BF’s community discussion series continued with a Welfare Officer Discussion Event last week. A big thank you to all those who attended and contributed. These events are for our community to shape so get involved and let us know what would be of help to you.
Welfare Officer Register
The register serves as a quick check list of all registered Welfare Officers and the status of their qualifications and requirements. If your name appears in black then all related items are up to date, if your name is red then it means one or more items need your attention.
Work has been done recently on the register to automate reminders and update the status of officers. To help with the process officers can;
The Whyte Review
Liz Behnke, BF’s Safeguarding Manager, gave a summary detailing the key points of the Whyte Review. The review has spent the last 2 years looking into the abuse and mistreatment of gymnasts as a result of almost 400 cases which came to light following the release of the documentary Athlete A.
You can download the full review and read the joint statement from Sport England & UK Sport here.
BF’s full statement can be found here.
What relevance does this have to fencing?
The review will, amongst other issues, aim to determine matters such as the wellbeing of athletes as well as whether athletes had pathways to report concerns along with the necessary support to raise concerns and complaints.
New BF Safeguarding Structure
BF & EF have agreed on a new structure to improve safeguarding support in fencing in England. This sees the responsibility for managing the delivery of safeguarding services in the Regions move from Regional Committees to British Fencing.
Safeguarding in England will be split into five areas (NW, NE, Midlands, SE and SW) each with its own Area Safeguarding Officer (ASO). Each ASO will take responsibility for 2 or 3 regions and will be supported by at least one Deputy Area Safeguarding Officer (DASO). All these roles are voluntary and report to the BF Lead Safeguarding Officer.
Where a Region has an existing qualified, active Regional Welfare Officers BF will be looking to support them to continue in their role with that Region, either as an ASO or DASO.
For further information please see the full news post here.
Also, there is an opportunity to be part of the framework as an Area or Deputy Area Officer – please see vacancy details here.
Risk Assessments
Summer is great time to re visit your club’s admin jobs. Risk assessments form a big part of this and it is important to review these often to make sure they are fit for purpose and nothing it missed.
BF are currently updating existing templates and these will be sent out as soon as they are ready. As Welfare Officers its important that you work with Club Admins and committees to ensure risk assessments mitigate any safeguarding risks as well as safety ones.
For information check out the advice below.
This document is also only one example of how risks can be documented and mitigation measures recorded, clubs can simplify or change this according to their needs. Risk assessments (Club or Session) must be retained for insurance purposes.
Updated Equipment Hygiene Safety Protocols (June 2022) can be found here.
Clubs can also upload their Risk Assessments to the membership platform, follow the instructions here.
Please check out our video here for more guidance on Risk Assessments.
If you have a risk to mitigate but need some advice please don’t hesitate to get in touch. As always, we welcome feedback – what have we missed, what isn’t clear? Email [email protected] and let us know.
To ensure you are always kept in the loop please check that all your member contact details are up to date on the sport80 platform.
You can also subscribe to our new weekly summary email – The Fencing Digest – featuring the previous week’s latest news and announcements. Sign up here.
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