Safeguarding & Child Protection Policy

1. Purpose & commitment

WightTricks will seek to:

• Protect children and young people who take part in WightTricks activities from abuse, neglect, exploitation and avoidable harm.
• Provide staff, volunteers, students and families with clear expectations about safeguarding behaviour and reporting.
• Respond promptly and appropriately when a concern is raised or a disclosure is made.
• Recruit, train, supervise and support staff and volunteers with safeguarding in mind.
• Work appropriately with parents, carers and external safeguarding agencies.
• Create an inclusive environment in which children are listened to, respected and treated fairly.
• Review safeguarding practice as the academy, law and recognised best practice develop.

2. Scope

This policy applies to all WightTricks employees, coaches, directors, volunteers, assistants, work-experience participants, contractors and anyone acting on behalf of the academy. It also sets expectations for students, parents, guardians and visitors where their conduct may affect the safety or welfare of a child.

3. Safeguarding principles

• The child's welfare comes first. Concerns are considered from the perspective of the child's safety and welfare, even where this is uncomfortable, inconvenient or involves a respected adult or high-performing athlete.
• Children will be listened to. A concern is not dismissed because a child is young, uncertain, upset or cannot provide every detail.
• Equality and inclusion. Some children face additional barriers to speaking up, or increased risk because of disability, communication needs, discrimination or isolation.
• No promise of secrecy. Staff never promise a child that safeguarding information will be kept secret. Information is handled sensitively and shared only with people who reasonably need it.

4. Recognising a safeguarding concern

A concern may arise from something a child says, something an adult or another child does, an injury or behaviour pattern, online activity, information from a parent or third party, or a member of staff's own observation. Concerns may include, but are not limited to:

• Physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse, sexual harassment or sexual exploitation, and neglect.
• Bullying, including online bullying.
• Child-on-child abuse or harmful sexual behaviour.
• Domestic abuse affecting a child.
• Grooming, coercion or exploitation.
• Online abuse, inappropriate messaging or image sharing.
• Discriminatory abuse.
• An adult breaching professional boundaries with a child.
• A child appearing frightened, unsafe, persistently distressed, or making a direct or indirect disclosure.

Staff do not need to diagnose abuse or investigate whether it has occurred. Their role is to notice, respond appropriately, record what they know and pass the concern on.

5. If a child tells you something

• Stay calm, listen and take the child seriously.
• Allow the child to speak in their own words without pressing for unnecessary detail.
• Avoid leading questions and do not try to investigate the allegation.
• Reassure the child that they were right to tell someone.
• Do not promise confidentiality or secrecy; explain in an age-appropriate way that information may need to be shared with people whose job is to help keep them safe.
• Record the child's words as accurately as possible, with the date, time, context and relevant observations.
• Report the concern promptly to the safeguarding lead, unless doing so would create further risk or the concern is about that person.
• Call 999 where there is immediate danger or urgent medical need.

6. Reporting & escalation

• Concerns should be passed to the safeguarding lead as soon as reasonably possible. Staff should not delay a report while trying to gather proof.
• If a concern cannot safely wait, the person who receives it should contact the appropriate safeguarding service directly rather than allowing an absence to delay protection.
• If the concern relates to the safeguarding lead, a director or another person who would ordinarily receive the report, it should be raised with the alternative safeguarding contact and/or the appropriate external safeguarding authority.

7. Safer recruitment, DBS & volunteers

WightTricks uses safer recruitment practices proportionate to the role. Safeguarding expectations apply to paid and unpaid roles.

• Roles involving children have clear responsibilities and safeguarding expectations.
• Relevant identity, history and reference checks are completed as appropriate.
• DBS checks, including barred-list information where legally eligible, are obtained for roles that meet the relevant criteria. Eligibility is determined by the actual activities of the role, not the job title.
• New staff and volunteers receive safeguarding induction and understand this policy, codes of conduct and reporting routes.
• Volunteers and developing coaches are supervised appropriately for their experience and role.

