The County Welfare Officer acts as the first point of contact for anyone in the county setup (players, parents, coaches or volunteers) who has a concern about a child, poor practice or possible abuse towards children. In partnership with the county management committee, the Welfare Officer ensures that the organisation is adopting and implementing child safeguarding policies and procedures which are necessary for it to demonstrate its duty of care to children.
The designated Welfare Officer for Durham County Badminton Association is Holly Robson who has completed the UK Coaching Safeguarding & Protecting Children workshop and the NSPCC ‘Time to Listen’ training for County Welfare Officers.
If you have any safeguarding concerns, please contact Holly on: dcbajuniors@hotmail.com.
Durham County Badminton Association have adopted the Badminton England Safeguarding & Protecting Young People Policy.
It is not the responsibility of anyone working or volunteering in a club or organisation to decide whether or not child abuse has taken place. However, there is a responsibility to act on any concerns by reporting these to the County Welfare Officer or the appropriate authorities.
All concerns about a child should be reported to the County Welfare Officer, following the National Governing Body (NGB) procedures. Where concerns are about child abuse, this may lead to a referral to children’s services who may involve the police. If concerns are about poor practice, the NGB procedures will define the course of action to address this.
It is important that players, coaches and volunteers are aware of when they need to take immediate action to ensure a child’s safety, when they need to consult with others and what they should do in these circumstances.
To keep children safe, information needs to be shared appropriately so that decisions can be made to protect them. However, clear boundaries around information sharing are important to maintain confidentiality where appropriate and to ensure that only those who need the information are made aware of it.
For more information on safeguarding and child protection please see the links below:
- CLICK HERE to visit the Badminton England Safeguarding webpage
- CLICK HERE to visit the NSPCC Child Protection in Sport Unit website
- CLICK HERE to visit the County Durham Sport (local Active Partnership) safeguarding page
Durham County Badminton Association 