COVID-19 Officer Responsibilities

As part of BF and the Home Nation’s commitment to ensure that the return to community club activity is as safe as possible, it is a requirement for all community clubs to nominate a COVID-19 Officer.

The COVID-19 Officer will act as the primary point of contact for BF, Home Nations, facility/venue operators, and club members for matters relating to COVID-19.

It is expected that most club committees will appoint an existing committee member or coach to act in this role.

Resources, sample risk assessments and guidance for clubs and COVID-19 officers can be found here.

Responsibilities of the COVID-19 Officer should include:

Guidelines

• Keeping up to date with changes in local government guidance and BF/Home Nation guidelines.
• Ensuring that the measures within the published guidelines and any subsequent updates are implemented and communicated to all participants as appropriate.
• Working with facility/venue operators to support the implementation of any additional guidelines specific to the facility/venue.

Risk Assessments 

• Working with the coaches, welfare officer and club committee members to create the “Club Return to Fencing Risk Assessment”
• Signing off the elements of the “Club Return to Fencing Risk Assessment” which relate to COVID-19 measures. (The Club Risk Assessment must, in turn, be approved by the club committee).
• Regularly reviewing the Club Risk Assessment – minimum on a monthly basis and in response to any change in guidelines issued by government/BF.
• Ensuring that there are protocols for signing-off individual session risk assessments and that these are retained for insurance purposes.

Sample risk assessment and resources can be found here.

Communications

Be the first point of communication with BF/Home Nations, facility operators and club members in relation to COVID-19 issues and risks.

Club Protocols: establishing, communicating and executing club/session-specific protocols for:

• hygiene
• the use/management of equipment
• the monitoring of social distancing practices in the club – including movement/flow of people and use of changing and toilet facilities

Record Keeping

• Ensure the club keeps an accurate record of all attendees in line with Home Nation Contact Tracing requirements.
• Ensure that these records are sufficient as per Home Nation government guidance, kept only as long as necessary and in line with GDPR requirements.

For community clubs, the COVID-19 Officer must:

• Be a member of BF
• Be registered with BF. Club Admins can register their COVID-19 Officer on the club’s membership platform by logging in here and following this step by step guide. 
• Be clearly named on any club website and communicated to all participants.

If the COVID-19 officer is not present during a club session it is expected that another club official will be appointed to fulfil these responsibilities for the duration of the club session. For example, this can be the coach or the welfare officer.

For other types of affiliated clubs – for example, those that operate within schools solely for the pupils of that school – the responsibilities set out above must still have identified owners. We recognise that many of these may fall under the remit of the existing school staff structure and it may not, therefore, be appropriate to appoint a COVID-19 Officer in a similar way.