8. Professional boundaries

Adults working with children at WightTricks must maintain appropriate professional boundaries. In particular, they must not:

• Use their position of trust to pursue an inappropriate personal, romantic or sexual relationship with a child.
• Engage in sexualised, degrading, humiliating or discriminatory communication.
• Ask a child to keep secrets about their relationship or communication.
• Develop unnecessary private or exclusive relationships that bypass normal academy safeguards.
• Give preferential treatment, gifts or attention in a way that creates inappropriate dependency.
• Use alcohol or illegal drugs, or behave in a way that compromises safe supervision while responsible for children.

Warm, positive coaching relationships are encouraged. Professional boundaries exist to protect both children and adults, not to remove appropriate encouragement, humour, trust or supportive coaching.

9. One-to-one work & private training

• Where reasonably possible, one-to-one work remains observable by others or takes place in an open environment.
• Private rooms, locked spaces or avoidable isolation with a child are avoided.
• Parents/guardians should be aware of planned private lessons or individual training arrangements where appropriate.
• A coach should not create unnecessary secrecy around one-to-one contact.

10. Digital communication & social media

• Academy channels or parent/guardian communication routes are used where practical.
• Adults avoid secret, sexualised, disappearing or otherwise inappropriate private communication with children.
• Messages should be capable of being explained openly to a parent, guardian or the safeguarding lead.
• Concerns arising from online communication, grooming, image sharing or social media are reported in the same way as offline concerns.

11. Photography & video

Promotional use of identifiable student photographs and video is governed by the separate Photography & Media Consent. Safeguarding concerns always override promotional convenience.

• Photography or filming must not be secretive or exploitative.
• Images must not be taken in changing, toilet or similarly private areas.
• WightTricks may restrict personal filming where it creates a safeguarding or privacy concern.
• A concern about how an adult is photographing, filming or communicating with a child should be reported to the safeguarding lead.

12. Child-on-child concerns

Children can harm other children. Bullying, sexual harassment, violence, coercion, discriminatory abuse, harmful sexual behaviour or online abuse between young people is not dismissed as 'banter' or simply part of sport.

WightTricks considers the safety and needs of all children involved, records and reports concerns appropriately, involves parents/guardians where suitable, and seeks external safeguarding advice where the nature or seriousness of the concern requires it.

13. Injuries, medical emergencies & safeguarding

Normal sporting injuries are managed under WightTricks' participation, first-aid and safety arrangements. An injury is also considered through a safeguarding lens where the explanation, pattern, behaviour or surrounding circumstances create a concern about abuse or neglect. Immediate medical treatment is never delayed because a safeguarding report has not yet been completed.

14. Records, information sharing & confidentiality

• Safeguarding records are factual, dated and as clear as possible, preserving the child's own words where reasonably possible.
• Information is shared with people who need it to protect the child, respond to the concern or meet WightTricks' legal responsibilities - it does not become general staff discussion.
• Data-protection law does not prevent necessary and proportionate information sharing for safeguarding purposes.
• Records are stored securely and access is limited.

15. Whistleblowing & raising concerns about practice

Staff and volunteers are expected to raise concerns about unsafe, inappropriate or safeguarding-related practice, including concerns about colleagues or leadership. A person raising a genuine concern in good faith should not be discouraged because the issue may be difficult or reputationally uncomfortable. Where the internal route is inappropriate, compromised or has failed to address a continuing risk, the individual should contact the appropriate external safeguarding authority.

16. Training, supervision & review

Safeguarding forms part of induction, ongoing supervision and coach development. This policy is reviewed at least annually, and sooner following a serious safeguarding incident, significant organisational change, or a material change in legislation or statutory guidance. Policy effective date: 1 September 2026.

17. Key contacts

• Immediate danger or emergency: Police / emergency services - 999.
• Concern about a child's safety or welfare: Isle of Wight Children's Services - 0300 300 0117.
• WightTricks safeguarding contact: Robbie Bates, Director / Head Coach - 07813 659327.