Safeguarding in Sport: A Practical Implementation Guide

Most clubs have a safeguarding policy somewhere on a hard drive. Almost none have actually trained their volunteers on it.

That's not an accusation. It's the reality of volunteer-run organisations where the same six people do everything, the committee turns over every two years, and there's always something more urgent than reviewing a document nobody hopes they'll ever need.

But safeguarding isn't a document. It's a system. And the difference between a club that has a policy and a club that has a system is the difference between a piece of paper and an actual safety net for the children in your care.

This guide is about building the system. Not just what your policy should say, but how to screen volunteers, train coaches, appoint a safeguarding officer, recognise when something's wrong, report it properly, and keep records that prove you did all of this - because if something ever goes badly wrong, "we had a policy" won't protect you. "Here's the evidence that we implemented it" will.

We'll cover Australia in depth, because that's where most of our readers are and because the state-by-state Working with Children Check landscape is genuinely confusing. We'll also cover the UK's DBS system and New Zealand's Children's Act, because many sporting bodies operate across borders and the principles are universal even when the legislation isn't.

Why safeguarding is everyone's responsibility

There's a common misconception in club governance that safeguarding is someone's job. The safeguarding officer's job. The welfare officer's job. The designated person who went on that course three years ago.

It's not. Safeguarding is a culture, and cultures are created by everyone in the organisation - from the president who sets the agenda to the parent standing on the sideline who notices something that doesn't look right.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse examined thousands of cases across decades. The consistent finding was not that organisations lacked policies. Most had policies. The finding was that cultures existed where concerns were minimised, powerful individuals were protected, and children's voices were dismissed. Policies don't prevent abuse. Cultures that take safeguarding seriously - visibly, consistently, from the top - make abuse harder to perpetrate and easier to detect.

What does that look like in a volunteer sports club?

It looks like the president mentioning safeguarding at the AGM. Not as a compliance item buried in the secretary's report, but as a priority. It looks like the coach who stops a training drill when something doesn't feel right, rather than pushing through because they don't want to seem paranoid. It looks like the committee member who asks "have we checked everyone's WWCC status this season?" at a meeting, even when nobody else raises it.

Safeguarding is everyone's responsibility because abuse doesn't happen only in the moments covered by formal procedures. It happens in the car on the way to an away game. In the message sent after practice. In the corridor outside the change rooms. These are moments where any adult's awareness matters, not just the designated officer's.

And there's a second dimension that clubs often overlook: safeguarding protects your volunteers too. Clear procedures, proper screening, and documented codes of conduct protect coaches and team managers from false or mistaken allegations. Without those structures, a misunderstanding can destroy a volunteer's reputation and their willingness to ever help again. Good safeguarding protects children first, but it also protects the adults who give their time to work with them.

Understanding the legal framework

Australia: The National Principles

Following the Royal Commission, all Australian governments endorsed the National Principles for Child Safe Organisations in 2019. These ten principles are the baseline. If you build your safeguarding approach around them, you'll meet the expectations in every state and territory.

The principles cover:

1. Child safety and wellbeing embedded in organisational leadership, governance, and culture
2. Children and young people are informed about their rights, participate in decisions affecting them, and are taken seriously
3. Families and communities are informed and involved in promoting child safety
4. Equity is upheld and diverse needs respected in policy and practice
5. People working with children and young people are suitable and supported to reflect child safety values
6. Processes to respond to complaints and concerns are child-focused
7. Staff and volunteers are equipped with knowledge, skills, and awareness through ongoing education and training
8. Physical and online environments promote safety and wellbeing while minimising opportunity for harm
9. Implementation of the child safety principles is regularly reviewed and improved
10. Policies and procedures document how the organisation is safe for children

These are principles, not rules. They don't tell you exactly what your policy must say - they tell you what it must achieve. Your state or territory legislation, your national sporting organisation's framework, and your insurer's requirements will fill in the specifics. But if your safeguarding system doesn't address all ten principles, it has gaps.

State and territory legislation

Every state and territory has its own child protection legislation, and they don't align neatly. The Working with Children Check (Section 4 below) is the most visible difference, but it's not the only one. Mandatory reporting obligations, reportable conduct schemes, and the definition of "child-related work" all vary. We'll cover each of these in the relevant sections.

Sport Australia provides national guidance, and Sport Integrity Australia is the government body responsible for sport integrity policy at the national level. Both publish resources specifically for sporting organisations.

