Sport England is to invest £15m in a “gamechanging” network of 59 professional safeguarding officers to protect children and young people across sport, the Guardian can reveal.
The news, which will be officially announced on Wednesday, follows horrific stories of abuse in gymnastics and multiple other sports, as well as widespread concerns that complaints were not adequately reported or addressed.
The damning Whyte Review last year proved to be the final straw, with Anne Whyte KC finding that girls as young as seven had been sat on by coaches to “overstretch” their bodies, strapped to bars for long periods as punishment, and shouted and sworn at for needing the toilet.
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The review, which was based on more than 400 submissions, found that more than 40% of gymnasts had reported physically abusive behaviour, while elite athletes were starved, body-shamed and abused in a system that ruthlessly put the pursuit of medals over the protection of children.
Sport England’s chief executive, Tim Hollingsworth, told the Guardian that from next month 59 welfare officers would be situated around the country to promote safe sport and ensure local clubs better protect the welfare of their members.
“This is the biggest intervention into welfare, safeguarding, and integrity in terms of investment that we’ve made in a very long time,” he said. “And it has the potential to be gamechanging for the way that local clubs and community groups feel they’re supported around safeguarding. It’s not just in gymnastics. We can see it in other sports too where there’s been some significant failure to properly address the issues within clubs.”
The sport welfare officers will be tasked with working with governing bodies to report and refer safeguarding cases, mentoring and supporting club welfare officers, and visiting clubs to make sure parents and carers have no concerns.
However, the officers will not be responsible for conducting investigations, which will still lie with the relevant national governing body. That will leave some uneasy, given that only last week British Gymnastics’ response to the Whyte Review was described as a “serious institutional betrayal” by campaign groups, who want more coaches banned for their behaviour.
Hollingsworth acknowledged that the present system was still not perfect, pointing out that the number of complaints about governing bodies into Sport England had nearly doubled in the past year.
However, he said he was encouraged by the fact the government’s new sport strategy includes a “call for evidence” around a potential independent complaints service, or ombudsman, which could have greater oversight across the sports sector. “It’s a real factor that we’re seeing more complaints,” he said.
“And it’s a challenge for us. We’re not a regulator. We don’t have investigative powers. But obviously people are looking for somewhere to go and I think that’s the question that needs answering. How do you make sure that if you’re a parent of a child in a community sports club, or if you have an experience or you see something that is wrong, it is not only reported but properly dealt with? Where can people go, if they feel their case to a governing body is not being heard?
“That’s where I’m actually really supportive of the government to include the call for evidence in their new strategy.”
That strategy, published last month, stressed the need for greater emphasis on transparency around sport integrity issues and the need to identify opportunities for improvement. “Crucially, we need to ensure that we are developing the right solutions for the right problems,” it said.
“The language is all about what can be improved and what can be strengthened,” Hollingsworth said. “And I think that that’s recognising that some form of more independent system for those complaints to be heard is part of the jigsaw. I think it is the most comprehensive and considered approach by the government towards the issues faced. And I think it’s a realisation that the status quo is not an option.”
