Boxing Scotland

Promoting and Developing Boxing In Scotland

ABS Child Protection Policy and 10 Steps Guidelines

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Amateur Boxing Scotland has recently updated its Child Protection Policy and Child Protection Guidelines in line with the new ’10 Steps to Safeguarding Children in Sport’ guidelines and the Minimum Operating Requirements from Children 1st. The new Policy and Guidelines were recently approved at a Board meeting on 27 June 2012 by the ABS Directors.

The new Child Protection Policy is still a one page document, but is much clearer, more detailed and more concise than the previous ABS Child Protection Policy.

The 10 Steps to Safeguarding Children in Sport Guide, is a structured, well laid out information pack with guidance on all child protection areas within a sporting organisation/club, which includes templates of all relevant documents associated with child protection in sport. Each step within the 10 Steps Guide is indexed and broken down into sections to make them more user-friendly.

Updated documents in the new 10 Steps child protection document include:

Guidelines on recruitment procedures – The new document encourages far more stringent and detailed recruitment policies and procedures all of which, are listed below, along with relevant templates:

  • Letter to applicants for regulated work with children.
  • Job description for regulated work with children.
  • Application form for regulated work with children.
  • Self-declaration form for regulated work with children.
  • PVG Scheme Q&A guidance notes.
  • Letter to referees for regulated work with children.
  • Sample interview/discussion questions for regulated work with children.
  • Retrospective checks letter for regulated work with children.

Guidelines on responding to concerns procedures – The responding to concerns document has not gone through major change from the previous ABS document, but again, is more detailed, more to the point and covers a wider range of scenarios than the previous document. The document also includes flow charts for ease of understanding

Safe in Care guidelines, which include guidance on ITC and social media – The Safe in Care guidelines are similar to the guidelines in the previous document, but once again, have been simplified and updated to include guidelines on modern technology in line with current legislation. The full list of documents are listed below:

  • Adult to Child Ratios
  • Physical Contact
  • First Aid & Treatment of Injuries
  • Sexual Activity
  • Managing Challenging Behaviour
  • Transporting Children
  • Collection by Parents/Carers
  • Trips Away from Home
  • ICT and Social Media
  • Clubhouses and Changing Rooms
  • Volunteers aged 18 or Under
  • Preventing and Responding to Bullying Behaviour

New additions to the ABS 10 Steps child protection document are:

  • Guidelines on risk assessment, risk management, review of policies, procedures and templates relating to risk management
  • Role description templates for each role within an ABS affiliated club, this includes – President, Secretary, Treasurer, Child Protection Officer, Head Coach, Assistant Coach and Delegate/Working Official
  • Templates for recruitment procedures within ABS clubs, including added ABS templates
  • Guidelines on the new PVG Scheme checks, ongoing monitoring of staff/volunteers, retrospective checking and useful recruitment templates
  • Templates for responding to concerns procedures
  • Clear guidelines on disciplinary procedures for clubs to implement ONLY under the authority of Amateur Boxing Scotland and useful templates relating to disciplinary procedures
  • Guidelines for the review of the ‘management of concerns’ policies and procedures

Each club should have a copy of the ABS Child Protection Policy on the club wall at all times, for gym users, boxers, parents, carers and visitors to see when they are in the club.

The club should also have a printed version of the 10 Steps Guide on site, for anyone to refer to if and when it is needed.

Amateur Boxing Scotland has recently completed a Child Protection, Minimum Operating Requirements assessment by Children 1st, and will filter the Minimum Operating Standards down to our affiliated clubs, through the 10 Steps Guide.

ABS has regularly liaised with Children 1st during the review of the previous ABS Child Protection Policy and the production of the new ABS Child Protection Policy and 10 Step guidelines.

This document can be downloaded from the documents section of the website and will also be sent to all affiliated clubs as part of the club pack update document pack in July.