Safeguarding Children and Young People in Sport

Gavin Newlands Excerpts

Tuesday 1st May 2018 Westminster Hall

[Gavin Newlands (Paisley and Renfrewshire North) (SNP)]

It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Sir Roger. I am delighted to take part in this timely debate and I pay tribute to my colleague on the Justice Committee, the hon. Member for Enfield, Southgate (Bambos Charalambous) for securing it. He opened proceedings with a moving and powerful speech in which he spoke about the traumatic abuse suffered by his constituent. I commend everyone who has come forward for their bravery.

It is worth remembering the huge benefits that sport can have for the young. I often speak about the power of sport to influence positive change, and that is never truer than when we consider the impact of sport on the young. The power of sport can improve a young person’s self-confidence and discipline. Moreover and crucially, as we continue to debate our response to childhood obesity—nearly one third of children aged two to 15 are overweight or obese—sport can help children to lead healthier lives. Governments play a pivotal role in promoting that through policy and financing. If we in Scotland are to secure the legacy of the 2014 Commonwealth games, it will be through Scotland’s children and young people.

As a parent of two young girls, I have always encouraged them to get involved in sporting activities. Although my eldest plays football, the vast majority of their physical activity is done through the medium of dance. There is an argument to be had about whether dance is a sport or an art—I would argue that it can be both—but that is for a future Westminster Hall debate, at which I am sure the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) will join me.

The coaching and encouragement that my daughters receive from their excellent teachers improve their self-confidence and discipline—sometimes, at least. I am aware of the trust and responsibility that all of us as parents put in coaches who help our children. I cannot speak highly enough of my daughters’ dance teachers, and the vast majority of coaches take very seriously their responsibility for the welfare of children in their care.

This debate is not about limiting the sporting opportunities for young people and children. In fact, it is the opposite: it is about how we can ensure that young people can flourish by having robust safeguards in place to ensure that they can participate in sport and physical activity safely and with confidence.

Over the past year or so, we have read horrifying headlines of child abuse cases in sport. Such cases have forced us to face the potential danger of children being exploited in sport. The courageous victims have made us confront whether appropriate safeguards are in place to ensure the protection of young people.

An NSPCC report highlighted the extent of those dangers and the real and frightening situation facing our young people. According to the NSPCC, the number of recorded sexual offences against children has increased in all four countries in the UK over the past year. Although those cases are not exclusively related to offences committed in a sporting environment, we would be foolish not to consider the issue in a sports setting and assess what can be done to ensure the welfare of young people in sport.

One way to do that is to better understand what abuse is. The NSPCC’s child protection in sport unit states that there are four types of abuse that young people in sport can experience. They include neglect, which can occur when a coach repeatedly fails to ensure that children in their care are safe; a form of physical abuse, where the nature and intensity of training or competition exceed the capacity of the child’s immature and growing body; and sexual abuse, which is another form of exploitation that young athletes experience all too often, as we have sadly seen. We also need to be mindful that young people and children can suffer from emotional abuse if they are subject to constant criticism or bullying behaviour, as was brought up in the Anti-bullying Week debate that I led late last year.

We must always remember that abuse can take many different forms, and if we are going to be successful in eliminating that type of behaviour, we must be able to better identify abusive behaviour when it happens. We need to do a lot more to support children who have been abused and we also need to take firm action to prevent it from occurring in the first place.

In Scotland, we have a fantastic organisation called Children 1st—the hon. Member for Moray (Douglas Ross) has stolen my thunder somewhat in mentioning it—which works with SportScotland, sporting organisations and clubs to ensure that they have proper safeguards in place to protect children from abuse. It provides advice and training to staff, coaches and volunteers on the development and implementation of child protection policies, and it operates a helpline for those who have concerns for a child’s welfare. As we have heard, it recently launched the Safeguarding in Sport initiative in partnership with SportScotland, which aims to improve the safeguards in place for Scottish sport. The aim is simple: to create the safest possible environment for children in sport by working with parents, coaches, teachers and volunteers to improve the child protection policies and practices that clubs should have in place to ensure the welfare of children and young people.

Safeguarding in Sport has just published advice to all junior clubs that work with young people and children. Its recommendations include having a named contact for the co-ordination of child protection. That role should be clearly defined, to ensure that the responsibility for the welfare of children is paramount. It also recommends having a child protection policy that reflects national guidelines and that is adopted by the relevant management structure in the club; a variety of child protection training methods—as we have heard from the hon. Member for Moray—at appropriate levels for those working or volunteering with children and young people in sport; a much more stringent procedure for the recruitment and selection of those who work with children and young people, including access to the protecting vulnerable groups scheme membership checks; and a disciplinary procedure for managing concerns about and allegations of poor practice, misconduct or child abuse, including provision for referrals to the children’s list.

I can speak highly of the work that Children 1st does to help to ensure that young people participate in sport safely. Its work puts the responsibility and the onus on the clubs, coaches and parents with regard to the welfare of the child, but Safeguarding in Sport will support those people in meeting that responsibility.

The SportScotland young people’s sport panel ensures that the voices of young people themselves are heard on this issue. Those young people played a crucial part in developing the new standards for child wellbeing and protection in Scottish sport. That work led to the introduction of new standards for child protection in sport, which are centred on the needs and rights of the child.

The introduction of those new standards is to be welcomed, as they will hopefully strengthen the existing safeguards. However, we should also applaud the way in which those standards were introduced and developed. Involving young people in the process ensured that their views were at the forefront of what needs to be done to ensure the safety and wellbeing of young people in sport.

There are approximately 1.1 million coaches in the UK. Most of them are volunteers who give up evenings and weekends to provide young people with sporting opportunities. Coaches accept a lot of responsibility and it is important that we support them in the same way that they support children and young people. The last thing we want to do is to design a system that deters well-meaning people, who often are parents themselves, from becoming coaches. Crucially, however, we all want robust policies in place that allow young people to enjoy sport in a safe and secure way, and it is vital that community clubs are supported in that endeavour.