Safeguarding Matters with the Ann Craft Trust

Nicola Dean and Kimberley Walsh reflect on how the #SaferCultureSaferSport campaign has progressed since its launch. Their discussion focuses on a recent seminar The Ann Craft Trust ran with Penny Briscoe OBE and Claire Cunningham of British Paralympic Association. In this seminar, they revealed how they embedded a values-based culture to make sport more accessible for everyone. Nicola and Kimberl...

Nicola Dean talks to Emma Gibson about her new role as Head of Safeguarding Adults in Sport at the Ann Craft Trust. Emma talks about her background in sport, and how it motivated her to work towards making sport and activity safe and accessible for everyone. The two then discuss some of the current challenges in safeguarding adults in sport, and how we're working together to meet these challe...

Joane Pell chats with Paul Stephenson, a Senior Consultant at the Child Protection in Sport Unit (CPSU). In May 2022, Paul hosted an online seminar as part of The Ann Craft Trust #SaferCultureSaferSport campaign: "From Recommendations to Action - Embedding Safeguarding Learning Into Practice." The seminar focused on two main areas. First, it explored how we can recognise safeguarding les...

Outgoing Safeguarding Adults in Sport Manager (Wales) Ruth Ingram reflects on her time at The Ann Craft Trust. Ruth joined The Ann Craft Trust in January 2020. Just a few weeks later, the UK went into lockdown. In this farewell podcast, Ruth talks about the challenges of joining a new team on a remote basis, as well as some of the other challenges she faced in her role. But she also talks about he...

Catherine Sykes talks to David Rose, Deputy CEO of The Football Supporters' Association (FSA). David talks about how the FSA is working to develop policies and procedures to safeguard adults in their organisation. He discusses how important it is to listen to the voices of people who use services, as this helps clubs and organisations truly meet their needs. David also shares some of his meth...

Nicola chats with Denise Richards from The CPSU following an online conference focused on creating safer cultures in sport and activity. The conference took place over two mornings on 19 and 20 January 2022. From Learning Lessons to Taking Action, the conference challenged attendees to create a safer place for all children and adults in your organisation, whatever their role. The conference explor...

Nicola chats with Jayne Wilson, Training and Development Coordinator and Lead Safeguarding Officer for Active Lancashire.  Jayne shares lots of tips for NGBs and Active Partnerships on how they can effectively work with their local safeguarding adults board. The two also discuss the importance of accessible language in safeguarding. Jayne mentions how, initially, she found the amount of jargon and...

As part of the #SaferCultureSaferSport campaign, Nicola and Ruth talk with Fiona and Nathan from Disability Sport Wales about creating more inclusive cultures in sport and activity.

ACT's Safeguarding Children and Young People lead Sarah Goff talks to Nadine Tilbury about working with parents with learning disabilities. Nadine Tilbury is the Policy Officer at the Working Together for Parents Network, which is housed within the University of Bristol. Her work involves trying to influence what happens to parents with learning disabilities who are involved with children&apo...

Nicola and Ruth chat with Rosalind Porter, Director of Women and Girls Cricket at Oxford Cricket Club, and her two daughters, Jenny and Eloise. The podcast looks at domestic abuse and coercive control. If you've been affected by any of the issues we discuss, please remember that help and support is there if you need it . Rosalind, Jenny and Eloise's lives have been shaped by their involv...

Joanne talks with DBS and RFU about how safer recruitment can help create safer cultures. Guests on this Safeguarding Matters podcast include Cathy Taylor, engagement advisor at DBS, and Cath Bennet, safeguarding case manager at rugby football union. Cathy discusses how DBS supports national organisations with anything they'd like to know about safer recruitment: "We are the people you c...

Nicola talks to ACT Patron Sir Roger Singleton CBE about his career in safeguarding. Roger Singleton has a background in education, children’s services, management, mediation and safeguarding. He is a former chief executive of Barnardo’s. Since leaving in 2005 he has been an independent consultant specialising in safeguarding and interim management. He is a consultant to charities and organisation...

