Updates
All Safeguarding updates throughout the season will appear here.
If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact your Club Safeguarding Officer, any concerns or incidents should be reported to the Club SO immediately.
If you cannot contact your Club WO, please contact the Middlesex County Safeguarding Officer at [email protected] or safeguarding number 02036 409772.
MIDDLESEX CRICKET APPOINTS NEW COUNTY SAFEGUARDING OFFICER (May 2023)
We are delighted to announce that Ken Palmer has been appointed to the role of Middlesex Cricket County Safeguarding Officer with immediate effect.
Please direct any safeguarding queries or concerns to Ken on 02036 409772 or by email at [email protected]
WEBSITE UPDATE: SAFEGUARDING POLICIES (November 2022)
The Safeguarding Policies have been updated on their page, with all policies reviewed and adapted. The policies will be adapted annually or in the following circumstances:
- changes in legislation and/or government guidance.
- as required by the Local Safeguarding Children Board, NSPCC/ CSPU, UK Sport and/or Home Country Sports Councils and the ECB.
- as a result of any other significant change or event.
You can see the policies here.
POSITIONS OF TRUST - THE LAW IS CHANGING
It is currently an offence in England and Wales for anyone aged over 18 years in a position of trust to engage in sexual activity with a child in their care. On 28th June 2022 the roles included in the definition of position of trust are being extended to include anyone who “coaches, teaches, trains, supervises or instructs on a regular basis in a sport or religion”.
This very welcome change in the law extends legal protection particularly to 16- and 17-year-olds who are participating in sport. Sexual contact with those under 16 remains prohibited within existing legislation.
This change supports and strengthens the existing expectations of the coaches' code of conduct, which states that coaches must avoid sexual intimacy with players, either while coaching them or in the period of time immediately following the end of a coaching relationship.
The ECB expects that everyone who works or volunteers with children and young people in cricket to be responsible and accountable for the way in which they behave towards them. It is expected that all adult-child relationships maintain clear boundaries, are positive and aimed at improving the young person’s skills, development and progress.
The ECB Safeguarding Team will continue to assess all instances of inappropriate behaviour towards children in cricket, referring any potential illegal activity to our safeguarding partners.
ACT EARLY
It can be hard to know what to do if you’re worried someone close is expressing extreme views or hatred, which could lead to them harming themselves or others. Working with other organisations, the police protect vulnerable people from being exploited by extremists through a Home Office programme called Prevent.
Watch Michael and Mustafa’s real life stories here. Mustafa was a follower of multiple radical clerics and Michael lost his brother to an extremist group and wishes he could have spotted the signs earlier. The films take their words and turn them into powerful animations that encourage those with concerns about someone they know and care about to visit www.actearly.uk for advice and support.
Act early and tell the Police your concerns in confidence. You won’t be wasting their time and you won’t ruin lives, but you might save them.
NAME CHANGE
Club/League Welfare Officers to be changed to Club/League Safeguarding Officers. This will provide consistency across the network and to bring titles in line with the terminology used in all areas of cricket, other sports and external agencies, the ECB are recommending a change to League/Club Safeguarding Officer. This change will provide consistency in all areas of cricket and will align with external practices. The change will also include our County Welfare Officers who will be known as County Safeguarding Officers.
We recognise that this will take some time to achieve. Amendments will be required to various policy and guidance documents. For example, Safe Hands documentation currently refers to the role of a welfare officer. There may be a period of transition where both terms welfare and safeguarding, crossover, we hope this will not hinder the work you are doing in anyway. Please start by reviewing your policies and guidance and updating any references to League/ Club Welfare Officer.
Your understanding and cooperation as to why we think the change is necessary is important to us. We hope you will find this a positive move which reflects a more responsible position to those both within and outside of cricket.
ACT EARLY CAMPAIGN
Radicalisation is the process by which a person comes to support terrorism and extremist ideologies. If you are worried someone close to you is becoming radicalised act early and seek help. The sooner you reach out, the quicker the person you care about can be protected from being groomed and exploited by extremists.
Police forces across the country have specially trained Prevent officers who work with professionals in health, education, local authorities and charities, as well as faith and community groups to help vulnerable people move away from extremism. They are here to listen and offer help and advice. Receiving support is voluntary.
Friends and family are best placed to spot the signs, so trust your instincts and share your concerns in confidence.
They can help if you act early. You won't be wasting police time and you won’t ruin lives, but you might save them.
To find out more about how to help someone close to you visit actearly.uk.
ON-LINE PLATFORMS
As we all look for ways of staying connected, diversifying our way of working via safe and secure platforms has become a priority. This a reminder for all of us that we need to review and update our E-policies and Code of Conducts where appropriate.
