Governance & Welfare December updates

This month we bring you a safeguarding update and reminder about the incoming Prohibited List 2022.

Safeguarding

Firstly within the team we wish Tom Ramsell the very best luck as he moved to the RFU to take on a new Safeguarding role at the end of November. Whilst we recruit for a new Lead Safeguarding Officer all safeguarding enquiries can continue to be sent to [email protected] which will be picked up by the Deputy Head of Legal and Governance. Over the holiday period please be aware our response times to Safeguarding queries may be slower than normal. We will endeavour to get back to you as quick as possible, but anyone who has safeguarding queries can also utilise the following resources available:

• The Club Welfare Officer forum on RowHow where you can pose questions to other CWOs. There are over 100 CWOs on the forum, who all carry out the same role as you. Other CWOs are a fantastic resource to use, and we strongly encourage you to network with each other and share best practice.
• Get in touch with your Regional Chairs. Your Regional Chairs are best placed to help you handle any disputes or queries you may have in your region. You can find your regions contact details, here.

The Club Welfare Officer newsletter was distributed a couple of weeks ago, any CWO’s who did not receive this, please contact us so we can add you to the distribution list.

Recruitment of Juniors between Clubs

We’ve been made aware of clubs recruiting juniors from other clubs, without following the guidance we have on how to ensure that the child’s wellbeing is at the centre of this process.

We would encourage Club Welfare Officers to share this guidance, which can be found here, with Coaches and explain that before clubs want to recruit junior rowers from other clubs:

• The junior’s welfare and wellbeing are paramount, and takes precedence over all other considerations and the junior’s views and wishes must be respected;
• The junior, their parents/carers/guardians, their current coach, must all be involved in this conversation;
• The recruiting club must be open and transparent with the junior and the junior’s parents/carers/guardians, and ensure that they provide all the relevant information about what the move may look like and include.

Remember, under no circumstances, should a coach approach a junior and ask them to move clubs, without the junior’s parents/carers/guardians being present. No contact in a 1:1 capacity should take place. For the full guidance, please read Safeguarding Handbook 3, section 6.

Clean Sport

On the 1st January 2022 the 2022 Prohibited List will come into effect. The following infographic highlights the major changes. More information can be found on UK Anti-Doping’s webpage.

If you aren’t sure whether you need to apply for a Therapeutic Use Exemption, please use UK Anti-Doping’s TUE Wizard.

Governance

We wanted to take a moment to reiterate that British Rowing has a zero-tolerance approach to any form of discrimination or racism, and remind all members of the routes available should anyone experience any inappropriate behaviour.

Discrimination or racism is a breach of our Code of Conduct and we have a Whistleblowing policy (under discipline) which also outlines the routes for reporting concerns.

Every club has disciplinary and grievance procedures which should be followed in the first instance, so please report your concerns to your club. We have guidance on our Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures Webpage  but equally there is a mechanism to report a grievance through our online form.

Don’t suffer in silence. Speak out and protect our sport.

Contact Us

If you need to contact any of the Governance & Welfare team, their contact details can be found here.