Whyte Review: Sport England and UK Sport set out safeguarding improvements

Posted: Tue, 17 Jan 2023 09:40

Whyte Review: Sport England and UK Sport set out safeguarding improvements

The new plans are designed to support all sports.

"We have a responsibility to the gymnasts, parents, coaches and others to ensure their bravery in stepping forward and contributing to the Review doesn't just lead to progress in their own sport, but has a lasting legacy across all of sport," Tim Hollingsworth, CEO of Sport England, and Sally Munday, UK Sport CEO, said in a statement.

"Today is a positive step forward, but there is a huge amount of work still to be done to ensure all sport is consistently safe, welcoming and inclusive for all."

Munday also said they would continue to keep "a very close eye" on British Gymnastics.

The improvements have been set out across five areas with 19 commitments, designed to "support improved safeguarding and wellbeing for everyone involved in sport".

The five areas consist of coaching and workforce support, performance athlete support, good governance, dispute resolution and creating safer environments for participants.

The commitments include improving organisations' access to expert safeguarding support and funding a national network of welfare officers.

There is also a requirement for a coach registration scheme to be piloted with a small group of sports over next 18 months.

Hollingsworth said the scheme would be used to determine the "fitness to practise" of coaches, both technically and in creating a safe and inclusive environment.

Hollingsworth added it would for individual governing bodies to decide whether they want to follow British Gymnastics in publishing a list of banned coaches.

British Gymnastics' board approved the decision to name coaches following the Whyte Review, and the list will be published as soon as the legal and technical details have been completed.

Sport Integrity, the independent disclosure and investigations service, will also become mandatory for all sports funded by UK Sport but will be provided "free of charge".

Any sport wanting public funding must sign up to Sport Integrity by the end of 2023, Munday said.

UK Sport deputy chief executive Simon Morton said the strategy represents a "multi-million pound investment into the integrity of British sport".

Sarah Powell, CEO of British Gymnastics, said: "We very much welcome the policy response to the Whyte Review set out by UK Sport and Sport England.

"There are things that we simply could not achieve or implement on our own, and so it is particularly pleasing to see measures such as the funding of a national network of local and regional welfare officers to support and work with clubs to build capacity form part of the plans.

"The Whyte Review was a call for change that needs to be heard by us all. We can't keep moving from one sport to the next, with review after review.

"While we believe more still needs to be done to look at how this area of sport is managed going forwards, in publishing this policy response, UK Sport and Sport England have recognised this has to be addressed now, and that we must take this opportunity to make the care of people and the positive impact and benefits sport can provide central to our thinking and everything we do."

Tags: DCMS, Physical Activity, Sport, Whyte Review, sport england, sport policy