checks (DBS/AccessNI/PVG). Ideally the Welfare Officer will have completed recognised British Gymnastics or Home Country equivalent Safeguarding and Time to Listen training. A waiver can be applied for to allow the Welfare Officer to train when new into post.

Information/access to the required courses can be found via our website or by referring to the website for your Home Country.

Help all club members to know who the Welfare Officer is by ensuring this information is visible. Great places to display your Welfare Officer information can include notice boards, changing rooms, walkways or walls, club induction pack and on your club website.

Use our poster to help share this information.

Ensure that information is placed according to the audience that you want to reach. For example, consider whether a poster is placed at a height where young gymnasts can see it.

The Welfare Officer does not need to attend every training session so displaying a picture ensures they are recognisable to club members. This could be via club induction packs, newsletters, posters and websites.

Discuss availability with your Welfare Officer and publish times when it is convenient for them to be contacted.

Ensure contact numbers for your Welfare Officer are shared with all members. This could be via club induction packs, newsletters, posters and websites.

Ensure your Welfare Officer has a dedicated email address which is known to everyone at the club.

It is important and best practice that only the Welfare Officer/s have access. This ensures independence and confidence to those raising concerns.

The Welfare officer / Safeguarding Officer must be free from any conflict of interests within your club and specifically must not be the head coach, related to or living with them or part of the key coaching team.

Having more than one Welfare Officer ensures difficult situations are not left entirely to one individual to deal with and that the Welfare Officer role does not become too much work for one person.

County and Regional Welfare Officers can provide support, especially at small clubs where there may only be one appointed Welfare Officer.

The Welfare Officer is a key part of the management team. Safeguarding should be included as a set agenda item at any management/coach meetings with the Welfare Officer present.

The Welfare Officer should be proactive during discussions. This may include referencing new legislation or arranging to support initiatives such as mental health awareness week.

The Club Welfare Officer should have full access to GymNET for their club. This allows the Welfare Officer to see any club issues where updates are required, such as expired Safeguarding or criminal records checks.

A reminder is added 90 days before expiry to allow the club member time to rectify.

To access the GymNet Portal, first go to our website at british-gymnastics.org and click ‘GymNet Login’ in the top left hand corner of the homepage. This will direct you to the login page where your membership number and password are required.

You can access Safeguarding contacts and your RWO contact details on our website or the website for your Home Country.

Remember, you are not alone. If you have any concerns or queries British Gymnastics are here to help.

Contacting the Regional Welfare Officer both when you come into post and throughout, will ensure that there is a point of support when needed.

British Gymnastics organise Safeguarding Conferences to provide support, guidance and training for those working within gymnastics clubs. These are open to anyone with British Gymnastics membership over the age of 16, welfare officers, coaches and club managers, as well as anyone else with an interest in safeguarding.

Regularly check your Safeguarding information for members to ensure it is kept up to date.

This can include information on your welfare officer, regional welfare officer, British Gymnastics safeguarding officers and team contact details, safeguarding flowchart for reporting concerns, codes of conduct, first aid information and where club policies and procedures can be found. Our Club Hub resources can help if you are unsure what to display.

Adopting the British Gymnastics/Home Country Safeguarding policy alongside your club policy ensures you are working within safeguarding legislation.

Top tip – use links on websites to British Gymnastics/Home Countries policies as these will update automatically when changes are made.

To get more information about creating an anti-bullying policy, use this link.

Embed this policy within the club by regularly communicating/signposting to club members.

To get more information about creating a complaints procedure, use this link.

Ensure this is readily available to all club members and the procedure is followed in the event of any complaint received.

Our Club Hub resources has a Health and Safety toolkit to help you through this process. We also provide eLearning training free of charge to all British Gymnastics members.

Find out who is the health and safety officer at your club and ensure that risk assessments have been conducted.

Agility Risk and Compliance, our Health and Safety Partners are on hand to provide support to our member clubs. They can advise on all aspects of Health and Safety, including Risk Assessments.

