Safeguarding

StreetGames has a legal and moral responsibility to put in place procedures that provide a duty of care of all children and young people, and to safeguard their wellbeing and protect them from abuse or poor practice on any grounds.

Our work with young people living in underserved communities requires us to take a contextualised approach to safeguarding. We acknowledge the extra risks that young people can face due to the community they live in, as well as social factors impacting upon their life.

Find out more about contextual safeguarding

Our safeguarding approach

StreetGames’ approach to safeguarding is guided by the following principles:

• The welfare and safety of children and young people (under 18 years of age) is the primary concern.
• StreetGames aims to ensure that regardless of age, gender, religion or beliefs, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation or socio-economic background, all children:
  • Have a positive and enjoyable experience of sport in a safe and child-centred environment
  • Are safe and protected from any harm whilst participating in a sporting or other StreetGames activity
• StreetGames acknowledges that some children, including disabled children and young people or those from ethnic minority communities, can be particularly vulnerable and accepts the responsibility to take reasonable and appropriate steps to ensure their welfare.
• It is the responsibility of the child protection experts to determine whether the safety and welfare of a child or young person is at risk, but StreetGames views it as everyone’s responsibility to be alert and report any concerns.

As set out in the current safeguarding legislation it is vital for the safeguarding and wellbeing of children and young people that StreetGames works and communicates with key agencies and partners. These may include the following:

• Local Children’s Safeguarding Partnerships and the Local Designated Officers (LADO’s)
• Local Authorities
• National Governing Bodies
• Active Partnerships
• National and regional sports sector partners
• National and regional youth sector partners

What does working in Partnership mean?

StreetGames will work alongside the partners and agencies above to share trends and overview information on safeguarding and wellbeing issues and learning on safeguarding practice. At times we may be required to work alongside the agencies by being involved in case review panels and multi-agency meetings to review safeguarding issues. The aims of working in partnership is to not only ensure children and young people are safe, but to improve local practice and support the sports, youth and community organisations providing activity for young people.

StreetGames safeguarding processes and working in partnership

We acknowledge that most of our work is done in partnership with locally trusted organisations (LTO’s) and the agencies above and we must be clear were the safeguarding responsibility lies between organisations.

A part of our grants management process, we carry out due diligence checks and enquire about safeguarding protocols and processes of all organisations that join the StreetGames network and are funded via StreetGames. We often share who we work with and who we fund with the partner agencies listed above.

This process has been designed to ensure StreetGames can adhere to its own safeguarding policy. It is not intended for use by any partner agency to satisfy its own safeguarding policies and procedures. We cannot accept any organisation using StreetGames grants process to satisfy their own due diligence or quality assurance processes. Any partner looking to support or fund an LTO would be expected to employ their own checking process.