YSF Safeguarding and Welfare News – May 2025
Welcome to our Monthly newsletter.
Please pass it on to your Club Welfare Officer and safeguarding staff.
Sport Welfare OfficersSelf-Assessment and AuditsSafeguarding Partners and Other ContactsTraining
Sport Welfare Officer Network
The three of us attended a national meet-up of all of the Sport Welfare Officers from across England last week. It’s always a great opportunity to see some of the work that our colleagues are doing with clubs across the country.
One of the fantastic initiatives I saw was a ‘warm welcome’ video that a club put together to let children and young people know what to expect from a session. This helped to prepare them and alleviate any fears they may have had when attending for the first time.
To hear more news from the wider Sport Welfare Officer Network, keep an eye on the #ActivePartnerships and #SportWelfare tags on social media.
Volunteers Week – 2 to 8 June
A lot of sport clubs and organisations wouldn’t be able to function without the dedication and generosity of their volunteers.
What are you doing to recruit and retain your volunteers? Ensuring your policies and codes of conduct help to protect your volunteers, and giving them appropriate training for their role, are two ways that you can support them. If you’ve got any great ideas that you’d like to share please get in touch.
You can find out more about Volunteers Week on their website.
Drowning Prevention Week – 14 to 21 June
Promoted by the Royal Life Saving Society (RLSS UK), Drowning Prevention Week is one of the largest summer water safety campaigns across the UK and Ireland.
Child drowning deaths doubled between April 2019 and March 2023, with 125 children drowning over the four-year period. Boys accounted for more of the deaths, at 71%. When the weather is good, as it has been over the past few weeks, children and young people are more tempted to enter open water such as rivers, lakes and canals. Drownings in inland open water accounted for 51 of the deaths over those four years.
The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) have a webpage dedicated to water safety. It includes guidance on how to stay safe whilst participating in sports and activities which take place in, on or around water.
FREE Training and Events
All of the below are available to clubs across Yorkshire and the Humber:
Suicide Prevention Training
We are paying for Papyrus to deliver their 3.5-hour SP:EAK suicide prevention training for individuals from clubs in Yorkshire and the Humber. The objectives of this training are:
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To consider the attitudes, myths, and stigma that surround suicide
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To recognise and explore the ‘signs’ that may indicate someone is having thoughts of suicide
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To encourage an open, safe and sensitive conversation about suicide with a person having thoughts of suicide
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To support a safety plan with someone thinking of suicide.
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If you’d like to put your name down, please fill out this form.
It’s likely that this training will take place online during the evening or on a weekend. At the moment we’re taking expressions of interest to ensure the session would be viable.
Child Exploitation Training
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Tuesday 10 June
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6.30pm to 8.30pm
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Online via Teams
This session is being hosted by Laura Harris at North Yorkshire Sport and run by The Children’s Society and Ivison Trust. It’s available to clubs across the North.
Across the country, young people are being manipulated, sexually abused, forced to launder money and deal drugs. Exploitation isn't obvious. But it happens everywhere. Our sports volunteers, coaches, parents and carers are the eyes and ears on the ground and are often well placed to spot the signs that something might not be right for a child attending the sports club. The team from the Children’s Society will speak about how we can work together to spot the signs of child exploitation and how we can report and stop this. Liz and Sarah from the Ivison Trust will raise awareness of the fantastic work they do to support children and families affected by criminal and sexual exploitation.
Creating an Inclusive Environment
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Wednesday 25 June
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10am to 11am
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Online via Teams
As part of West Yorkshire Safeguarding Week which takes place from 23 to 27 June, Measha Harris will be delivering a session on creating an inclusive environment. Learn how to identify barriers to participation, understand positive action, and create a more inclusive environment that attracts and retains diverse participants and volunteers.
To find out more about other sessions on offer during the week delivered by other organisations, click this link.
Sport Welfare Connect
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Thursday 3 July
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6pm to 7.30pm
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Online
Our next Sport Welfare Connect networking session is themed around issues affecting young people. We’ll have a talk on vaping from The Base, and we’ll be looking at behaviour management and trauma awareness.
What issues are affecting children and young people at your club or activity? Let us know in advance and we can look at including content on it in the session.
Active Bystander Workshop
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Time and day to suit you
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90-minute, in person session
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We will come to your venue
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Contact us for more information or to book.
Have you ever witnessed an incident taking place and wondered if you should act or intervene? In that situation you are a bystander. If you do nothing you are a passive bystander but, if you decide to do something, you become an active bystander. Our Active Bystander training looks at the reasons why people don’t intervene, and also gives you a ‘toolkit’ of skills to enable you to take action safely.
This training is specifically designed around racism and raises awareness of microaggressions, however the bystander tools can be used in any situation where someone is being bullied, harassed or abused.
We can also deliver bespoke workshops for your club around any safeguarding, wellbeing or welfare theme. Please get in touch to find out more.
Meet your Sport Welfare team
Nicola Holmes
Senior Sport Welfare Officer
07714 733650
nicola.holmes@yorkshiresport.org
Measha Harris
Sport Welfare Officer for West Yorkshire
07714 733636
measha.harris@yorkshiresport.org
Douglas Blackwood
Sport Welfare Officer for South Yorkshire
07702 557007
douglas.blackwood@yorkshiresport.org
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