Guest Blog: Introducing The Child Protection in Sport Unit

Who are we?

We’re the Child Protection in Sport Unit, a part of the NSPCC, funded by a combination of UK Sport councils: Sport England, Sport Northern Ireland, Sport Wales, UK Sport and The Football Association. The Unit is made up of a team of highly knowledgeable consultants and development officers, who provide expert safeguarding training and consultancy services to the sport and activity sector.

Our aim is to support the sport and physical activity sector to create a caring culture where children and young people are safe and thrive in sport.

We were founded in 2001 following a a series of high-profile cases of abuse of young athletes that came to light. Our work centres on helping to improve safeguarding and child protection practices within sport organisations and do all we can to ensure children and young people are safe while participating in sport and physical activity at all levels.

“Since the CPSU was formed, there have been considerable developments within safeguarding across the sport sector. This is due to the great work of the staff and volunteers within sports organisations striving to create safe cultures and environments for children and young people, but the work continues, and the Unit remains essential today. Our aim is to ensure that children and young people are protected in and through sport and activity, and we want to help and support organisations to do this.” - Michelle North, Head of CPSU

How do we work?

Through our UK Sport Councils funding, we work with national governing bodies (NGBs), active partnerships (APs) and other organisations, supporting them to develop, implement and embed their safeguarding responses, policies, procedures and systems to help to create a safe and inclusive environment for all participants, staff and volunteers.

Our commercial sport team work with organisations across the UK, from small non-profits to large commercial clients, to provide consultancy services that are cost-effective and tailored to their specific requirements. The team’s work helps us to support the safeguarding needs of clubs and organisations who are not directly funded by the councils.

What services do we provide?

Across the whole CPSU team we offer a number of services, including:

• Supporting sports organisations to follow our standards assessment processes to safeguarding children in sport
• Guiding sports organisations through an annual review process to ensure standards are embedded across their work
• Reviewing safeguarding policies and procedures
• Developing and delivering sports specific training and resources, through our core training offer and a bespoke service
• Developing event safeguarding plans

Who are the commercial sport team?

Our consultants can tailor support to each nation's child protection systems, club-specific needs and incorporate the latest best practice and UK safeguarding guidance.

To give you an idea of what this work can look like, the commercial sport team have recently delivered the following training courses to sports organisations and staff at varying stages in their safeguarding journeys:

• Designated safeguarding officer training
• Safe events training for staff and volunteers
• Safer recruitment training for recruiting staff
• Management board safeguarding training

How much does it cost?

We offer a free, no obligation, initial call to help you understand what help we can offer and how much it might cost. Every penny we earn is invested back into our work to help children. So, by using our training & consultancy services, you’ll also be helping protect children from abuse and neglect across the UK.

Want to find out more about us and what we offer?

On our website, you can find a library of free guidance, resources and tools to help you to navigate your role in safeguarding in sport, including a bank of podcasts, webinars and presentations. You can also find out more about our consultancy services, and meet the dedicated CPSU team – thecpsu.org.uk