Clubspark / Portishead Tennis Club / Safeguarding

Introduction

Welcome to the safeguarding hub. Portishead Tennis Club is committed to prioritising the well-being of all children and adults at risk, promoting safeguarding in our club at all times, including all programmes and events we run. Our Policies strive to minimise risk, deliver a positive tennis experience for everyone and respond appropriately to all safeguarding concerns/disclosures.

We hope you find playing tennis here fun, friendly and safe.

The Club's Welfare Officer is Sara Willcox.

Sara's role is to promote safeguarding, support members, report any concerns and ensure the club is a safe and inclusive environment in which to play tennis. Sara works in safeguarding as her day job so has lots of experience in this area and is always happy to help and be a listening ear. Please email any issues or concerns to Sara at pltcsafeguarding@gmail.com

Sara is supported in her role by Maxine Fedder, who is the club’s Young Person’s Welfare Ambassador. Together they have been working hard on raising awareness of safeguarding at the club and are always interested in hearing any feedback on how to improve your tennis experience. Maxine has designed and made a feedback letterbox for your views which is in the clubhouse next to our new noticeboard. Please take a look and share any thoughts you might have about what you would like from the tennis club to make it a more fun, safe and inclusive environment.

Remember, if something or someone makes you feel uncomfortable or you see someone behaving in a way that is unkind or unsafe, please call or email Sara: 07941627011 pltc@safeguarding@gmail.com

It is not Sara's role to investigate any serious issues, these will be shared with the LTA safeguarding team to follow up, but if she can help in any way, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Additional Links:

The Club's Key Policies

Our key policies are here:

To view all our policies please click here.

And our key contacts are here

Child Supervision

In line with National NSPCC advice - all children under the age of 13 attending the club outside of coaching programmes and other organised club activities should be supervised by a parent or known adult.

Safe and Inclusive Code of Conduct

All employees, those under contractual arrangements, club officials, volunteers, members and others using the club facilities are required to abide by this Code of Conduct. This is required in order to support the club in providing a welcoming and safe environment for all children and young people and in the implementation of its child protection policy and procedures.

Those working in the club should at all times:

Prioritise the well-being of all children and adults at all times
Respect the rights, dignity and worth of every person within the context of our sports
Display high standards of behaviour. Always work in an open environment (i.e. avoid private, or unobserved, situations). Act with integrity at all times
Help to create a safe and inclusive environment both on and off court and promote the Fair Play values: enjoy; respect
Place the well-being and safety of children above the development of performance
Value and celebrate diversity and make all reasonable efforts to meet individual needs
Keep clear boundaries between your professional and personal life, including on social media
Check you have the relevant consent from parents/carers, children and adults before taking or using photos and videos
Ensure your own roles and responsibilities, and those of everyone you are responsible for, are clearly outlined and everyone has the information, training and support to carry them out
Where possible, do not be alone with a child or adult at risk (NB LTA guidance does allow for public 1 to 1 coaching as defined within the good practice guidelines)
Coaches and volunteers must take positive action to protect both themselves and raise concerns if they feel uncomfortably placed in a position of working alone and/or unsupervised
Do not abuse, neglect, harm or discriminate against anyone; or act in a way that may be interpreted as such
Doing nothing is NOT an option: report all concerns and disclosures as soon as possible, following the Concern Reporting Procedure. If someone is in immediate danger, call the police (999)