Safeguarding Responsibilities for Coaches

Safeguarding young athletes is a responsibility of not just sport administrators but also the player managers - the coaches, who are the pillars of virtually all sports organizations. Coaches are in a position of trust to nurture and protect young athletes from any harm whatsoever. In view of this, the LSD Initiative has put in place measures aimed at ensuring the suitability of her coaches and trainers to responsibly engage children and young people.

Coaches have the responsibility to ensure that activities are fun and enjoyable and that children and vulnerable adults are safe and protected from harm. Coaches also need to demonstrate exemplary behaviour in order to promote children’s welfare and overall growth.

It is therefore essential that coaches and trainers possess good understanding and general awareness of accepted behaviour, ethics and coaching delivery to ensure that the safety of participants is paramount. To this end, the LSD Initiative recommends the following safeguarding guidelines for adoption by loofball coaches working with children:

1. Always work in an open environment.
2. Make activity fun, enjoyable and promote fair play.
3. Treat everyone fairly, and with respect and dignity.
4. Always put the safety and welfare of participants first. 
5. Maintain a safe and appropriate distance .
6. When necessary to physically support a child, it should be done openly and with no ill motive.
7. Always be an excellent role model.
8. Provide positive and constructive feedback rather than negative criticism.
9. Avoid excessive training or allowing children to play when tired or in pain.
10. Always ensure the playing court or environment is safe and free from hazards.
11. Keep record of any injury that occurs and the treatment given.
12. Request parental approval if officials are required to transport young people to events or competitions. 

Coaches are required to not allow the following to happen. No adult should:

• share a room with a child 
• allow or engage in any form of inappropriate touching 
• allow children to use inappropriate language unchallenged 
• make sexually suggestive comments to a child, even in fun 
• reduce a child to tears as a form of control 
• fail to act upon and record any allegations made by a child 
• do things of a personal nature for children or vulnerable adults, that they can do for themselves.
• invite or allow children to stay with you at your home unsupervised. 

The coach should be seen as someone a child can trust and learn valuable life skills from. The LSD Initiative will therefore not condone any infringement of the guidelines so mentioned above. To learn more about our approach to safeguarding young players, please read our Child Protection and Safeguarding Policy.