Play by the Rules is another essential resource - a joint initiative providing free online safeguarding training courses tailored specifically for Australian sports clubs and community organisations. If you haven't used it, start there.

UK legislation

The UK framework sits on two key pieces of legislation: the Children Act 2004, which establishes the duty to safeguard children, and the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006, which created the vetting and barring scheme. The UK Sport Code for Sports Governance requires funded organisations to demonstrate safeguarding governance at board level. We cover DBS checks in detail in Section 5.

New Zealand legislation

The Children's Act 2014 (originally the Vulnerable Children Act 2014) establishes safety checking requirements for people working with children. Sport NZ provides guidance for sporting organisations. We cover NZ requirements in Section 6.

Your safeguarding policy - what it must contain

A safeguarding policy is the foundation document. But it's only useful if it's specific enough to guide action and short enough that people actually read it. A 40-page document that nobody opens is worse than a two-page document that every coach has seen, because the long version creates a false sense of security.

Your policy should contain, at minimum:

A statement of commitment. Two or three sentences that make your club's position unambiguous. Not aspirational language about "striving to provide" - a clear statement that your club does not tolerate abuse, that children's safety is prioritised above all other considerations, and that anyone who raises a concern will be supported.

Scope. Who does this policy apply to? All members? Volunteers? Parents? Visiting coaches? Spectators? The answer should be everyone who interacts with your club, but you need to say it explicitly.

Definitions. What constitutes abuse? The four recognised categories are physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse, and neglect. Define each briefly but clearly. Don't assume everyone knows what emotional abuse looks like in a sporting context - a coach systematically belittling a young player is emotional abuse, and not everyone recognises it as such.

The safeguarding officer. Who they are (by name and role), how to contact them, and what happens when they're not available. There must be a deputy or alternative contact.

Screening requirements. What checks are required for which roles, and who is responsible for verifying them. Reference your state's WWCC requirements by name.

Codes of conduct. Specific behavioural expectations for coaches, volunteers, parents, and young people. These should be separate documents referenced by the policy.

Reporting procedures. Step by step. What to do if a child tells you something. What to do if you observe something. What to do if an allegation is made against a staff member or volunteer. Who to call. When to call police. When to call your state's child protection authority.

Confidentiality. Information about safeguarding concerns is shared only on a need-to-know basis. This protects children and accused individuals alike.

Record-keeping requirements. What records are kept, where, for how long, and who has access.

Review schedule. When the policy will be reviewed and by whom.

Your national sporting organisation likely has a template. Use it as your starting point - don't start from scratch. But adapt it to your club's specific circumstances. A policy that refers to "the organisation" throughout when your club has 60 members and no paid staff reads as disconnected from your reality.

For a broader look at the policies every club needs beyond safeguarding, see our guide on essential policies every club needs.

Working with Children Checks - the Australian state-by-state guide

This is the section most people are looking for, and it's the section where the detail matters most. Every Australian state and territory requires people working with children to undergo screening. But they all call it something different, run it through different agencies, have different validity periods, and cover different roles.

Here's what you need to know for each jurisdiction.

New South Wales

Name: Working with Children Check (WWCC) Legislation: Child Protection (Working with Children) Act 2012 Agency: Office of the Children's Guardian Who needs one: Anyone engaged in child-related work - paid or volunteer. In a sports club context, this includes coaches, assistant coaches, team managers, committee members with access to juniors, and regular transport volunteers. Cost: Free for volunteers. Paid workers pay a fee (currently around $80). Validity: Five years, with continuous monitoring. Unlike some states, NSW conducts ongoing checks - if a person's criminal history changes during the five years, the clearance can be revoked. Portability: Valid only in NSW. Not transferable to other states. Key detail: The employer or club must verify the check through the online system. Having the card is not enough - you must confirm it's valid and that the person is cleared for child-related work.

Victoria

Name: Working with Children Check (WWCC) Legislation: Working with Children Act 2005 Agency: Department of Justice and Community Safety Who needs one: Anyone engaged in child-related work, whether paid or volunteer. Similar scope to NSW. Cost: Free for volunteers. Paid workers pay a fee. Validity: Five years with continuous monitoring. Portability: Valid only in Victoria. Key detail: Victoria was the first state to introduce the WWCC. The online verification system is well-established. Clubs must register as an organisation and verify each person's check against the register - not just sight the card.

