Independent think tank addresses the need for additional support on duty of care in sport

Independent think tank makes recommendations to enhance Duty of Care in Sport following a report on grassroots sports provision.

The Sports Think Tank, an independent think tank dedicated to ensuring accountability in sporting policy and governance in the UK, has today released research into the level of duty of care understanding in UK sport.

In recent months, much of the debate around duty of care in sport has been at the elite level. Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson’s Duty of Care in Sport report (April, 2017)  covered safeguarding, equality and diversity, mental welfare, medical issues and the need for an ombudsman amongst other subjects, and made welcome recommendations to government focused on improvements and adjustments for National Governing Bodies (NGBs).

On the reaction to safeguarding sport at the elite level, Director of the Sports Think Tank and former CIMSPA Chair Andy Reed OBE says:

“Very little has been said about the implications for community clubs, charities and foundations despite the vast majority of people’s experience of sport being at the 150,000 grassroots clubs that make up the backbone of our sporting infrastructure.”

The Sports Think Tank report specifically looks at community level sport provision and reviews County Sport Partnerships, National Governing Bodies, Associations, Federations, and Charitable Trusts. Specific challenges facing the sports sector are:

• Only 5% of senior managers/named board members surveyed receive full training in duty of care
• Less than 40% of organisations surveyed collect data about duty of care issues
• The vast majority of organisations (75%) surveyed have no financial support for duty of care training programmes
• Almost all organisations surveyed want to see an ombudsman type body set up with key objectives and benchmarking

This review highlights the state of duty of care practices within a broad range of UK community sport settings, and reveals that the sector is ready to embrace new leadership and support mechanisms to make sport safe in 2018.

Andy Reed OBE said: “This research has provided a great deal of insight into the implications for community clubs of a wide range of duty of care issues. Unquestionably, duty of care is a complex area to navigate however it is clear that sport needs agreed standards, accountability and support in place as soon as possible from the government. We are grateful to EduCare for helping support this research.”

Recommendations include:

• The establishment of an ombudsmen type body to create an agreed ‘industry standard’ for the sector.
• For any sporting organisation in receipt of public funding to have a guardian responsible for duty of care who is sufficiently trained and experienced to carry out their role effectively.
• Incentivise volunteers to undertake duty of care training
• Gain additional support on duty of care matters by taking advantage of existing expertise in the sector such as Sport Resolutions and EduCare for Sport^®.

To progress with these recommendations, it has been suggested that an implementation strategy should be set up with effective leadership to ensure agreed standards, monitoring and independent scrutiny and reporting.

Of the report, Keir McDonald MBE, founder of EduCare said: “EduCare were delighted to be asked to sponsor this essential report. We work with a number of NGBs and grassroots community clubs who understand the importance of duty of care and the message is always the same – there needs to be action to keep sport safe but this has to be consistent. Our customers in the education sector are bound by statutory guidance when it comes to safeguarding and duty of care, this now needs to be echoed in sport.”

For a full copy of the report, visit www.sportsthinktank.com. A full data set is also available online.

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