There are many sources of information that you can refer to such as:
NSPCC https://www.nspcc.org.uk/
CPSU https://thecpsu.org.uk/
London Sport https://londonsport.org/about-us/safeguarding/
ECB https://www.ecb.co.uk/safeguarding
Please see below some ideas on how to connect with our communities safely, this is not an exhaustive list but aimed to support your club working out what is right for you and how you will adapt your policies:
Ensure that each session is allocated a different password.
Passwords are sent only to parent’s emails so they can sign in, if working with U18’s
Upon dialling in, all invitees will go into a waiting room for admission by the organiser / Team Manager / second coach, who will stay on line monitoring the group throughout the session.
Parents must ensure their login contains their name so they can be identified.
Anyone who is not recognised or has a generic name such as iPhone X will not be admitted to the session.
The meeting host must disable the ability for participants to record the session.
Only coaches / team managers who are DBS compliant to be allowed to host the sessions when working with U18’s.
Coaches / Managers to remove any participants who are behaving inappropriately, and consider shutting the call down entirely if appropriate.
All coaches must gain permission from the Head Coach or the committee before putting a workout on social media.
Maintain professional boundaries, as you would if it was a face to face session.
Make sure appropriate images are used and the activities are suitable for U18’s.
Make sure you dress appropriately.
Make sure there is nothing ‘unsuitable in the view behind you.
Ensure everyone on your call is in an appropriate environment like a lounge or garden not some-one’s bedroom for example.
If you are looking to record any sessions this must follow your club’s Policies and gain explicit consent of the parent and child, and agree what happens with the recording.
Any concerns, incidents or anything you feel uncomfortable about should be reported as normal to the Club Safeguarding Officer or County Safeguarding Officer.
It is important that we remember that all current Safeguarding measures that apply in real world interactions apply in the virtual world. As an example, please consider how you can encourage parents to engage with the session and finally how will we all empower young people to report any behaviours that makes them feel uncomfortable through these different forums.
Keeping Children Safe Online
Your children are very likely to be spending more time on their computers, phones and other devices accessing the internet over the coming months. Unfortunately, they are at increased risk of abuse and exploitation. This could be when communicating with genuine friends or people they think are their friends online, who could be masquerading as a child/someone their age.
We have been asked to share these resources for children aged between 4 and 17. They are simple, fun, activity packs and for primary children you can do them together. They are designed to keep children safe. Thinkuknow is an education programme from the National Crime Agency's CEOP Command (Child Exploitation and Online Protection).
NB Thank you to the Kent CWO for this information
Child Protection in Sport Unit - Update
Please see below the latest update from the Child Protection in Sport Unit, there is an interesting article on Remote Coaching and Mental Health and Wellbeing.
VIEW MENTAL HEALTH ARTICLE HERE.
Website Update: Safeguarding / Updates
Captain’s Roles and Responsibilities
Middlesex Cricket and the ECB actively encourages the development of young players and to help you, it is important you follow the guidance set out in Safe Hands, which is Cricket’s policy for Safeguarding Children.
We want as many young people as possible to transition into regular players for open age teams and become adult playing members. You can play an important part in this transition; the experience they receive when playing open age cricket for the first season could give them a life-time passion for the game or put them off completely.
Whilst it is appreciated these younger players (aged between 13 and 17) often want to be treated as adults, if they do not receive the right sort of understanding, encouragement and support, many of them will leave the game.
You will no doubt be well aware of your role as Team Captain pertaining to the actual game of cricket, but you also need to be aware of your safeguarding responsibilities as a Captain and this document sets out these considerations.
You have a duty of care, on behalf of your Club for the well- being of all under 18s in your team, and in the opposition’s team.
Please click here to download the Captain’s R&R’s document.
Heatwave Advice
As climate in this country changes we do need to be prepared for our summer to experience severe heat, we have attached a document from the East Midlands Ambulance Service sharing useful advice on what to be prepared for which can be downloaded here. We are also including a link to the NHS website which has further information: https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/healthy-body/heatwave-how-to-cope-in-hot-weather/
As requested in our recent Safeguarding Roadshows, we took your collective questions and raised these at the recent ECB Regional Safeguarding Forum, please find the responses below:
Middlesex stated they had concerns on the current advice and were uncomfortable with non-medical professionals assessing potential concussion. The ECB Safeguarding officers will look into this across the relevant ECB departments and come back to counties.
