Rugby is a great sport for your child’s physical health and social interaction. Keep on reading to find out our safeguarding hacks!
Rugby allows your child to develop a variety of physical, social, and intellectual abilities that will benefit them as they become older.
Additionally, it can also help with behavioural issues and improve focus.
The group of adults who teach your child rugby form an important part of this development and may include paid professionals (such as sports teachers) and volunteers (who form the backbone of local club rugby).
It is a shame to have to write this article, because it is only a very tiny minority of individuals who put children at risk.
Safeguarding measures should be in place to prevent any recurrence of some of the historic behaviours that have come to light over the years, but these only work when enforced and respected by everyone.
It’s worth taking a few minutes to consider these safeguarding hacks, to ensure that your child and their teammates remain free from any risk of harm from those entrusted to look after them.
Hack 1: Ensure safeguarding standards are in place
If your child is playing their rugby at school or a registered rugby club they should have safeguarding policies/protocols in place, available for you to see on their website.
If you are arranging any personal tuition or sending your child to smaller, unregistered rugby clubs. It’s always worth asking to see their relevant qualifications and checks.
You should expect to see qualifications and procedures for coaching, child protection, first aid and health and safety. Along with relevant police checks to confirm the staff are allowed to work with children.
Hack 2: Don’t ask people to bend the rules
Coaches and affiliated adults must not violate safeguarding rules, ensuring compliance with protocols at all times.
This includes things such as travelling alone with your child to a match, providing one-on-one coaching unsupervised or ignoring medical guidelines (such as the time needed to recover from concussion).
Respect their role and avoid compromising their reputation by adhering to safeguarding protocols.
Hack 3: Respect other people’s safeguarding requirements
It is important to follow the instructions issued by your child’s team which make impact another child’s wellbeing, such as instructions not to take and share photographs.
What might be a slight annoyance to you could be life changing to someone else’s family.
Hack 4: Talk to your child
Making sure your child is aware of what is appropriate behaviour by an adult and what is not, is important for all areas of their life.
This great video from NSPCC is a great way to do this:
Hack 5: Speak up if you’re worried about anything
If your child tells you anything that you feel is not acceptable behaviour from anyone in the club, it is important to take this seriously. Immediately speak to the club coaches or officials.
If this is not appropriate, then there should be ways to escalate to the next level within the hierarchy. From club safeguarding officers to national rugby safeguarding teams or local police, various avenues exist.
Further reading
England Rugby – Safeguarding Children policy https://www.englandrugby.com/dxdam/a4/a4f02b3f-8726-4c12-bcd3-6610345b7f68/safeguardingpolicybooklet.pdf
Welsh Rugby Union Safeguarding – https://community.wru.wales/governance/policy-and-integrity/safeguarding/
New Zealand Rugby Safe Clubs Safe Kids – https://www.nzrugby.co.nz/about-nzr/policies-regulations-and-rules/safety-and-welfare/child-protection/
Before you go…..
As your child gets more into the sport they may start to ask for kits to show their support. Check out our Supporter Hacks: buying your kid a replica rugby kit to choose the best option and save money!
