Clubs and county boards · Ireland

Safeguarding for sports clubs.

What the Children First Act 2015 asks of a club with underage teams, and why a governing body policy is a starting point rather than an answer.

The common assumption

The governing body policy is not your policy.

A national governing body gives you a framework, and that framework is usually good. What it cannot give you is a written risk assessment of your club — your pitches, your dressing rooms, your away trips and your volunteers.

The Children First Act 2015 asks each provider for its own. A club relying entirely on its governing body's documents has adopted somebody else's answer to a question nobody asked about them.

Dressing rooms and showers

Supervision, adults changing where children change, and phones. The single most common gap in club risk assessments.

Transport and lifts

Who drives whom, and whether a coach ever ends up alone in a car with one child.

Away trips and overnights

Room-sharing, ratios, and what happens if a child needs to be sent home.

Contact between sessions

Group chats, direct messages to individual players, and social media.

Roles

Children's officer, designated liaison person.

They are not the same job. A children's officer promotes a child-centred ethos in the club. A designated liaison person is the named first point of contact for concerns, and is responsible for reporting to Tusla and to An Garda Síochána.

One person can hold both, and in a small club often does. Best practice keeps them separate, and either way the club must be clear about which responsibilities sit where.

Answers

Questions clubs ask most.

Does the Children First Act 2015 apply to a sports club?

Yes, where the club provides a relevant service to children — which any club with underage teams or a junior section does. The obligations are the same as for any other provider.

Is our national governing body's policy enough for our club?

A governing body policy is a framework. The Children First Act 2015 asks each provider for its own written risk assessment and a statement reflecting the service it actually provides, which means your pitches, your dressing rooms and your arrangements.

Do volunteer coaches need vetting?

Yes, where they undertake relevant work with children. The National Vetting Bureau (Children and Vulnerable Persons) Act 2012 does not distinguish between paid and voluntary roles.

What about away trips and overnights?

These are among the highest-risk activities a club runs and are frequently missing from risk assessments. Transport arrangements, room-sharing, supervision ratios and who is alone with whom all belong in writing before the trip, not after it.

We are a small club with volunteers. Is this realistic?

Yes, and it is usually smaller than people fear. A small club's risk assessment is short because the service is simple. The work is doing it honestly rather than doing it at length.

Who you would be working with

Fifteen years leading Ireland's national child protection unit.

Senior Investigating Officer with An Garda Síochána, leading three national units: the National Child Protection Unit, the Sexual Crime Management Unit and the Online Child Exploitation Unit. Ireland's National Expert to Interpol and Europol on child safeguarding.

Safeguarding policy developed with Tusla, the HSE and three government departments. M.Sc. in Child Protection and Welfare, Trinity College Dublin. More about Michael

do what you love, safely