News

Child Protection

In light of recent media attention, we are aware that branches may have increased anxiety about child protection. If this is the case, you can contact ScotSAC's CPLO (Kate Jenkins: 0131 625 4404/childprotection@scotsac.com) or Safeguarding in Sport at 0141 419 1156 for advice, guidance and help.

Our advice to branches with junior members would be to ensure that you have:

• A named contact for the co-ordination of child protection, with a role description, who has attended recommended training.
• A Child Protection Policy which reflects national guidelines, adopted by the Board / Executive / Management Committee.
• A Code of Conduct for working with children and young people.
• A variety of child protection training offered at appropriate levels for those working or volunteering with children and young people in sport.
• A procedure for the recruitment and selection of those who work with children and young people, including access to PVG Scheme Membership checks.
• A procedure for responding to concerns about the welfare or abuse of a child - within or out with sport.
• A disciplinary procedure for managing concerns and allegations of poor practice, misconduct and child abuse and includes provision for referrals to the Children’s List.
• A procedure for reviewing the management of concerns about poor practice, misconduct and / or child abuse.

If somebody raises child protection concerns in relation to an Instructor/volunteer who is currently practising then you should follow your ‘Responding to Concerns’ procedure. If it is a historical allegation then you should follow the same procedure and signpost the individual to Police Scotland on ‘101’. If you have a concern about a child’s immediate safety then this should be passed on to Police or Social Work. All of our Child Protection documents can be found on our website here.

We will shortly be running another Safeguarding and Protecting Children workshop early next year. Attendance at a Safeguarding and Protecting workshop is mandatory for all Group 2 Instructors, BDOs and CPOs, and highly recommended for Group 3 Instructors, BDOs, and CPOs. Further details will be sent out in due course.

Cylinder Testing

You may have read in the diving press about a proposed change in the standards for the periodic testing of gas cylinders from visual testing every 2.5 years and hydraulic testing every 5 years, to visual testing every year and hydraulic testing every 5 years.

This has worrying implications for ScotSAC branches and for individuals. On the cost alone - a considerable rise.

However, the proposed standard BS. EN 18119 failed at the first vote with the UK and several other countries expressing disapproval. The standard will therefore be subject to review. The standard will not be open again to the public consultation which took place last year, but we are delighted to report that ScotSAC now has representation on the appropriate British Standards Committee.