As an official or volunteer you have responsibility to keep children safe and protect yourself from safeguarding concerns. These FAQs are here to help you. For more information on best practice please see: Top Tips
We would recommend that officials and volunteers complete the Equestrian Basic Safeguarding Awareness course to enable venues and clubs with under-18's to have a better awareness of their responsibilities around safeguarding children, young people and adults at risk.
British Equestrian has worked with the Child Protection Company, to create a series of online safeguarding training courses.
Aimed at officials who are working or volunteering at venues or clubs with under-18s. The course explores the key safeguarding building blocks in clubs such as...
Effective committees
Safer recruitment
Building safe environments
Recognising and reporting concerns
Whistle-blowing
If you have a concern about the welfare of a child, young person or adult at risk, or the behaviour of an adult towards a child, young person or adult at risk, you must report it as soon as possible. Use the Report a concern form, or speak to the Safeguarding Officer at your venue or event, Member Body, or the BEF.
Each venue or event has a designated safeguarding officer. If you encounter a safeguarding concern with a child/adult at risk or someone makes a disclosure to you then please contact the event or venue safeguarding officer. Until the Safeguarding officer gets there:
• Prioritise the child/adult at risk and if possible find a quieter area to ensure their wellbeing.
• Find another official or another adult to be with you until the Safeguarding officer arrives.
• Explain to the child/adult at risk what you are doing.
For more information please see: Reporting a problem - British Equestrian
All BEF member bodies and their associated venues must have a Safeguarding Children Policy, a Safeguarding Adults at Risk Policy, and have a Safeguarding Officer who has been trained in safeguarding and had a criminal record check that has been approved by their Member Body.
You should know who your venue’s Safeguarding Officer is and you should have received a safeguarding induction at the venue you are asked to officiate or volunteer at. You should read the venue/ associated organisation safeguarding policies and discuss safeguarding expectations for officials or volunteers. For more information please visit: British Equestrian’s Safeguarding Policy (Children and Young People) .
Codes of conduct help individuals to understand their organisation’s expectations of them and provide a benchmark for identifying inappropriate behaviour.
Officials and Volunteers should:
Be a positive role model to help build participants’ confidence and encourage the correct behaviour.
Always be approachable.
Treat all participants fairly and should never humiliate a participant. Being around horses should be a fun experience for all.
Maintain confidentiality.
Encourage all participants to be responsible for their own behaviour.
Listen to and respect the views and opinions of participants.
Promote high levels of loyalty to create strength of character, self-discipline and sportsmanship amongst participants and their families.
Be knowledgeable regarding rules.
Promote fairness over competitiveness.
Behave in an appropriate manner on social media as you would with someone face to face.
Not accept any abuse by participants, parents / guardians or other person.
Not be left in vulnerable circumstances when officiating or volunteering.
Read more about codes of conduct for officials or volunteers here: Running safe events - British Equestrian.
A Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check is a criminal record check. The DBS will check to see if a person has any criminal and/or police records and will include information about criminal convictions and cautions. They will also check to see if the person has been banned from working with children.
It is a criminal offence for employers or voluntary organisations to knowingly employ a barred person in regulated activity.
Once a check has been completed, the DBS will provide the person (not the employer) with a certificate called a 'disclosure'.
The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) Update Service allows:
applicants to keep their DBS certificates up to date
employers to check a DBS certificate
If a member of staff, Official or volunteer is changing their role and will be taking on responsibility for children, they will need to have a criminal record check before they take up their new job role.
Each British Equestrian Member Body has a Criminal Record Check plan that is bespoke to their discipline. If in doubt, please contact your Member Body Safeguarding Officer or the British Equestrian Safeguarding team for advice.
For more information on DBS checks please see: Safeguarding for employers - British Equestrian.
You should only be asked to supervise children once you have all the correct safeguards in place, including a criminal record check. You should use the below supervision ratios should you need to supervise children when acting as an official or volunteering:
1:6 for participants 4-8 years old
1:8 for participants 9-10 years old
1:10 for participants 11-18 years old
Children must be supervised at all times during coaching sessions and around the venue, including if temporarily leaving a session (eg. for a toilet break). Your venue should be clear to parents on their policy and processes for safeguarding, for example if a parent is late collecting their child.
For more information please see: Running safe events - British Equestrian
Many equestrian disciplines provide opportunities for under-18s to coach, officiate or organise events for other children and young people, including achieving qualifications and awards. These positive opportunities allow young people to develop skills, experience and confidence, but shouldn't mean that organisations should depend on them to take full responsibility for managing groups. Young people in coaching or other roles should only supplement the adult with overall responsibility for supervising the activity. The NSPCC have produced some useful guidelines for using young people as volunteers. and the attached guidelines outline the requirements that Centres must follow when employing children at their yards.
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