KPAC Safeguarding Policy

Our club expects that all members, visitors, and guests, of the club, are familiar with our Safeguarding policy, and further requires our members to comply with it. Any observance / awareness of a breach of the policy should be reported to the Club’s Safeguarding Officer – Fabrice Occhini who can be contacted as detailed below or directly by personal messaging (PM) ONLY using the private WhatsApp Chat platform.

Kent Police Archery Club Safeguarding Policy

Policy Statement: 

Kent Police Archery Club (KPAC) is committed to ensuring the safety and welfare of all its members, particularly children, young people, and adults at risk. We believe that everyone has the right to participate in archery in a safe and enjoyable environment.

Principles:

  1. The welfare of children and vulnerable adults is paramount.
  2. All members, regardless of age, ability, gender, racial origin, religious belief, or sexual orientation, have the right to be protected from abuse.
  3. The rights, dignity, and worth of every member should always be respected.

Responsibilities:

  • All club members, volunteers, and officers must be familiar with and adhere to this safeguarding policy.
  • Any concerns about the welfare of a child or vulnerable adult should be reported immediately to the Club’s Safeguarding Officer.

Safeguarding & Welfare Officer: 

Name: Fabrice Occhini

Email: fabrice@occhini.com

Phone: 07841113851

Procedures:

Reporting Concerns:

Any concerns about the welfare of a child or vulnerable adult should be reported to the Club’s Safeguarding Officer.

If the Safeguarding Officer is unavailable, concerns should be reported to a member of the KPAC Committee.

Current Committee members:

2024/2025 – Bernard Botten, Steve Ridley, Gavin Humphrey, Heather Ridley, Simon Ridley, Al Cannon, Steve Kelly, Fabrice Occhini, Sharon Occhini

Responding to Concerns:

The Safeguarding Officer will take appropriate action in accordance with the KPAC safeguarding policies and procedures.

All concerns will be taken seriously and responded to promptly.

Training and Awareness:

All club members, volunteers, and officers will receive training on safeguarding policies and procedures. A free online process on the club website is required of all members in this club

Regular updates and refresher training will be provided to ensure ongoing awareness and compliance.

FURTHER INFORMATION:

The Government’s guidance ‘Working Together to Safeguard Children 2018’ states that ‘safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility’ and sets out how individuals and organisations should work together to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. A child is defined in these procedures as a person under the age of 18.

Recognising Poor Practice

Is behaviour which contravenes the Safeguarding and Protecting Young People Policy and Reporting Procedures, Good Practice Guidance, Code of Conduct, Equality and Diversity Policy, Online Safety and Social Media Policy.

Such behaviour could be intentional or accidental:

  • When insufficient care is taken to avoid injuries (e.g. by excessive training or inappropriate training for the age, maturity, experience and ability of archers)
  • Allowing abusive or concerning practices to go unreported (e.g. a coach who ridicules and criticises archers who make a mistake)
  • Allow dangerous practice such as hazing to go unreported.
  • Placing young people in potentially compromising and uncomfortable situations with adults (e.g. inappropriate use by a coach of social media with young people)
  • Ignoring health and safety guidelines (e.g. allowing young people to set up targets unsupervised by adults)
  • Failing to adhere to the Club’s Code of Conduct (e.g. openly verbally abusing archers, young people, coaches and judges)
  • Giving continued and unnecessary preferential treatment to individuals
  • Coaching with alcohol on the breath
  • Smoking
  • Using abusive language in front of young people
  • Not paying due care and attention to participants.

(Please note – this list is not exhaustive. Incidents of poor practice occur when the needs of children and young people are not afforded the necessary priority, so their welfare is compromised).

Allegations of poor practice should only be discussed on a “need to know” basis. Confidentially must be maintained until the outcome of the investigation is released.

Reporting Lower-Level Concerns

A lower-level concern is any concern that an adult has acted in a way that is in breach of the code of conduct, including inappropriate conduct outside of the archery environment.

The allegation may not be considered serious enough to refer to the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO).

Examples of lower-level concerns include:

  • having favourites
  • singling out a child by buying gifts
  • using inappropriate sexualised, intimidating or offensive language

To help prevent lower-level concerns, code of conduct, behaviour policies and safeguarding policies and procedures should be implemented effectively, and appropriate action should be taken to deal with any concern.

Safeguarding/Welfare Officers should record all lower-level concerns.

Records should include the details of the concern, how the concern arose, actions taken, and reviewed so that patterns of concerning behaviour can be recognised and appropriate action can be taken.

