Child Officer Intro Course

CHILD PROTECTION TRAINING

Introduction

A central goal for all those involved in sport for young people is to provide a safe, positive and nurturing environment where children can develop and enhance their physical and social skills. Promoting a child-centred environment should go hand in hand with identifying and eliminating practices that impact negatively on a young person’s safe and enjoyable participation in sport.

The welfare and the protection of young people is the concern of all adults at all times, irrespective of their role within the organisation. Each club and organisation must accept this as part of their responsibility and duty to care for young people. The prevention and detection of child abuse depends on the collaborative effort of everyone concerned. In order to achieve this, the Irish Sports Council (ISC) will rollout a 4-hour training module (normally in 2×2 hour blocks) for leaders within sports club through the local sports partnerships and governing bodies of sport. This ‘Child Protection in Sport’ training is for Sports Leaders and Children’s Officers and will be of interest to all adults involved in the organisation of sport for young people. A certificate of attendance is awarded, and participants should be 18 years of age.
On completion of the training Sports Leaders will be able to: –

  • Create a child-centred environment within the sports club
  • List categories of abuse and some indicators associated with abuse
  • Make appropriate response to suspected child abuse or welfare concerns

As well as undertaking child protection training, all clubs and related organisations should adopt child protection policies and procedures as outlined in the Code of Ethics and Good Practice for Children’s Sport. Each governing body and club should appoint a Children’s Officer. Children’s Officers, on completion of the four hour awareness module, will receive further training in conjunction with the local health board and the ISC. This ‘Keeping Safe’ training will be available through your local sports partnerships at specified times throughout the year.

‘Keeping Safe’ training is six hours and looks at the issues raised in the awareness training in greater detail. It will help children’s officers to implement the clubs code of conduct and provide a safe, positive environment for young people It will also discuss how to identify and eliminate practices that impact negatively on a young person’s safe and enjoyable participation in sport.

If you are interested in getting involved in the above training you should contact your Kildare Sports Partnership Richard Farrell Sports Co-ordinator or Eddie Hennessy Sports Administrator on 045 450609 email ksp@o2.ie.

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