The responsibilities and requirements for Club Welfare Officers
All clubs must have a Club Welfare Officer to look after and protect children and adults and deal with safeguarding concerns within their club.
This page has information on what the role of a Club Welfare Officer entails and what information and skills that person requires.
Club Welfare Officer (CWO)
A CWO plays a huge role in safeguarding and is responsible for supporting a positive and safeguarding central environment, promoting and implementing policy, procedure and guidance, acting as the first point of contact for concerns, and linking with the national governing body.
Clubs have a duty of care to everyone engaging in their activities and need to ensure that U18s and adults at risk are in a safe and welcoming space, ensuring you have a visible CWO is one step to achieving this.
It is mandatory that all clubs have a club welfare officer. It is good practice, and recommended for larger clubs to have two CWOs and that one of these is not part of the club’s coaching team.
Requirements for a CWO:
- Be a member of Basketball England - be registered on PlayHQ and your contact details recorded under your club’s contact page
- DBS - you must hold a clear enhanced DBS certificate which is valid within the last three years and recorded on your Basketball England membership portal (if your club has U18s)
- Safeguarding course - you must have completed the Basketball England safeguarding course and the CWO safeguarding course (if your club has U18s). To access these courses, click HERE.
What to do when you receive a concern:
- Stay calm
- Ensure the safety of anyone involved
- Listen carefully (if someone is reporting their concerns)
- Record your concerns and anything that has been said or done
- Report concerns following your organisational reporting procedures
- Where appropriate, involve parents
- For further advice and information contact BE's Safeguarding Team
- Use discretion
It is advised that you don’t share information with those who do not need to know, rush into any action, make promises that cannot be kept or take sole responsibility for the concern.
It is not your responsibility to undertake investigations.
Sports Welfare Officer Network
The new national network implemented to support CWOs. The network can help with promoting good practice and safe sport, adding capacity and expertise to existing safeguarding work. Click here to find out more and for the contact details of your local SWO.
Resources
The BE Resource Centre has lots of useful safeguarding information relating to appropriate communication for clubs, photography and video guidance, social media policy, duty of care and more.
The BE Safeguarding Regulations and Safeguarding Children Policy and Safeguarding Adults Policy are your go to documents.
Basketball England Safeguarding resources
BE's safeguarding podcasts contain lots of information about the importance of reporting low level concerns, conduct for clubs, what constitutes poor practice and more:
- Basketball England podcast: Safeguarding edition
- Basketball England podcast: Nutrition
- Basketball England podcast: Conduct for clubs with Sergio Lara-Bercial
- Basketball England podcast: Safeguarding with Paul Stewart, Billy Beddow, and Kevin Kinsella
- NSPCC Child Protection in Sport Unit | CPSU
- Ann Craft Trust: Safeguarding Adults
- The Online Protection Of Children
- Safeguarding Of Adults At Risk
Please view our monthly blog posts for more information about online safety, the role of the coach in safeguarding, safeguarding adults, reflection on key topics across basketball in our Safeguarding News section.
Contacts/support
- If a child or adult is in immediate danger always call 999
- Basketball England Safeguarding Team [email protected]
- County or regional safeguarding officers
- NSPCC 0808 800 5000