Safeguarding Officer Update – 01.03.2019
Please find below a list of updated documents added or adapted in Safe Hands:
Working Together 2018 diagram plus description of our safeguarding responsibilities (section 2)
Inclusion of Codes of Conduct for All Stars Cricket Activators and for Coaches
Changes to ‘Photography, filming and Social Media broadcast guidelines’
Inclusion of the OK Kids Sun Safety Code
Changes to ‘ECB Guidance for clubs on the use of Social Media, texts, apps, email and messaging services’
Inclusion of sample CPSU Social Media Policy
Simplification of ‘Responding to, recording and reporting concerns’
New – ‘ECB Guidance: Concussion’
Inclusion of Concussion fact sheets
Changes to ‘ECB Guidelines for Junior Players in Open Age Group Cricket’ : specifically “Please be aware that at under 12 level the ECB recommends that the focus is on participation rather than Talent I.D, and many counties no longer run under 12 squads. Inclusion of ANY under 12s in Open Age teams should be an exception and not an expectation”
A completely new and re-written guidance on taking children away from the club, which has brought in the lessons learnt by Ashleigh in her work on the Festivals project last summer.
Safeguarding Information for Captains of Open Age Cricket Teams
Middlesex Cricket and the ECB actively encourages the development of young players and to help you, it is important you follow the guidance set out in Safe Hands, which is Cricket’s policy for Safeguarding Children.
We want as many young people as possible to transition into regular players for open age teams and become adult playing members. You can play an important part in this transition; the experience they receive when playing open age cricket for the first season could give them a life-time passion for the game or put them off completely.
Whilst it is appreciated these younger players (aged between 13 and 17) often want to be treated as adults, if they do not receive the right sort of understanding, encouragement and support, many of them will leave the game.
You will no doubt be well aware of your role as Team Captain pertaining to the actual game of cricket, but you also need to be aware of your safeguarding responsibilities as a Captain and this document sets out these considerations.
You have a duty of care, on behalf of your Club for the well- being of all under 18s in your team, and in the opposition’s team.
You must have a current ECB DBS disclosure.If you don’t have one, ask your Club Safeguarding Officer to start the process for you. You will not be able to captain until the DBS is cleared.
Take your responsibility seriously
Make sure you know who your Club Safeguarding Officer is, and how to contact them
Know how to respond to a disclosure from a young person
Report any concerns or worries you have about a young person to your Club Safeguarding Officer
Inform the Umpire and opposition captain about all Under 18s in your team – use player cards at all times
Ensure you have the emergency contact details and any medical conditions for any Under 18s in your team, remember this information is confidential
Welcome new Under 18s in your team and tell them to come and talk to you about any concerns they have regarding their game
Encourage good sportsmanship within your team, recognising good play both in your team and the opposition and recognising good performance not just match results
Encourage good sportsmanship within your team, supporting the efforts of all the young players even when they are not successful – don’t just recognise the most talented
Provide an opportunity for young players to show their talents in an appropriate way – young people who are just used as fielders will not fully experience the game
Treat everyone equally and not discriminate on the grounds of age, gender, disability, race, ethnic origin, nationality, colour, parental or marital status, religious belief, class or social background, sexual preference or political belief
Challenge any form of bullying of Under 18s
Only use parent contact information for communication for all U16’s. Between 16 and 18 ask parents permission to communicate and copy parents in.
Ensure you are aware of the transport policy in your club – ECB guidance is that all Under 18s/their parents are responsible for arranging their own transport to and from matches (e.g. they take them themselves or arrange for their child to go with a friend or other member of the team) – the Club/You should not arrange the transport or provide this directly
Ensure you are aware of the changing room policy in your club regarding Under 18s.Under 18s should change separately from over 18’s.
Be aware that if Under 18s have to share a changing room with Over 18s, it is best for them to get changed early before batting starts, and for them to take their batting kit out with them to pad up.
Ensure you are aware of your club’s policy for mobile phones in changing rooms:ECB guidance is that no mobile phones are allowed to be used in the changing rooms for any purpose.This is because photos and videos can be taken and go viral in seconds or be used for other purposes that would cause safeguarding concerns.This means phones should not be used at all – including for playing music or checking texts and e-mails etc as it is not possible to ensure someone is not covertly taking photos.
Do not engage in any form of sexually related contact with an Under 18 player including sexual innuendo, flirting or inappropriate gestures and terms
Do not allow bullying or swearing at young players (or indeed any players) or any behaviour they might find intimidating
Selecting under 18 players for your team – ECB guidelines state the minimum age is under 13 age group players, who are in year 8 age group and aged 12 on the 1st September of the preceding year.
GAME SPECIFIC
Supervising Children @cricket sessions
Ensure all mandatory protective equipment is used including Head Protectors
Concussion fact sheets
Fielding regulations and pitch lengths
Fast Bowling Directives
Junior players in open age cricket
Girls playing in boys age group leagues and competitions
If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact your Club Safeguarding Officer, any concerns or incidents should be reported to the Club SO immediately.If you cannot contact your Club WO, please contact the Middlesex County Safeguarding Officer, Dal Babu by email at [email protected]
