Bristol Sport
Author: Maggie Martin, Senior Safeguarding Officer
Bristol Sport is based at Ashton Gate Stadium and oversees the business, commercial and operational interests of its affiliated clubs, which include Bristol City Football Club, Bristol Bears Rugby Club, Bristol Flyers Basketball, Bristol City Women's Football, Bristol Bears Women and Ashton Gate Stadium.
Bristol Sport also promotes access to professional sport and participation in sport across all ages and abilities through the work of the Bristol Sport Foundation and associated charities. This includes primary aged children, young adults and children, some with disabilities and additional needs.
The Challange: Managing Multiple Safeguarding Environments
The sheer volume of thousands of players, including men and women (professional and amateur), boys and girls, across three differing sports, with many hundreds of coaches, at over 30 satellite sites, as well as community participation and interaction through the Bristol Sport Foundation and associated charities, adds considerable complexity and scale to the overall Safeguarding challenge.
Bristol City Football Club (BCFC) must also comply with the Premier League’s safeguarding rules and requirements that govern Club and Club Community Foundation activities and is also subject to regular independent scrutiny and auditing.
The Solution - MyConcern and Clarity
Prior to MyConcern, safeguarding at Bristol Sport was all paper based. Whilst Maggie Martin, Bristol Sport’s Senior Safeguarding Officer, had developed an electronic version, a marked improvement, it still did not provide the level of insight, recording and management capabilities necessary for the overall, extended Bristol Sport environment.
MyConcern was selected, firstly to meet the compliance demands of the Premier League for BCFC and then the requirements of the Rugby, Basketball and the Foundation areas.
Maggie Martin also added Clarity, The Safeguarding Company’s powerful reporting and presentation tool, designed exclusively for multi-establishment safeguarding. Paired with MyConcern, it quickly provided a high-level, anonymised overview of the data and in-depth reporting for every Bristol Sport environment.
The Results and Key Benefits
Maggie Martin has a Safeguarding team of over 15 employees and volunteers to cover the 30+ satellite sites and they meet regularly to discuss concerns and cases.
With all concerns able to be recorded quickly, she can see the overall current-status in real time as well as the chronology of any cases. That allows her to use the data to inform what actions should be taken at any stage, enabling her to liaise internally or with any external partners within the Foundation Community to refer or resolve cases.
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