In June 2025, we ran an in-person forum for people who take on the Lead Safeguarding role in national independent, commercial or community sport and activity organisations.
The forum involves a diverse variety of sporting organisations. They meet once a quarter to connect, learn, and share good practice.
Safeguarding adults can be challenging for these organisations for a number of reasons, including organisational and governance structures, and limited capacity and resources. Some organisations rely on volunteers to run, and others are commercially driven. Yet across the organisations there is a commitment to create safer environments for all participants, volunteers, and staff. This commitment can help to override many of the challenges the organisations face in safeguarding adults.
The First In-Person Forum Meeting
In June 2025, many of the forum members met in person for the first time. Up until now all our meetings have been online, as online meetings can be more flexible for organisations with limited capacity. However, the forum members were keen to discuss topics in a much greater depth, and many agreed that this would be much easier offline than online.
The aim of the day was to have constructive conversations about some of the more challenging areas of safeguarding adults that we face. We developed an agenda according to the forum members’ requests.
The day started with an interview with Paralympian, and Ann Craft Trust patron, Richard Whitehead MBE. Richard discussed the role we all have to play in creating safer cultures. It is probably safe to say that we all know why we need to create safer cultures. But how we do this is less certain. We can find solutions if we work together to recognise obstacles. It will also help to involve as many stakeholders as possible in the conversation. Richard then spoke about the impact of toxic cultures on athletes, and discussed how sport has worked to tackle this over the last 10 years.
Elizabeth Whittington from the DBS then ran a bespoke session focused on DBS eligibility as part of safe recruitment processes. After this, Kathryn Bonner from CIMSPA gave a presentation on the Workforce Governance National Registration Scheme. While the scheme is primarily aimed at Sport England-funded NGBs, the wider sport sector can potentially learn from the scheme’s key ideas and insights.
In the afternoon we had a more in-depth discussion around due diligence and managing safeguarding concerns.
It was so good, so much information and great to chat to others. I found it so beneficial and have taken away a lot.
I like face to face, I feel you can learn so much more and I also retain so much more information that way.
Really looking forward to the next one.
Victoria Borland, Hurlingham Polo Association (HPA)
Upcoming Forum Meetings
Please note you will be asked to register for free via our training platform CourseSight before you can book your place.
If you have any questions and wish to attend any of these forum meeting, email Catherine.sykes@nottingham.ac.uk