Lisa chats with Samyak Jain about his 84SilenceNoMore project, which addresses male suicide rates. Samyak helped set up the 84SilenceNoMore project while still at secondary school. Having learned that 84 men a week lose their lives to suicide, Samyak and his friends decided to do something. The result was 84SilenceNoMore. The mission is to raise awareness of mental health issues, and to raise mone...

Nicola chats to ACT Deputy CEO and Safeguarding Adults Lead Lisa Curtis. Lisa shares her tips for creating a safer culture in sport and activity clubs and groups, and in other organisations.

How new sports bring new safeguarding challenges. Cath Sykes, ACT's Safeguarding in Unregulated Sport officer, chats with Fnatic's Andy Cook about safeguarding in Esports. Fnatics is one of the most successful Esports teams in the world, and Esports is the fastest growing sport in the world. It sees very young people engaging in very high pressure tournaments for very large amounts of mo...

ACT and The Marie Collins Foundation have collaborated to produce a resource to help parents and children understand various online risks. Deborah Kitson chats with Rhiannon McDonald from the Marie Collins Foundation, and ACT's Sarah Goff. They talk about the challenges they faced when producing this resource - mainly, how can we make such a broad and complex issue as accessible as possible?

ACT's Sarah Goff talks to Sarah Martin-Denham, a senior lecturer at the University of Sunderland, about her life and work. Sarah has led numerous research projects on school exclusion and children's social care. She's worked closely with neurodiverse children, and those with special education needs and disabilities. She feels that the educational system can often misunderstand these...

Nicola chats to Catherine Sykes, ACT's new Safeguarding Adults in Unregulated Sport Officer. What is unregulated sport? Some might say that technically all sport is unregulated. So Catherine begins by explaining just what we mean when we say "unregulated sport and activity". She also explains what we mean by "unaffiliated". Essentially, Catherine is here to support grassro...

Nicola chats with Active Cumbria about their mission to help the people of Cumbria become more physically active in their daily lives. They discuss the vital roles active partnerships can play in bringing communities together. They also talk about how organisations like Active Cumbria can help Sport England achieve their 10 year "Uniting the Movement" strategy. Throughout, they explore h...

The Ann Craft Trust has launched a new campaign for sport and activity organisations to create safer cultures. The campaign aims to support the sport and activity sector to develop their safeguarding practice. This will involve learning from poor practice while recognising and celebrating successes. ACT CEO Dr. Deborah Kitson recorded this short introduction to the campaign. She explains what we&a...

Nicola chats with the ACT Safeguarding Adults in Sport team about the Safer Cultures, Safer Sport Campaign. The team discuss what we mean when we talk about "safer cultures", and how such a culture can help prevent abuse. They also talk about the three Ls that will help anyone embed a safer culture in their organisation: Listen Learn  Lead

ACT's Sarah Goff talks to Jess Phillips MP about the Domestic Abuse Bill. Thanks to years of determination, Jess has finally got the new Domestic Abuse Bill passed. She talks to Sarah about the challenges she's faced along the way, and about the many "names written in invisible ink" throughout the bill. Jess also talks about how lockdown may have made many of us rethink our att...

Sarah Goff talks to safeguarding specialist and author Catherine Lawler about domestic abuse and coercive control.  Catherine talks about her mothers' long experience of domestic abuse, and how this abuse affects the physical and mental health of the whole family. While her story is harrowing, she has lots of invaluable advice for any other families or individuals suffering from domestic abus...

Nicola talks to social worker and safeguarding consultant Ann Marie Christian about the risks of adult grooming, and the importance of hearing untold stories. Online groomers have done it so often that they now exactly who to target, and how and when to target them. They also know how soon they can expect a response. But when you know what's happening, the whole grooming process seems straigh...

Nicola chats to Sally Ann Bolton, Safeguarding Consultant at The Premier League, and Lisa Carter, Head of Safeguarding at Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club. They discuss how the six principles of safeguarding work at Premier League level. The Premier League is a regulating body, and their safeguarding team is there to ensure that anyone who plays football at any level can enjoy the sport in a...