Responding to Concerns

If you are worried about a young person or receive information which you believe puts a young person at risk, it is vital you report your concerns, “Doing nothing is not an option”.

There are many reasons why a person might need to report a concern, and these are some examples:

  • Something a young person has said to you (a disclosure)
  • Signs or suspicions of abuse
  • Allegations made against a person at the club
  • Allegations made about a parent, guardian or someone not working within the sport
  • Allegations made against members and volunteers
  • Bullying
  • You accidentally hurt a young person
  • A young person misunderstands or misinterprets something you have done
  • Observation of inappropriate behaviour
  • Changes in behaviour of a young person, indicating abuse
  • Anything which makes a young person feel uncomfortable based on inappropriate behaviour of an adult or another young person

It is important to note that even if an incident occurs outside of the club environment, it must still be reported if the adult and/or young person concerned is involved in the club.

This is in accordance with standard practice in our sport.

Dealing with reports of a concern or worry

The discovery that a member of the club or a colleague may be acting inappropriately, grooming, bullying, harassing or abusing a young person can be upsetting for both the person reporting and the person receiving the concern.

These concerns may evolve around feelings of:

▶ Doubt – is it true?

▶ Guilt: Should I have known?

▶ Did I miss something?

▶ Did I have my suspicions?

▶ Should I have said something?

▶ Fear: Will others or I be suspected?

▶ What actions should be taken?

▶ Confusion: What will happen?

▶ What will be the effect?

▶ Concerns: What can I do to support all those people who may need support?

▶ How will it affect further relationships or contact with children?

▶ Are there systems in place to expose future situations?

These are all natural responses but remember the safety and welfare of young people is paramount.

A young person may have taken some time to pluck up the courage to talk to someone about their abuse, grooming or neglect and most young people will choose to talk to someone they trust.

When they share that information with you, remember the following:

  • Give them your full attention
  • Remember they have chosen you as a person they trust
  • Keep your body language open and encouraging
  • Be compassionate and understanding
  • Reassure them their feelings are important
  • Make it clear you are interested in what they are telling you
  • Distinguish between fact and not hearsay or opinion
  • Use phrases such as “you’ve shown great courage today”
  • Respect pauses and don’t interrupt – let them go at their own pace
  • Reflect back on what they said to check your understanding
  • Use their language to show it is their experience
  • Never promise a child you will keep the discussion secret. Let them know you will need to share with someone who can help

For more information on dealing with a young person’s disclosure see the NSPCC let children know you’re listening

Taking appropriate action

The club Safeguarding Officer will:

  • Support you
  • Listen to you
  • Take all concerns seriously 
  • Treat anyone under suspicion of abuse fairly
  • Treat all allegations with the strictest confidence

EMERGENCY RESPONSE

If the child is in danger or injured, you must call the emergency services on 999 and inform them it is a child protection matter.

The police and children’s social services will decide if abuse has taken place.

You are not responsible for making that decision.

Reporting concerns of grooming or abuse (inside or outside of the club)

Where a child is considered to be at risk of harm, consent to share concerns with appropriate agencies is not required, it is considered good practice to discuss these actions with the parent/carer or legal guardian but should not be done when this may place the child at risk of further harm or there are suspicions of fabricated induced illness.

DO NOT DELAY REPORTING YOUR CONCERNS

If you are aware of possible grooming or abuse (inside or outside the club) or the child has been seriously hurt or is at risk of harm – Ensure the child is safe and call 999.

If no immediate risk is apparent, report your concern to the club Safeguarding Officer.

If your concern relates to the club Safeguarding Officer then report it to a KPAC Committee Member.

Confidentiality

You should make every effort to ensure that confidentiality is maintained for everyone concerned.

Information must be handled and passed on only to those who need it.

This may include the following people:

  • the Safeguarding officer
  • parents (unless they are the suspected abuser)
  • the person making the allegation
  • local authority designated officer (LADO)
  • social services
  • the police

Alternatively

Concerns can be reported directly to:

  • the local police or Children’s Social Care Services
  • the NSPCC Helpline on 0808 800 5000 or email help@nspcc.org.uk

Anyone who refers their concerns will be supported and can be confident their concerns will be treated seriously and managed sensitively and appropriately.

All information received and discussed will be treated in the strictest confidence and only shared with those individuals who will be able to manage and resolve the situation.

It may be necessary to seek advice or inform the statutory agencies, e.g. Children’s Services and the police.

OTHER USEFUL CONTACTS