welfare Support for Clubs

How We Support Members and the Welfare of Those in the Sport

STS is able to offer its member clubs support in matters relating to welfare because we want to make sure that our member clubs can offer welcoming and safe environments to experience and enjoy target shooting. The support we provide can be anything from helping clubs to understand their responsibilities; advice and guidance on writing welfare policies and forms; processing PVG checks on behalf of clubs looking to get those in roles defined as regulated work  (e.g. coaches) checked; and providing or signposting to courses to help train committee members.

This service is provided free of charge to all member clubs and if we cant answer questions directly, we work closely with the Safeguarding in Spot Unit of Children 1st who are always on hand to provide support.

Do You Have Any Welfare Concerns?

If clubs or members of the public have any concerns regarding welfare in shooting, please complete our online form or contact the STS Welfare Officer, Jacqui Dunlop, by calling 0131 467 2489 or emailing using the link below. Clubs and individuals can also contact the Child Wellbeing and Protection in Sport Unit of Children 1st directly at 0141 419 1156 for advice, guidance and help.

If you have an immediate concern about the safety of a child, contact the police on either 101 or 999.

Contacts in Your Area

Should you require to contact someone in your local authority immediately about a child protection issue, you should click on the WithScotland resource. This resource will help you find an emergency contact in your local area quickly.

Our Welfare Policy & Documents

STS takes the matter of child protection extremely seriously. Providing child friendly environments for children to participate in shooting is just as much about creating a positive atmosphere, encouraging children into clubs as it is about protecting children from harm by providing safe environments. STS has taken some time to review and condense its child protection policies, paperwork and forms, working closely with the Safeguarding in Sport Unit from Children 1st to make sure we are adhering to best practice in sport. STS has put all the child protection material into a single documents to make it all easy to locate and cross reference.

The document prepared by STS includes the child protection policy, as well information on the processes and forms it has in place:

Policy Templates for Member Clubs

Child Welfare policies and forms are important to ensure clubs have processes and mechanisms for reporting, recording and managing concerns they have or concerns expressed by others to committee members or coaches. They are also important because it gives parents and guardians peace of mind that the club has their child's best interests at heart and feel reassured that it is a safe, secure and fun environment for their child to left in, whether accompanied by their parent/guardian or not.

However, this paperwork can be daunting, not to mention time consuming, for a volunteer club committee member to produce and more importantly, understand. For that reason, STS has created a document that contains all the template policies and forms a club requires and our Lead Child Protection Officer is able to talk this through with clubs to make sure they don't just have the policy but understand and can implement it. We hope this document is of use to our members.

Does Your Club Have Any members Under the Age of18?

Our advice to clubs with members under the age of 18 would be to ensure that you have:

• A named contact for the co-ordination of child protection, with a role description, who has attended recommended training.

• A Child Protection Policy which reflects national guidelines, adopted by the Club's Management Committee (or equivalent).

• A Code of Conduct for working with children and young people.

• A variety of child protection training offered at appropriate levels for those working or volunteering with children and young people in sport. The list of training courses can be found on the sportscotland website.

• A procedure for the recruitment and selection of those who work with children and young people, including access to PVG Scheme Membership checks.

• Procedure for responding to concerns about the welfare or abuse of a child- within or out with sport.

• A disciplinary procedure for managing concerns and allegations of poor practice, misconduct and child abuse and includes provision for referrals to the Children’s List.

• A procedure for reviewing the management of concerns about poor practice, misconduct and / or child abuse.

If somebody raises child protection concerns in relation to a coach or volunteer who is currently practicing in the club or sport then you should follow your ‘Responding to Concerns’ procedure. If the allegation is historical then the club should follow the same procedure and signpost the individual to Police Scotland on ‘101’.  If the club has a concern about a child’s immediate safety then this should be passed on to Police or Social Work.

STS takes matters of child protection very seriously. As a result, we have recently reviewed our policies and procedures to ensure they are fully up to date. Our Child Protection policies and procedures have been published on our website and can be found in the document below.

GETTING IT RIGHT FOR EVERY CHILD (GIRFEC)

GIRFEC is the national approach in Scotland to improving outcomes and supporting the wellbeing of our children and young people by offering the right help at the right time from the right people.   

Most children get all the support and help they need from their parent(s), wider family and local community, in partnership with services like health and education. Where extra support is needed, the GIRFEC approach aims to make that support easy to access and seamless, with the child at the centre.     The named person ensures that there is someone who is responsible for helping children get the support they need if and when they need it.  Under the scheme every child in Scotland from birth to 18 (and their parents/carers) will have access to a named person.  Details of the named person in each local authority can be found here .  However, this will normally be a health visitor for pre-school age children; a head teacher (or depute head in larger schools) for primary aged children a head teacher or guidance teacher for secondary aged young people.

SHANARRI Wellbeing Wheel

Within a sporting context the two primary areas of concern are developing a robust understanding of the SHANARRI wellbeing indicators and how these may present in a sports context and understanding the role of the Named Person and how sports organisations can feed into this.

Children 1st have produced an overview for sport which can be downloaded here.