1.1 Welfare Statement
Crawley Athletic Club has adopted the UK Athletics Safeguarding and Protecting Children in Athletics:
UK Athletics Limited, England Athletics Limited, Welsh Athletics Limited, Scottish Athletics Limited and Athletics Northern Ireland fully accept their legal and moral obligations to provide a duty of care, to protect all children and safeguard their welfare, irrespective of age, disability, ethnicity, gender identity, religion or belief, sex or gender and sexual orientation.
• The welfare of the child is paramount.
• All children have the right to protection from abuse
• All suspicions and allegations of abuse and poor practice will be taken seriously and responded to swiftly and appropriately.
• All individuals involved in athletics understand and accept their responsibility to report concerns to the appropriate officer.
All volunteers (Committee Members/Coaches/Athletes over 18/Parents of athletes of Crawley Athletic Club) are responsible for athletes’ welfare.
1.2 Club Welfare Officers
The club will appoint one male and one female
Male David Freeman
Female Sarah Pratt
Contact details;
1.3 Reporting abuse
Club Training Sessions
The club operates on Monday and Wednesday at K2 Crawley between 17:30-20:30
2.1 Training at K2
The club will not accept responsibility for athletes on the premises at K2 until they are signed in. Once the athlete has been dismissed by their coach the club doesn’t accept responsibility.
All athletes 17 and under must sign in at the club’s front desk before entering the track.
The club will provide at least one licensed Level 2/Athletics Coach to oversee club training nights. All other coaches will be where possible trained to at least an Assistant Coach and all coaches regardless of qualification will have undergone DBS checks, basic Safeguarding Training and will have read this document.
Athletes and coaches should have read the track etiquette policy and adhere it to where possible.
At each group a coach will do a head count and keep track of numbers of their group during the session.
The club will manage and make sure each coaching group has at least 1 coach to 12 athletes
The club will undertake regular Risk Assessments and update these when necessary
2.2 Training Away from K2
The club will provide at least one licensed UK Athletics Level 2/Athletics Coach to oversee the group training. There should be two coaches or a senior athlete with one leading the group and one bringing up the rear.
During winter months and darker evenings athletes are expected to adopt the policy ‘ BE SAFE BE SEEN’ whereas the athlete should be wearing at least one piece of light coloured and or hi-viz clothing and be thinking about using a lighting device.
Coaches have the right to refuse an athlete the right to train outside of K2 if they believe the athlete is not safe to do so.
Coaches should at minimum carry a mobile phone. It is recommended that coaches should also carry a first aid kit if trained.
The lead coach should out carry Risk Assessments and update these when necessary.
2.3 Training outside of club hours
The club acknowledges that coaches will organise sessions outside of club hours the policies set out in 2.1 and 2.2 will apply. If coaches are coaching any athletes 17 and under they must inform parents of location, start time and end time.
The lead coach should carry Risk Assessments and update these when necessary.
3. Anti-bullying Policy
The club has adopted UK Athletics Anti Bullying policy for Clubs
We are committed to providing a caring, friendly and safe environment for all of our members so they can participate in a relaxed and secure atmosphere. Bullying of any kind is unacceptable at our club. If bullying does occur, all athletes or parents should be able to tell and know that incidents will be dealt with promptly and effectively. We are a TELLING club. This means that anyone who knows that bullying is happening is expected to tell the club welfare officer or any committee member. What Is Bullying? Bullying is the use of aggression with the intention of hurting another person. Bullying results in pain and distress to the victim.
Bullying can be:
- Emotional being unfriendly, excluding (emotionally and physically) sending hurtful text messages, tormenting, (e.g. hiding spikes/clothing, threatening gestures)
- Physical pushing, kicking, hitting, punching or any use of violence ∙ Racist racial taunts, graffiti, gestures
- Sexual unwanted physical contact or sexually abusive comments ∙ Homophobic because of, or focussing on the issue of sexuality
- Verbal name-calling, sarcasm, spreading rumours, teasing
4. Codes of Conduct
As a club we have adopted the following UK Athletics codes of conduct;
Athletes
Coaches
Parents
Team Managers
Technical Officials