Agility’s British Gymnastics dedicated Helpline:
Tel: 03300430094
The line is open Monday to Friday from 8.30am -5pm. There is an after hours’ service via a mobile number provided at the time of calling.

Email: bg.hs.advice@agilityrac.com

Website: www.agilityrac.com

All new members should receive club information and existing members receive updates when changes are made.

Club members can receive this information in various ways, such as electronically or hardcopy. For ideas i around what to include in a ‘club information pack’ use this link.

Displaying coach/staff information in your venue and on websites helps members see who is involved in your club so that everyone can be assured of roles and responsibilities.

This can help new members know who to look out for when they arrive for their first session or existing members transferring between different sessions/squads.

Your codes should serve as a central guide and reference point to support day-to-day decision making. However, if they’re not clearly communicated or displayed, it’s very hard to expect people to use/ follow them. Therefore, it’s important that your codes are highly visible and easy for anyone to obtain a copy when needed.

Ensure information is regularly checked and amended as necessary.

We have draft codes of conduct which you can adopt or review your codes against.

You can set standards of behaviour by establishing codes of conduct.

This governs what coaches can and can’t do as a member of your club. The code of conduct for coaches reflects the principles of good coaching practice.

Be sure to take all new starters through the codes to ensure they understand your expectations of them.

We have draft codes of conduct which you can adopt or review your codes against, see this link.

Remember, as a member of British Gymnastics you must comply with our Standards of Conduct.

Ensure all club members have signed to confirm they have read and understood their code of conduct. Regularly remind club members of their responsibilities. This could be via signposting them to codes of conduct on your website or posters.

Key to raising the standards of behaviour at your club is through a clearly articulated code of conduct that set the standards and expectations of behaviour.

Display your parent/guardian and spectators’ codes in your entrance area so they can be seen on arrival.

Display your gymnasts/participants code out on the gym floor to ensure gymnasts are aware of your expectations from the minute their class starts.

The CPSU website contains useful information for parents. Our leaflet can be shared with parents to help them understand what is in place and how they can seek help.

Expect the highest standards of conduct from your gymnasts/participants, who have a responsibility to ensure that their behaviour and actions meet the high standards.

While it is important to treat all gymnasts/participants equally, additional care must be taken when administering sanctions to individuals with disabilities or needing reasonable adjustments.

Each club has a designated DBS verifier (or Home Country equivalent) who can guide you through the application process. The criminal records check must be updated every three years.

Remember – GymNET will display a reminder 90 days before expiry to allow the club member time to rectify.

Safe recruitment is a set of practices to help make sure your staff and volunteers are suitable to work with children and young people. It’s a vital part of creating a safe and positive environment and making a commitment to keep children safe from harm.

Safer recruitment should be a continuing process of improvement for your club.

A well designed and conducted staff induction results in a positive first experience of the club. This means the employee integrates into their team, becomes productive quickly, understands the organisation’s values and culture, and works to their highest potential. Managers and Head Coaches need to invest time in inducting new employees – an effective induction process can help them settle in and become productive more quickly.

Staff who hold a position within a club with frequent access to children and young people must hold Safeguarding certification issued within the last 3 years.

As clubs process a significant amount of data including personal and sensitive information, it’s vital that you take data compliance seriously.

List all club members and identify those who hold roles within the club where data protection training would be required.

Use our Club Roles page to access eLearning courses on GDPR Awareness, Data Security, Implementation and Privacy Notices & RoPA. These courses are free of charge to our members.

Sharing any updates or informing your team following a course or any changes in your policy can be helpful.

Every club is responsible for their own governance and has a legal duty of care to all members. The club management plays a key role in ensuring that all club activity is safe.

Holding club management/coaching team meetings allows communication to plan future club activities and make important decisions.

It is essential for the Welfare Officer to attend meetings to provide an update on safeguarding within the club environment.

