The Safeguarding Adults in Sport Strategic Partnership (SASSP) is a forum for partnership organisations to coordinate action and develop knowledge and understanding of safeguarding adults in sport.
The aim is to help embed safeguarding across all sport and physical activity organisations, and provide advocacy for safe sport for all adults.
Vision and Strategy
The Partnership’s vision is to allow everyone across England to benefit from the positive health, social and economic benefits that sport and physical activity provides in an open, inclusive and safe environment.
The forum meets at least twice a year to review the progress of embedding adult safeguarding practices against 5 key areas:
- Advocacy – To raise awareness outside the sport sector of the need to consider safeguarding adults in sport and physical activity at all levels.
- Awareness – Promoting the normalisation of conversations around risks to adults within the sport and physical activity sector so that everyone understands their role and responsibilities in safeguarding participants form harm, whether at community or club level, or in the World Class Programmes
- Prevention – Establishing a Safeguarding Adults Framework as a key requirement in UK Sport Governance Code for publicly funded sports and as an aspiration for all sport and physical activity providers.
- Response – Provide a central clearing house to identify issues, trends and gaps in the system that might leave adults vulnerable to abuse of harassment in sport.
- Review – Analyse insight data and feedback from key stakeholders to inform and commission research projects to support safeguarding adults in sport and physical activity and encourage sharing of good practice.
The Partnership is administered by Ann Craft Trust. Annamarie Phelps CBE is appointed Independent Chair.
To read our Terms of Reference Document, click here.
Current Membership and Partnership Organisations
Annamarie Phelps, Independent Chair
Janine Walker, Activity Alliance
Deborah Kitson Ann Craft Trust
Sallie Barker, Chair of the ACT Safeguarding Adults in Sport Steering Group
Emma Gibson, Badminton England
Nick Slinn, Child Protection in Sport Unit, NSPCC
Steve Boocock, CSP Network
Alexandra Moore, Sport England
Ben Jessup, Sport & Recreation Alliance
Roxana Weich, Sports Resolutions
Jemima Coates, UK Sport
Meeting Notes
The SASSP last met on Tuesday 22 January 2019.
They discussed topics including strategic priorities for the partnership, ACT’s Safeguarding Adults in Sport Framework, and the need for quality assured training in safeguarding adults across the country in all areas of sport.
You can download a summary of the meeting here.