Through sailing’s Child Safeguarding Policy, all clubs, class associations and Discover Sailing Centres are committed to keeping Children safe from abuse and neglect.

A fundamental to this is how your organisation handles the appointment of volunteers and staff into roles. To begin with, it is important that organisations have clear position descriptions which clearly state relevant child safe requirements. 

All roles within sailing, both new and existing need to be assessed using Appendix 1 of the Child Safeguarding Policy: Child-Related Position Assessment. This will help the club assess the nature of a role and whether it involves contact with children. Positions assessed as ‘child-related’ must be appointed using the recruitment and screening process also outlined in the Policy. 

The following are some of the key points extracted from the recruitment and screening process for child related positions.

• When advertising make a clear statement that applicants for the position will undergo an extensive screening process prior to appointment.
• Applicants being considered must be required to attend at least one interview, preferably in person or on a videoconference where questions regarding the applicant’s suitability to work with children must be asked.
• Conduct Working With Children or Criminal History Checks in accordance with state or territory legislation, and either get a copy of it, or have it validated by, prior to making the appointment.
• Conduct a minimum of two reference checks for the preferred applicant to check about the applicant’s suitability to work in the role for which they have applied.

The Child Safeguarding Policy has advice, appendices and annexures that explain how to approach this. A good place to start is the Child Safeguarding in Sport Induction. The course is excellent for anyone involved in running sailing clubs with racing or training involving children. The course will provide the basic knowledge required to understand and implement the Child Safeguarding Policy.

The Child Safeguarding in Sport Induction is here.
An online induction about the National Integrity Framework and its policies can be done here.
The National Integrity Framework and its policies are here.

For further information please contact glen.stanaway@sailing.org.au.