Discussing safeguarding as a standard agenda item at meetings will allow your club to ensure safeguarding policies and practices are fully embedded.

View your training environment looking at entrances, exits, security of staff areas, maintenance.

Not all clubs have their own private facilities and may use those owned by the community/local authority/ schools/private business. These facilities may already have their own policies which a club may have to adhere to as part of a facilities usage agreement.

Think about how your club can effectively meet the needs of all its members, considering the facilities that are available to them, the number of people accessing them and the activities they are undertaking.

Further guidance can be obtained from our Health & Safety toolkit.

Clubs should be open to inviting parents in to view their children training. Clubs without viewing areas should designate an area of the gym and schedule regular viewing times throughout the year.

An alternative way of providing viewing is to use CCTV, allowing parents to view what is going on. This will ensure that a parent can watch their child and be confident that the club is providing a positive experience in their gymnastics session.

Your club must have a policy, or rules, relating to the use of changing facilities. Develop a policy that meets your specific circumstances adopting the underlying principles in our Safe Environment policy.

You are required to keep records about any safeguarding concerns.

Records do not have to be complex – a simple form can be created. As a minimum, you should create a case file and a concerns log to use alongside our incident reporting form.

Every club that holds records about children or adults must have policies and procedures in place regarding the retention and storage of that information. Clear guidelines for the retention, storage and destruction of safeguarding records are also required as part of safeguarding policies and procedures.

You may decide to keep paper records or use electronic storage. Whatever method you choose, make sure it’s secure, and no-one else outside your club has access to it. Electronic files should be password protected and stored on computers with protection against hackers and viruses.

Our course on Cyber Security provides knowledge and guidance in relation to online security.

It is good practice to access safeguarding awareness initiatives, so your club keeps up to date with changes to legislation that are being made. Furthermore, it enables club members to be a part of initiatives ensuring that safeguarding awareness is highly profiled in your club. This can lead to discussing proactively what can be altered to ensure an enjoyable experience and how your club can promote these positively.

Put your gymnasts/participants at the heart of your decision making. Seek their feedback on key decisions relating to club operations, and regularly ask for their suggestions for improvement.

Have a suggestion box or worry monster where comments can be left anonymously and addressed in conjunction with the welfare officer.

Create a culture of openness between the club and a parent by providing regular feedback on how their child is progressing, include:

• Regular, written and oral communication with parents.
• Opportunities to discuss progress and the training regime.
• Opportunities to raise concerns and receive feedback on the outcome.
• Encourage parents to become involved in the club.
• Invite parents to attend welfare briefings prior to an away event.
• Encourage parents to attend events.
• Set up parent forums.

Our Continuing Professional Development (CPD) courses can help to broaden your knowledge and skills in areas such as Personal Resilience and Effective Communication.

Policies and codes of conduct should be reviewed regularly and updated to reflect changes in legislation and government guidance. Where a case or issue has highlighted a problem, safeguarding processes and procedures may need updating sooner.

A website can be a useful resource to share announcements or upcoming events, keep your community engaged and attract new members. Done right, the website you create for your club can keep you connected and provide a sense of much-needed community.

Ensure you have referred to your privacy policy with regard to use of photographs and information.

Ensure that you have a social media and photography policy which safeguards all members and allows choices with regards to any publications made either privately or publicly.

British Gymnastics members in a position of trust and/or responsibility (as defined in the British Gymnastics Safeguarding and Protecting Children Policy) should not be in contact with any young people through any social networking sites whether the young person is a member of their club or any other club.

Our Social Networking guidelines provide further information.

Decide who will have responsibility for the set-up, management and moderation of your social media. Ensure they are suitably trained and aware of online safeguarding issues and support them by making sure the rest of your club are aware of your social media policy and their responsibilities online.

Only club staff and parents should be permitted access to official club social networking sites.

Carefully consider any posts or comments you may post online and respect other people’s views, as they may not be the same as yours.

Ensure you have referred to your privacy policy with regard to use of photographs and information.