Assess my organisation

Last updated: 21 Mar 2022
How to assess safeguards

All sports organisations should have processes in place to ensure that they provide a safe and welcoming environment for children and young people attending a club or activity.

What does my organisation need to do?

There are different types of safeguarding assessments and processes that any organisation working with children and young people should consider to help create a safe place for everyone.

Safeguarding self-assessments – this assessment is completed internally within your organisation and can help you identify what safeguards your organisation has in place, what could be improved and what might be missing.

Standards assessment process – the Safeguarding Standards provide a benchmark for your organisation to make informed decisions, to promote good practice and challenge practice that is harmful to children.

Annual review process – this process allows your organisation to check if you are maintaining and embedding safeguarding, including updates to legislations, safeguarding practices, policies and procedures.

Who can support you? 

The CPSU can support funded National Governing Bodies (NGBs) and Active Partnerships (APs) through our Standards and annual review processes. CPSU will report back to the Sport Councils following Standards assessment panels and annual review meetings updating them on progress and any changes.

If your organisation isn't funded you can still use all of our online resources for free and implement safeguards in your own setting to create a safer place.

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Safeguarding self-assessments

This section outlines our 2 self-assessment tools to help you decide which one suits your club or activity best.

Each of our Sports safeguarding tools asks simple questions for each area of safeguarding to help you identify what safeguards your club or activity has in place, what could be improved and assess what you still need to do.

Essential safeguarding self-assessment tool

Are you a small, independent and community-based organisation? The essential safeguarding self-assessment tool takes you through the standard requirements all organisations should have to safeguard children in sport. The tool will take you through 9 sections where you can assess what your organisation does well and some areas where you could implement some improvements. 

> Sign in or register to start using the Essential safeguarding self-assessment tool

Extended safeguarding self-assessment tool

Are you a larger organisation already with some safeguarding structures in place? Our extended safeguarding self-assessment tool enables you to identify whether your organisation is fulfilling your safeguarding requirements.

Note that if you are affiliated to a national governing body (NGB) they may stipulate that you comply with sport-specific safeguarding arrangements. They may already be working with the CPSU to implement the more comprehensive Standards for safeguarding and protecting children in sport.

Sign in or register to start using the Extended safeguarding self-assessment tool

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Standards assessment process

Safeguarding standards provide a benchmark to help those involved in sport to make informed decisions, promote good practice, raise lower-level concerns and help to create a safe sporting environment for everyone.

The structure of standards assessment processes may differ between UK nations but the principles are consistent. See the below standards for all UK nations:

We are funded by the sports councils in England, Wales and Northern Ireland to support funded sports organisations to achieve these Standards. If your organisation is currently working towards the standards with the support of the CPSU, please contact us for more information.

There is a similar process in Scotland; visit the sportscotland website for further information. 

If your sport is not funded, you can access our standards and use them as a framework to align your own organisations safeguards to.

Once sports have achieved the standards, it is important to continue to meet these and explore how they embed them through the organisation. This can be done through an annual review process

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Annual review process

An annual review process supports your organisation to maintain and embed safeguarding across your organisation. 

Why an annual review is important 

The review process builds on our safeguarding standards to ensure that sport and activity settings are doing all they can to maintain and embed safeguarding, enabling children to enjoy and achieve in sport. The annual review is an opportunity to:

  • assess the extent to which standards are maintained
  • evaluate the impact of safeguards
  • further develop safeguards to meet the challenges of a changing landscape, including new legislation and developing technology

The CPSU are funded to support some sports organisations with their annual reviews.

National Governing Bodies (NGBs) and Active Partnerships (APs) develop their own monitoring and evaluation systems and the CPSU meets with them for an annual review meeting. Following these meeting we update sports councils around progress and any changes or developments within the NGB or AP.

If your organisation is currently preparing your annual review and require support with the process, please contact us for more information.

We are currently developing new resources to support independent and community sport and physical activity providers, keep checking here for updates.

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