Queensland

Name: Blue Card Legislation: Working with Children (Risk Management and Screening) Act 2000 Agency: Blue Card Services (Department of Justice and Attorney-General) Who needs one: Anyone providing child-related services or activities in a regulated business or organisation. Sports clubs are regulated organisations. Cost: Free for volunteers. Paid employees pay a fee. Validity: Three years - shorter than most other states. Set calendar reminders. Portability: Valid only in Queensland. Key detail: Queensland uses a "No Card, No Start" policy. A person cannot begin child-related work until their Blue Card has been issued - not just applied for. This can create delays at the start of the season, so encourage volunteers to apply early. Organisations must also have a risk management strategy that is lodged with Blue Card Services.

South Australia

Name: Working with Children Check (WWCC) Legislation: Child Safety (Prohibited Persons) Act 2016 Agency: Department of Human Services (DHS Screening Unit) Who needs one: Anyone working or volunteering in a prescribed position with children. Cost: Free for volunteers. Validity: Five years with continuous monitoring. Portability: Valid only in South Australia. Key detail: SA was one of the later states to introduce its WWCC scheme (2019). The system is relatively new, and some clubs are still catching up. If you've been relying on the old National Police Certificate process, you need to transition to the WWCC.

Western Australia

Name: Working with Children Check (WWC Check) Legislation: Working with Children (Criminal Record Checking) Act 2004 Agency: Department of Communities Who needs one: Anyone in child-related work - paid or unpaid. WA uses a broad definition that captures most volunteer roles in sports clubs. Cost: Free for volunteers. Paid workers pay a fee. Validity: Three years - same as Queensland, shorter than the eastern states. Portability: Valid only in Western Australia. Key detail: WA issues either an Assessment Notice (cleared) or an Interim Negative Notice / Negative Notice (not cleared). The employer must sight the Assessment Notice card and record the details. There's an online verification system to confirm validity.

Tasmania

Name: Registration to Work with Vulnerable People (RWVP) Legislation: Registration to Work with Vulnerable People Act 2013 Agency: Consumer, Building and Occupational Services (CBOS) Who needs one: Anyone in regulated activities with children or vulnerable people. The scope is broader than some states - it covers vulnerable adults too, not just children. Cost: Free for volunteers. Paid workers pay a fee. Validity: Three years, then renewal required. Portability: Valid only in Tasmania. Key detail: Tasmania's scheme covers "vulnerable people" broadly, not just children. This means volunteers working with elderly members, people with disabilities, or other vulnerable groups in your club may also need registration.

Australian Capital Territory

Name: Working with Vulnerable People (WWVP) registration Legislation: Working with Vulnerable People (Background Checking) Act 2011 Agency: Access Canberra Who needs one: Anyone conducting a regulated activity with vulnerable people, including children. Cost: Free for volunteers. Validity: Three years initially, then five years on renewal (since 2024 changes). Portability: Valid only in the ACT. Key detail: Like Tasmania, the ACT scheme covers vulnerable people broadly, not just children. The scheme is managed through Access Canberra's online portal, which also handles verification.

Northern Territory

Name: Working with Children Clearance (Ochre Card) Legislation: Care and Protection of Children Act 2007 Agency: Safe NT (Department of Territory Families, Housing and Communities) Who needs one: Anyone engaged in child-related employment or activities - paid or volunteer. Cost: Free for volunteers. Validity: Two years - the shortest in Australia. This means more frequent renewals and more administrative overhead for clubs. Portability: Valid only in the Northern Territory. Key detail: The NT's two-year validity period is the most onerous in the country. If your club is in the Territory, build renewal tracking into your annual calendar. A lapsed Ochre Card means that person cannot work with children, full stop.

The practical reality

Eight states and territories, eight different systems, at least four different names, and validity periods ranging from two to five years. If your club only operates in one state, you only need to worry about one system. But if you're a national sporting organisation or a club near a state border with members from both sides, you need to understand that a WWCC from one state is not valid in another.

The most common compliance failure isn't failing to get checks - it's failing to track them. A coach gets their WWCC in year one, the club records it, and nobody looks at it again until five years later when it's been expired for six months and nobody noticed. During those six months, the club was non-compliant, the coach was technically not cleared to work with children, and the club's insurance position was compromised.

This is a record-keeping problem more than a policy problem. And it's exactly the kind of problem that a proper compliance tracking system is built to solve. We've written separately about safeguarding compliance at scale for organisations managing this across many clubs.

UK: DBS checks and disclosure requirements

The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) is the UK equivalent of Australia's WWCC system, and it's more nuanced in its levels.

There are four levels of DBS check:

Basic DBS check. Shows unspent convictions only. Available to anyone for any purpose. Not sufficient for child-related work.

Standard DBS check. Shows spent and unspent convictions, cautions, reprimands, and final warnings. Used for some roles but not typically sufficient for regular work with children in sport.

Enhanced DBS check. Everything in the standard check, plus any relevant information held by local police that they consider relevant to the role. This is the level required for anyone working with children in a sports club - coaches, team managers, welfare officers, anyone in regular contact with under-18s.

Enhanced DBS check with barred list check. The enhanced check plus a check against the adults' and/or children's barred lists. Required for anyone in "regulated activity" with children. In sport, this means anyone who teaches, trains, instructs, cares for, or supervises children. If a person is on the barred list, it is a criminal offence for them to work in regulated activity with children, and a criminal offence for you to knowingly employ them.

The Child Protection in Sport Unit (CPSU), part of the NSPCC, provides detailed guidance on which roles require which level of check. Their resources are free and specifically designed for sports organisations. If you're a UK club and you haven't used the CPSU's materials, start there - they've done the hard work of translating legislation into practical club guidance.

DBS Update Service. Since 2013, individuals can subscribe to the DBS Update Service (annual fee, currently around £13). This allows employers to check a person's certificate status online without requiring a new application each time. It's significantly faster for clubs managing multiple volunteers. Encourage your volunteers to subscribe.

Important differences from Australia. DBS checks don't have a fixed expiry date - they're a snapshot in time. That said, most national governing bodies (NGBs) require checks to be renewed every three years. Your NGB's safeguarding policy will specify the renewal frequency. Unlike some Australian states, the DBS does not currently conduct continuous monitoring for everyone (though the Update Service provides an alternative mechanism).

Across the UK. The DBS covers England and Wales. Scotland has its own system, Disclosure Scotland, with the PVG (Protecting Vulnerable Groups) Scheme. Northern Ireland uses AccessNI. The checks are broadly equivalent but not interchangeable - a DBS check is not valid in Scotland, and vice versa. The Ann Craft Trust provides guidance that covers all UK jurisdictions.

NZ: Safety checking under the Children's Act 2014

New Zealand's framework is governed by the Children's Act 2014 (originally the Vulnerable Children Act 2014). The Act requires all organisations funded by government to conduct safety checks on staff who work with children.

The safety check has three components:

1. Identity verification. Confirming the person is who they say they are.
2. Information gathering. A New Zealand Police vet, referee checks, and an interview that covers the person's relevant history and attitudes toward children's safety.
3. Risk assessment. Evaluating the information gathered to determine whether the person poses a risk to children.

For sports clubs, the key question is whether the Act's mandatory requirements apply to you. If your organisation receives government funding (including through a regional sports trust or national body that distributes government money), you're likely covered. Even if you're not covered by the mandatory provisions, Sport NZ strongly recommends that all organisations working with children adopt safety checking as good practice.

The NZ system is less prescriptive than Australia's state-by-state approach. There's no single card or certificate equivalent to a WWCC or Blue Card. The responsibility sits with the organisation to design and conduct a safety checking process that meets the Act's requirements. Sport NZ provides templates and guidance for clubs.

Police vetting is the core screening tool. Any organisation can apply to NZ Police for a vet of a person they intend to engage in work with children. The vet returns information about criminal history, including charges that didn't result in convictions in some circumstances. There's no charge for community organisations.

Appointing a safeguarding officer

Every club that works with children needs a named safeguarding officer. This isn't aspirational - it's expected by state sporting bodies, by insurers, and increasingly by law.

But the title alone means nothing. What matters is that the person is trained, empowered, supported, and known.

The role

A safeguarding officer is the first point of contact for anyone at the club who has a concern about a child's safety. They are not an investigator - that's the job of police and child protection authorities. They are a receiver, a recorder, and a referrer.

