Safeguarding Visit and Actions Update

On Tuesday 25 February 2025, Malmesbury Tennis Club hosted a Safeguarding Support Visit from Vicki Gregg, the Regional Safeguarding Officer for the South/Southwest Region. The purpose of the visit was to check that we, as a club, were adhering to the minimum requirements for Safeguarding as set down by the LTA for all LTA-affiliated tennis clubs across the UK.

Prior to the visit, the Committee was required to fill in a self-assessment form assessing the club’s performance against the standards set down by the LTA. There are five standards and several categories within each standard. The standards are:

1.     Safeguarding policies

2.     Safeguarding awareness

3.     Safeguarding culture

4.     Staff,  coaches and volunteers

5.     Procedure

To pass a standard, we need to achieve “met” in all categories.

Actions post-visit

Following the visit, the Committee, led by MTC’s Welfare, has undertaken the following to comply with the minimum standards set by the LTA:.

1.     Created an up to date Welfare Officer poster with contact details for local statutory agencies

2.     Updated the Welcome pack to include a note about safeguarding

3.     Created a dedicated Safeguarding tab on the MTC website with a link to our policies

4.     Updated all MTC’s policies and provided links on the website and hard copies in the clubhouse

5.     All Committee members have undertaken basic Safeguarding training (coach and Welfare Officer undertake more advanced Safeguarding training as part of their roles)

6.     Created a dedicated email contact for reporting Safeguarding concerns

7.     Updated all DBS certificates for coaching team

8.     Updated risk assessments for all events run by the club

After completion of these actions, MTC meets the LTA Standards.

Alongside the self-assessment, all members and parents of coached children were invited to take part in an anonymous Safeguarding Survey. We received 31 responses and the high-level results are summarised below:

·       Over 50% of responders were aware that MTC had the following: a safeguarding policy, a Welfare Officer, a Code of Conduct and rules on the supervision of children.

·       Over 58% of responders were also aware of who the Welfare Officer is and how to contact them.

·       The overall responses around coaching and safeguarding were extremely positive with over 70% of all responders strongly agreeing that coaching at the venue is delivered safely, professionally and that the coaching team members all take safeguarding seriously.  

The survey output can be found here.

Further information about LTA visits and the LTA Standards for Safeguarding can be found on the LTA website here: