Building a System to Safeguard Children in Sport

Rhind, Daniel; Kay, Tess; Hills, Laura; Owusu-Sekyere, Frank

doi:10.1177/0193723517696966

Cited by 16 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 27 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Drawing on the work of Cooper (2000), it highlights the need to consider both the systemic and social factors (Parker, Lawrie, & Hudson, 2006). It also highlights the fact that developing a safety culture is a dynamic and on-going process (Rhind et al, 2017). This is the first global project to apply the concept of safety culture to safeguarding in sport.…”

Section: Increased Disclosuresmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Conducting research over a longer period of time also allowed the researchers to build rapport with the participants through ensuring that it was genuinely a collaborative project at each stage of the process. The process evaluation has previously been published (Rhind, Kay, Hills, & Owusu-Sekyere, 2017). We report the outcome elements of the evaluation.…”

Section: The Need For Evaluationmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Evaluating the impacts of working towards the International Safeguards for Children in Sport

Rhind

Owusu-Sekyere

2020

Sport Management Review

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In this paper, the authors evaluate a global strategy to safeguard children against abuse in sport. The experiences of people within 32 of the organisations who were working towards the International Safeguards for Children in Sport were captured over a two-year study. At the organisational level, self-audits demonstrated that progress was made during the project by deliverers (who worked directly with children) from having 45% to 64% of the Safeguards fully in place. Governors (who governed other organisations which worked directly with children) improved on the same figure from 25% to 53%. Progress was also identified using the concept of Activation States through in-depth interviews at the start and end of the project. Positive changes were found at the personal level with respect to people's feelings, knowledge and behaviours related to safeguarding as well as how safeguarding is discussed in the organisation. Group discussions also revealed changes with respect to how children, coaches, parents and the broader community were behaving with respect to safeguarding. An increase in the number of disclosures was also identified as an important impact of the project. The International Safeguards for Children in Sport are now endorsed by 125 organisations who work with a total of over 35 million children. The implications of these findings are discussed along with the future directions of work in this area.

show abstract

Section: Increased Disclosuresmentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: The Need For Evaluationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluating the impacts of working towards the International Safeguards for Children in Sport

Rhind

Owusu-Sekyere

2020

Sport Management Review

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The nature of abuse of minors in sport is acknowledged as taking a range of forms – sexual, emotional, moral and physical – impacting all aspects of wellbeing (Baker and Byon, 2014; Brackenridge et al ., 2004; McMahon et al, 2018 ; Papaefstathiou et al ., 2013; Rhind et al ., 2017). Of key concern is the nature of sporting contexts, both material and relational, that enables the continued abuse of children.…”

Section: Research Context: the Culture Of Child Abuse In Sport – Powementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Within the UK, a National Action Plan for Child Protection in Sport was ratified in 2000 (Papaefstathiou et al ., 2013), and its implementation was supported by the establishment of the NSPCC's CPSU in 2001 (Brackenridge, 2003; Brackenridge et al ., 2004). This made the country one of the first to have a state‐funded body overseeing safeguarding of children in sport (Rhind et al ., 2017). However, the socio‐cultural environments that existed within sports organisations continued to be widely criticised for providing potential contexts for the exploitation of children (McMahon et al ., 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Child Protection in Sport Unit – Supporting National Governing Bodies in Hearing the Voices of Children: An Evaluation of Current Practice

Everley

2020

Child Abuse Review

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Sporting environments provide contexts in which a range of abuses of children has occurred. While there is an increasing awareness of the need to improve child protection in sport, the extent to which listening to children's voices can support this has yet to be explored. This paper reports on research commissioned by the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children's Child Protection in Sport Unit to understand the way in which the expression of children's voices is facilitated in sport. Thirty‐four national governing bodies of sport in the UK responded to an electronic questionnaire exploring expression of children's voices in their organisations. Findings indicate that challenges concern: children's perceived lack of interest; confidence in self‐expression; time, resources and logistics; organisational culture and attitudinal change. ‘Good practice’ was identified in: formal structural communications; tailoring contributions to interests and strengths; use of primary research; and sharing ideas remotely. The projected value of listening to children's voices includes understanding children's perspectives and identification of potential concerns. The expression of children's voices is of value to national governing bodies in sport and there is potential for this to prevent elements of abuse in sport. Key Practitioner Messages National governing bodies of sport believe that the expression of children's voices in sport can positively inform child protection practice. Material and cultural limitations can prevent the expression of children's voices. There is potential for an embedded expression of children's voices that could support intervention prior to abuse occurring.

show abstract

“…Against the backdrop of a global movement of researchers and practitioners intent on foregrounding athletes’ rights and welfare in sport (Rhind et al, 2017), child protection and safeguarding is progressively being incorporated into sport as a part of ‘good governance’ in numerous countries. The newly published ‘International Safeguards in Sport’, intended as a guiding framework for all organizations involved in sport worldwide, serves as an example of this trend (Rhind et al, 2017). However, child protection and safeguarding has not been uniformly embraced.…”

Section: Athlete Safety and Safeguarding In Sportmentioning

confidence: 99%

Faster, higher, stronger… safer? Safety concerns for young athletes in Zambia

Solstad

Strandbu

2017

International Review for the Sociology of Sport

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article draws attention to safety concerns affecting young people in the setting of organized sport in Zambia. Our primary aim is to explore ways in which aspects of sport culture may constitute a threat to athlete safety. Secondly, we try to understand sport-specific safety concerns in light of more general concerns for young people’s safety in Zambia. The study is based on interviews with athletes, coaches and sports leaders from Zambian sport. Although sport was mainly described as a positive recreational arena for youth, concerns were raised about unequal power relations and problematic ideals in the sport culture. Our findings suggest a need to discuss critically how glorification of toughness and resilience might contribute to normalize harmful practices in sport. Further, we indicate that divergent and elusive understandings of violence and abuse – in research and in practice – can influence athlete safety in significant ways. We conclude that safeguarding in sport continues to exist in the tension between protecting athletes from harm on the one hand and subscribing to a culture that promotes the ideals ‘faster, higher, stronger’ on the other.

show abstract

Building a System to Safeguard Children in Sport

Cited by 16 publications

References 27 publications

Evaluating the impacts of working towards the International Safeguards for Children in Sport

Evaluating the impacts of working towards the International Safeguards for Children in Sport

The Child Protection in Sport Unit – Supporting National Governing Bodies in Hearing the Voices of Children: An Evaluation of Current Practice

Faster, higher, stronger… safer? Safety concerns for young athletes in Zambia

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About