Their responsibilities include:

• Receiving disclosures and concerns. When a child, parent, coach, or volunteer reports something, the safeguarding officer is where it goes.
• Recording accurately. Writing down what was said, by whom, when, in the person's own words - not interpreted, not editorialised, not summarised.
• Referring to the appropriate authority. Knowing when to call police (any immediate safety concern), when to contact the state child protection authority, and when to escalate to the national sporting organisation's integrity unit.
• Maintaining records. Keeping a confidential register of all concerns raised, actions taken, and outcomes.
• Ensuring screening compliance. Tracking that all people in child-related roles have current checks.
• Coordinating training. Ensuring all coaches and relevant volunteers complete safeguarding training and that records of training are maintained.

Training requirements

A safeguarding officer needs more than good intentions. They need training that covers recognising indicators of abuse, receiving disclosures appropriately (not asking leading questions, not promising confidentiality they can't guarantee), understanding reporting obligations, and knowing the referral pathways in their state.

In Australia, Play by the Rules offers free online courses. Your state sporting body may also require completion of specific training modules. In the UK, the CPSU's safeguarding workshops are the standard - most NGBs require their welfare officers to complete these. Refresher training should happen at least annually.

Reporting lines

The safeguarding officer must have a direct line to the president or chairperson. Safeguarding concerns should never need to pass through multiple layers of committee to reach the top. This is critical for two reasons. First, some concerns will be about committee members themselves, and the reporting pathway needs to bypass them. Second, the committee's response to a safeguarding concern sets the tone for the club's culture - if the president doesn't hear about it until weeks later via a casual mention at a meeting, the message is that safeguarding isn't a priority.

A deputy safeguarding officer should also be appointed - because the primary officer will be unavailable at some point, and concerns don't wait for convenient timing.

For broader guidance on structuring volunteer roles effectively, including safeguarding roles, see our guide on volunteer management.

Codes of conduct for coaches, players, and spectators

A code of conduct is a safeguarding document, not just a behaviour management document. It sets the boundaries that protect children and creates a reference point when those boundaries are crossed.

You need separate codes for different groups, because the expectations differ.

For coaches and volunteers

This is the most important code from a safeguarding perspective. It should address:

• Physical contact. When it's appropriate (demonstrating technique, first aid) and when it isn't (never as punishment, never uninvited). Be specific - vague guidance is worse than no guidance because it creates ambiguity.
• One-on-one situations. Coaches should never be alone with a child in a space that isn't visible to others. If one-on-one coaching is necessary, it happens in an observable environment with parents informed.
• Transport. Coaches should not transport children alone in their vehicles unless unavoidable, the parents have given specific written consent, and another adult is aware. This is a high-risk scenario - many safeguarding incidents occur during transport.
• Communication. All communication between coaches and junior members goes through official club channels, never through personal social media or private messaging. We'll cover this in more detail in the online safety section.
• Photography. Photos and videos of children are taken only for legitimate purposes, on club-controlled devices where possible, and with parental consent. No posting to personal social media accounts.
• Change rooms. Adults do not enter change rooms while children are changing, unless it's a same-gender situation and another adult is present. For young children who need assistance, parents should provide it - not coaches.
• Language and behaviour. No swearing at children, no humiliation, no favouritism that could be used as a grooming tactic. Positive coaching practice is a safeguarding practice.

For players (junior members)

A code of conduct for young people should be written in age-appropriate language and should empower them to understand their rights. They should know:

• They have the right to feel safe at the club
• They have the right to say no to any physical contact that makes them uncomfortable
• They should tell someone if another person - adult or young person - makes them feel uncomfortable
• Who they can talk to (the safeguarding officer, a parent, a coach they trust)

For parents and spectators

Parents and spectators set the cultural tone of a club. Their code should address sideline behaviour, photography (particularly of other people's children), respecting officials and coaches, and how to raise concerns. It should also clarify that parents will be asked to leave if their behaviour creates an unsafe environment for children.

For a more detailed look at writing codes of conduct, see our article on codes of conduct for coaches and players.

Recognising and responding to concerns

This is the hardest part. Not because it requires specialised knowledge, but because it requires acting on discomfort.

Most safeguarding concerns don't begin with a child making a clear disclosure. They begin with an adult noticing something that doesn't feel right. A child who flinches. A coach who consistently volunteers for one-on-one sessions. A volunteer who always wants to be the one driving kids home. A child whose behaviour changes suddenly.

None of these things are evidence of abuse. All of them are worth paying attention to.

