Child Welfare and Protection

We want everyone to stay safe, feel welcome and have fun while taking part in orienteering. We all have a shared responsibility for safeguarding and creating safe, enjoyable environments in orienteering whether as a participant, coach, club official, volunteer, parent or spectator.  

If you have safeguarding or welfare concerns, or incidents you witness, we would encourage you to raise them at the earliest opportunity to our Club Welfare and Protection Officer (Liz Campbell) or Scottish Orienteering’s Lead Welfare Officer (Nikki Howard). 

Our club is committed to safeguarding the welfare of all children and vulnerable adults and our Club Welfare and Protection Officer is always there if you need any support or would like any advice. 

Further information is available on Safeguarding, Protection & Welfare | Scottish Orienteering Association. 

Reporting a Concern or Incident 

If you feel a child or vulnerable adult is at immediate danger or risk of harm you should contact the Police immediately.   

If you have a concern about the safety or welfare of an individual, if you have been abused or if you have reason to believe that someone is being abused, you should report it immediately.  All reports are taken seriously and dealt with in a sensitive manner.  Should you wish to report a concern or incident please contact either: 

  • Our Club Welfare and Protection Officer:

 Liz - CWPO

 

 

 

 

This includes any concerns about safeguarding and welfare either within orienteering or outside of orienteering and any concern over behaviour related to the welfare of children or adults at risk, including those away from the sport that involves members or participants. 

All reports will be logged in confidence with the Scottish Orienteering’s Lead Welfare Officer who will also explain the processes which will be followed depending on each case.

Reporting Forms 

Concerns can be raised directly, with either the Club Welfare Officer or Scottish Orienteering’s Lead Welfare Officer in whatever way you feel comfortable raising the concern.  Our Club Welfare Officer or Scottish Orienteering’s Lead Welfare Officer would be happy to discuss any concern in person, or they can be contacted by email or there is a reporting form which you may find helpful (Incident Reporting Form – pdf).  If you complete the reporting form, it will then need to be emailed to either your Club Welfare Officer or Scottish Orienteering’s Lead Welfare Officer as soon as possible. 

Safeguarding Policies  

As a club, we support and follow Scottish Orienteering’s two safeguarding policies, these can be found via the links below: 

For further information including resources and training opportunities visit the Safeguarding, Protection & Welfare | Scottish Orienteering Association or contact Scottish Orienteering’s Lead Welfare Officer. 

Additional Information 

When you come orienteering, we ensure everyone’s welfare and safety by ensuring that; 

  • All our members who have significant contact with juniors are members of the Protection of Vulnerable Groups (PVG) scheme and have completed appropriate training for their role. 

  • Club coaches adhere to the British Orienteering Code of Conduct for Coaches which can be found on the British Orienteering Federation website. 

  • Organisers of events and activities carry out risk assessments and have procedures for managing safety in public places. 

  • Planners of courses and activities follow rules and guidelines to provide courses or activities with different levels of challenge to meet different needs. 

  • We give you information so that you understand the level of challenge on courses offered.  At events, we will explain what physical and navigational skills are needed to complete a course and how we can help with an individual need.  We expect you to follow our guidelines about which course is appropriate for you or your children to complete. To meet our safeguarding and insurance responsibilities, we may refuse to let you do a course if we consider you are taking undue risk. 

  • At activities led by coaches, if you tell us about any special needs, we will tell you what adaptations can be made to make our activities accessible. 

  • We keep track of every individual at every event or activity to ensure that they are accounted for. We have procedures for finding and looking for lost participants and for providing first aid. 

  • The club’s social media sites (web page, public Facebook page and members only Facebook page) do not contain material that could cause distress, embarrassment or offence, or which makes public a member’s private information. Coaches and other officials will avoid contacting children directly via social media, email, text or telephone unless parents are copied into correspondence. 

  • Photographs focusing on specific children will not be used in newspaper articles or other publicity, online or on social media sites unless permission has been granted by the parents or guardians of those in the images. Images containing larger groups including children will not name the individuals unless parental permission has been given.