The role of the coach in safeguarding

The latest entry of Basketball England's safeguarding blog series by our Safeguarding Specialist Amy Riding.

Missed the others? Read them back:

• Club welfare officers - this blog is for you
• Our award-nominated safeguarding learning package
• Get involved with BE's first Safeguarding Awareness Week
• World Mental Health Day toolkit
• Spectator behaviour standards
• Reflecting on Safeguarding Adults Week
• New year, new safeguarding blog
• Safeguarding adults: What do you need to know?
• Safeguarding in basketball - who's responsible?
• Club welfare officer forums - an overview

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This month's blog focuses on the role of the coach in safeguarding. 

Coaches are paramount to our game and support for coaches at all levels of the coaching pathway is available through BE's learning hub. 

When it comes to safeguarding, our safeguarding course is now the only course we accept for coaches refreshing their training.

Not done yours yet? Sign up.

Are you a young coach?

UK Coaching has a bunch of learning opportunities to help ensure you have the knowledge when it comes to safeguarding: 

• Safeguarding and Protecting Children for Young Coaches
• Safeguarding and Protecting Children for Young Volunteers 

Position of trust

All coaches need to be fully aware of all of relevant legislation, policy, and procedure governing your role.

Did you know that coaching is a legally recognised as a position of trust?

This means that coaches are subject to the same legal provisions as other adults who work with children, such as teachers. It is illegal for a coach in a position of trust to engage in sexual activity with a child under 18.

Do you know about your legal and moral duty of care as a coach?

Anyone in charge of children within a basketball activity has a duty of care for their safety and wellbeing. To demonstrate a reasonable standard of care as a coach, you need to:

• keep an up to date attendance register
• keep accurate and current records of contact details for participants
• ensure appropriate supervision ratios (refer to the Basketball England policy)
• keep a detailed record of any specific medical conditions for children (eg. allergies, asthma)
• ensure first aid provisions are readily available
• ensure all staff and volunteers have been selected via an appropriate recruitment and selection processes, including DBS checks

We advise that all coaches keep their safeguarding knowledge up to date, follow regulations and policy, and complete risk assessments for all basketball activities.

See our duty of care document for more information. 

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Are you familiar with our safeguarding regulations and policy?

Our regulations and policy clearly set out the standards that we expect.

To protect both juniors and adults in the game, we would not expect to see the following from coaches when coaching juniors:

• Providing lifts home
• Directly messaging U18s 1-1
• Inviting juniors to spend time with you outside of basketball
• Engaging in rough, physical activity or ‘horseplay’
• Using inappropriate language or making insensitive comments
• Using physical punishment
• Acting in anyway that a child may perceive as threatening, intrusive, intimidating, patronising, or belittling
• Allowing concerns to go unreported

To summarise, our coaches are paramount to our game; it is important you have all the knowledge and support to assist us in our commitment to safeguarding the welfare of children and adults at risk in basketball.

If you need further assistance in meeting safeguarding requirements and understanding your role please get in touch with your club welfare officer or the safeguarding team.

Download our essential documents below. 

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