What to do when a child tells you something

If a child discloses abuse - directly tells you something has happened - there are clear principles:

1. Listen. Don't interrupt. Don't ask probing questions. Don't express shock or disbelief.
2. Believe. Tell the child you believe them and that they've done the right thing by telling you.
3. Don't promise confidentiality. You cannot promise not to tell anyone. Instead, say: "I need to talk to someone who can help keep you safe. I'll only tell people who need to know."
4. Record. As soon as possible after the conversation, write down what the child said in their own words. Include the date, time, and setting. Don't interpret. Don't add your opinion about whether it's true.
5. Report. Tell your safeguarding officer immediately. If the child is in immediate danger, call police (000 in Australia, 999 in the UK, 111 in NZ).
6. Don't investigate. Do not confront the alleged abuser. Do not interview the child further. Do not tell the child's parents if the allegation involves a family member. This is now a matter for professional investigators.

What to do when you observe something

If you haven't received a direct disclosure but something concerns you - a pattern of behaviour, an interaction that felt wrong, a comment from a parent - report it to your safeguarding officer anyway. You are not expected to determine whether abuse has occurred. You are expected to pass on your concerns so that someone trained can assess them. A concern that seems minor on its own might be the third similar concern that officer has received about the same person.

The barrier to reporting should be as low as possible. "I'm probably wrong" is not a reason not to report. "It's probably nothing" is not a reason. The safeguarding officer can assess and decide - your job is to pass it on.

Reporting obligations - mandatory vs voluntary reporting

This is where the legal framework gets serious, and where many volunteers don't realise what's required of them.

Mandatory reporting in Australia

Mandatory reporting means that certain people, in certain circumstances, are legally required to report suspected child abuse to the relevant authority. Failure to report can be a criminal offence.

Who is a mandatory reporter varies by state:

• NSW: Persons who deliver health care, welfare, education, children's services, residential services, and law enforcement. This can include club coaches if they're providing children's services.
• Victoria: Broad mandatory reporting obligations. Since 2015, any adult who forms a reasonable belief that a sexual offence has been committed against a child must report to police. Failure to disclose is a criminal offence.
• Queensland: Doctors, nurses, teachers. The scope is narrower than some states, but all adults have a general duty to report.
• South Australia: Since 2018, every adult in SA is a mandatory reporter - the broadest requirement in Australia.
• Western Australia: Doctors, nurses, midwives, teachers, police.
• Tasmania: Broad mandatory reporting. Medical professionals, teachers, child care workers, and volunteers in government-funded organisations.
• ACT: Doctors, dentists, nurses, teachers, police, and people caring for children in child care or residential roles.
• Northern Territory: Every adult in the NT is a mandatory reporter - similar to SA.

The critical point: even in states with narrow mandatory reporting, your club's policy should require internal reporting of all concerns. The legal threshold for mandatory reporting is not the standard your club should adopt. Your standard should be: if something concerns you, report it internally.

Voluntary reporting

In every jurisdiction, any person can report a concern about a child's safety. You do not need to be a mandatory reporter to call the child protection authority. If you believe a child is at risk, report it. The authorities would rather receive a hundred reports that turn out to be unfounded than miss one that was real.

Reportable conduct schemes

Some states have reportable conduct schemes that require organisations to notify an oversight body when an allegation of certain conduct is made against an employee or volunteer. NSW, Victoria, and the ACT have established schemes. These operate separately from mandatory reporting - they're about notifying the oversight body that an allegation exists within your organisation, so that the body can monitor how you handle it.

Investigations and disciplinary processes

When a safeguarding concern is raised, the club's immediate responsibilities are to ensure the child is safe, report to the appropriate authority, and preserve information. The club does not investigate. Investigations are conducted by police and child protection authorities.

However, the club may need to make interim decisions while an external investigation is underway. The most common decision: should the person who is the subject of the allegation be stood down from their role?

The answer is almost always yes - not as a presumption of guilt, but as a precaution. A person subject to a safeguarding allegation should not continue working with children until the matter is resolved. This should be specified in your policy so that it's understood as a standard procedure, not a punishment.

Your process should include:

• Separation. The accused person is removed from child-related duties pending investigation. This is communicated privately and with respect - they have not been found guilty of anything.
• Support for the child. The child and their family are kept informed as appropriate, offered support, and protected from any contact with the accused.
• Confidentiality. The allegation is shared only with those who need to know - the safeguarding officer, the president, the relevant authority, and the national sporting organisation's integrity unit if applicable.
• Documentation. Every step is recorded with dates, times, and decisions.
• Follow-up. When the investigation concludes, the club takes appropriate action based on the outcome - which may range from reinstatement (if cleared) to permanent removal (if the allegation is substantiated).

If the allegation is about a person in a leadership position - the president, the head coach - the reporting pathway needs to bypass them entirely. Your policy should specify an alternative pathway for exactly this scenario.

Training your volunteers and coaches

A safeguarding system is only as strong as the people operating it. And people can't operate a system they don't understand.

Training is not a one-off. Committee members turn over. Coaches rotate. The parent who volunteers as team manager this season wasn't at last year's training. If training isn't repeated, within two years your club has more untrained people than trained ones.

What training should cover

At minimum, every coach and volunteer working with children should understand:

• What safeguarding means and why it matters at club level
• The club's safeguarding policy - where to find it, what it says
• How to recognise indicators of abuse and neglect
• How to receive a disclosure from a child
• The reporting pathway - who to tell, how to record it
• The code of conduct and what behaviour is expected
• WWCC requirements and their personal obligation to maintain a current check
• Online safety principles (covered in the next section)

How often

Annual refresher training is the minimum standard expected by most national sporting organisations. New volunteers should complete induction training before beginning their role - not "within the first month" but before they start. A coach who hasn't completed safeguarding training should not be coaching. That needs to be a firm boundary, even when it's inconvenient.

Keeping records

Training only counts if you can prove it happened. Keep a register of who attended what training, when, with sign-off from attendees. This register should be maintained by the safeguarding officer and checked against the list of active volunteers at the start of each season.

Play by the Rules courses generate completion certificates. Download and store these. Your national sporting organisation's online modules typically track completion automatically - make sure you have access to that data.

Online safety and digital communications with young people

This is the section that most safeguarding policies written before 2018 don't cover adequately. The world has moved on. Your policy needs to move with it.

Children and young people in your club live online. They communicate via Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, WhatsApp, Discord, and whatever platform launched last month. Adults in your club - coaches, team managers, committee members - interact with these same platforms.

The risk is straightforward: private digital communication between an adult and a child, outside the visibility of parents and the club, creates an environment where grooming can occur. It also creates an environment where innocent interactions can be misinterpreted, putting volunteers at risk of false allegations.

Policy requirements for online safety

Your safeguarding policy should include:

• No private messaging. Adults should not communicate with individual children via private social media messages, WhatsApp, or any personal messaging platform. All communication goes through official club channels (a club email, a group communication platform where parents are included, or a platform like TidyHQ where messages are logged).
• Group communications only. If a team needs a messaging group, parents must be included. A WhatsApp group with the coach and 12 under-14s and no parents is not appropriate.
• Social media connections. Coaches should not connect with junior members on personal social media accounts. This protects both parties.
• Photography and video. Images and videos of children taken at training or competition are shared only through official club channels, not posted to personal social media accounts. Parents must consent to their child being photographed.
• Online behaviour. The code of conduct applies online as well as in person. Bullying, harassment, or inappropriate content shared in team groups is a welfare issue.

Why this matters

In several high-profile cases in both Australia and the UK, grooming began with private messaging. A coach sends encouraging messages after a game. It feels supportive. The messages become more personal. The child trusts the coach. The boundary shifts gradually, and by the time the communication crosses a line, the child has been conditioned to see it as normal.

Eliminating private digital communication between adults and children doesn't prevent all grooming. But it removes the most common channel. And it gives parents visibility of all communication between their child and adults at the club.

Safeguarding at scale - the federation perspective

If you're reading this as a governing body staff member managing 50, 100, or 200 affiliated clubs, your challenges are different from a single club. Your challenge isn't writing a policy. It's knowing whether your clubs have actually implemented one.

Sending a safeguarding framework by email to 200 clubs is communication. It is not compliance. Compliance means knowing that each club's safeguarding officer received the framework, acknowledged it, updated their local procedures, completed training, and has current screening checks.

The gap between communication and compliance is where systemic risk lives. When something goes wrong at one of your clubs and you're asked by a regulator, a board, or a court whether the club was compliant with your safeguarding framework, "we sent them an email" is not an answer. "Club X's safeguarding officer acknowledged the framework on 15 March, completed the Level 2 safeguarding course on 2 April, and uploaded their updated local policy on 10 April" - that's an answer.

What governing bodies need to track

Across every affiliated club:

• Safeguarding officer appointed. Named, trained, and registered with the governing body.
• Policy adopted. The club has adopted a safeguarding policy that meets the governing body's minimum standards.
• Screening compliance. All coaches and volunteers in child-related roles have current checks.
• Training completion. All relevant personnel have completed required training within the past 12 months.
• Incident reporting. All reportable incidents have been notified to the governing body as required.

This is a data problem. It requires systems that collect, validate, and report on compliance status across your entire network. Spreadsheets don't scale. Emails don't create accountability. Annual self-assessment forms are better than nothing, but they rely on honest self-reporting and they're a snapshot - a club that was compliant in March may not be compliant in September after their committee changes.

We've written a detailed article on safeguarding compliance at scale that covers how governing bodies can move from communication to genuine compliance tracking. And for a broader perspective on governing body operations, the safeguarding governance article examines why child protection must be a board-level concern, not just an operational one.

Record keeping and compliance tracking

Everything in this guide comes back to records. A safeguarding system without records is a safeguarding aspiration.

You need to be able to demonstrate:

• Who has been checked. A register of every person in a child-related role, their WWCC/Blue Card/DBS reference number, the issue date, and the expiry date. Updated in real time, not annually.
• Who has been trained. A training register showing completion dates, course names, and next renewal dates.
• What concerns have been raised. A confidential incident register recording every safeguarding concern - no matter how minor - with dates, details, actions taken, and outcomes.
• That your policy is current. A record of when the policy was last reviewed, by whom, and what changes were made.
• That your codes of conduct have been acknowledged. Evidence that coaches, volunteers, and parents have read and signed the relevant code. Not a blanket "by joining the club you agree to everything" - specific acknowledgement of the safeguarding-related codes.

Where to keep these records

Safeguarding records contain sensitive personal information. They must be stored securely - not in a shared Google Drive that the whole committee can access, not in an email thread, not on a personal laptop that could be lost.

Digital systems with proper access controls are the right approach. The safeguarding officer and the president should have access. Others only on a need-to-know basis. Records should be retained in accordance with your state's requirements - in most cases, this means keeping them for significantly longer than you might expect, because safeguarding matters may not be reported until years after they occurred.

Expiry tracking

The most common compliance failure is administrative, not procedural. Checks expire. Training lapses. The safeguarding officer moves away and isn't replaced for three months. These are all predictable, preventable failures - but only if you have a system that alerts you before they happen, not after.

Build reminders into whatever system you use. Three months before a WWCC expires, flag it. One month before training is due for renewal, flag it. When a new committee takes over after the AGM, trigger a compliance check of all roles. This is exactly the kind of administrative tracking that membership management platforms are designed to handle - and trying to do it manually across dozens of volunteers with different renewal dates is how things fall through the cracks.

For guidance on structuring your club's broader compliance and risk management approach, see our guide on risk management and compliance for clubs.

Making it real

This guide has covered a lot of ground - legislation, checks, policies, training, reporting, records. It can feel overwhelming, especially for a volunteer committee that's already stretched.

So here's the practical starting point. If your club does five things this month, do these:

1. Appoint a safeguarding officer. Name them. Give them authority. Make sure every member knows who they are.
2. Audit your WWCC compliance. Check every coach, every team manager, every committee member who works with juniors. Are their checks current? If not, that's the first thing to fix.
3. Get your policy on paper. If you don't have one, use your national sporting organisation's template. If you have one, check that it covers online safety - most older policies don't.
4. Run a training session. Even an informal one. Walk your coaches through the policy, the reporting pathway, and what to do if a child tells them something. One hour on a Tuesday night is better than perfect training that never happens.
5. Set up a tracking system. Whether it's a spreadsheet to start with or a membership management system, build a register of checks, training dates, and expiry dates. And assign someone to actually look at it each month.

None of this is complicated. What makes it hard is not the knowledge - it's the consistent, unglamorous administrative follow-through that turns a policy into a system and a system into a culture where children are genuinely safer.

That's what safeguarding implementation actually looks like. Not a document on a hard drive. A living practice that runs through everything your club does, from the first committee meeting of the year to the last training session of the season.

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This guide is for general information only and does not constitute legal advice. Safeguarding legislation varies by jurisdiction and changes regularly. Always verify current requirements with your state or territory authority, your national sporting organisation, and your legal adviser. If you believe a child is in immediate danger, contact police immediately - 000 (Australia), 999 (UK), 111 (NZ).