About NSPCC Sport

Who we are

Children’s sport should be exciting, fulfilling and fun. But most of all, it should be safe.

We believe in building a caring, inclusive culture where children and young people can thrive and enjoy themselves by discovering all kinds of sports and physical activities – whatever their level or ability.

We are funded by UK sports councils to support, advise and train sports bodies, physical activity providers and leisure operators, as well as parents and carers, because safeguarding in sport is a team effort.

Together, we can make sure that children and young people are respected and protected so they can express themselves through sport, freely and with confidence.

What we do at NSPCC Sport

We work with the sport and physical activity sector to create a caring culture where children and young people are safe and thrive in sport. We do this by:

providing tailored training and consultancy to professionals and volunteers in sport
working with sport and activity organisations to ensure they give the highest level of protection to the children and young people
supporting organisations to meet our nationally-recognised Safeguarding Standards
developing practical support and advice for parents and carers through our Keeping Your Child Safe in Sport campaign

Our training ranges from funded places on established courses to bespoke consultancy designed to meet your objectives and training needs. We train at all levels, from people taking their first steps in safeguarding, to experienced professionals who want to develop their knowledge or specialise in a particular area.

What we don’t do

We don’t investigate or review cases and we do not have any regulatory power over clubs or sport governing bodies.

If you are worried about a child, contact the NSPCC Helpline for advice and support whenever you need it. Call 0808 800 5000 or email help@nspcc.org.uk

For concerns about individual sports or clubs, contact their national governing body or your local Active Partnership.

Further information

The NSPCC is the UK's leading children’s charity. We’ve been looking out for children for over 140 years – and we couldn’t do it without you. Together, we can stop child abuse and neglect.

By 2031, these are some key differences we want to see. Our role within the NSPCC is to drive the NSPCC Strategy in the sport, leisure and physical activity sector, as well as to support the Sport Council strategies, so that:

everyone plays their part to prevent child abuse
every child is safe online
children feel safe, listened to and supported

Our aim and values

Our aim

To support the sport and physical activity sector to create a caring culture where children and young people are safe and thrive in sport.

Our values

We put children and young people first by:

encouraging the sport and physical activity sector to put children and young people at the centre of everything they do
working in collaboration to always improve the environment they take part in
establishing standards of best practice when engaging with children and young people

We take a stand by:

influencing stakeholders in sport and physical activity to embed safeguarding best practice
campaigning for improvements to safeguard children in sport and physical activity
checking and challenging poor behaviours that impact on children and young people

We work together by:

collaborating with stakeholders and partners to strengthen safeguarding in sport and physical activity
empowering others to understand the impact they have on children and young people
supporting stakeholders and partners to create safer sporting environments and culture

We strive for excellence by:

sharing learning from reviews and investigations regarding safeguarding in sport
pushing the boundaries of expectations to continue to learn and share best practice
living the values of safeguarding children and young people in our day-to-day work

We make an impact by:

advocating for changes in legislation and procedures to safeguard children and young people
assessing safeguards in sport and physical activity to ensure they meet agreed standards
always striving to increase practice standards through quality training

Our work

Our work with sports organisations

We help sports organisations to create safe and inclusive environments so that all children can enjoy and thrive in sport and physical activity. We do this by helping organisations to develop, implement and embed a safeguarding and welfare culture.

We work throughout England, Wales and Northern Ireland and offer a range of funded, free and paid-for services.

We offer:

support to sports organisations to follow our safeguarding standards as well as guidance through an annual review process to help embed the standards across their work
training and professional development opportunities, both standard and tailored to your organisation’s needs
expert safeguarding and welfare in sport information, advice and guidance. We offer this via our website as well at regular professional forums and one-on-one
best practice sport safeguarding tools, resources, templates and forms that organisations can use or adapt
support for safeguarding research to develop understanding and an evidence base
safeguarding in sport volunteers to support data and insight gathering, as well as to attend events and support parents and carers

We also lead the annual Keeping Your Child Safe in Sport campaign, which aims to support parents and carers whose children participate in sport or physical activity.

Though we are happy to give safeguarding advice, we cannot investigate specific cases. If you need help with investigating a case or safeguarding concerns, please contact your national governing body or active partnership. You can also contact the NSPCC helpline by phoning 0808 800 5000 or emailing help@nspcc.org.uk.

For any questions about our funded or paid-for services, please contact us at sport@nspcc.org.uk

Our impact

Our impact on safeguarding in the sport sector

Our latest report summarises the NSPCC’s 25/26 impact across safeguarding in sport in the UK. It brings together delivery data, website and social media statistics and partner feedback. It highlights what we did, what impact it had and what we learned.

Our aim is to create a caring culture where children and young people are safe and thrive in sport. We can't achieved what we do without our funders and key partners in the sector working alongside us and prioritising the welfare of children and young people.

Visit our resource library to learn about our impact for 2024/25.

National awareness raising campaigns

Keeping your child safe in sport

Keeping your child safe in sport is our campaign to raise awareness of the important role parents play in youth sport. Each year, we hold a focused awareness week during the first week of October, where we bring together parents, sports clubs and bodies, and NSPCC ambassadors to help parents to keep children safe in sport.

Close the Loophole

Until June 2022, a loophole in the law meant that some adults who hold a position of power over a young person aged 16 or 17 (including sports coaches) could legally have sex with them. This was unlike teachers, for whom this would be a serious criminal offence.

The NSPCC campaigned to get this law changed and, in March 2021, the Ministry of Justice announced that the law was being extended to see sports coaches and faith leaders included alongside roles like teachers and social workers. This went into effect on Tuesday 28 June 2022, with sports coaches and faith leaders now being recognised in law as being in 'positions of trust'.

For further information, please see our FAQs about the changes to the law and listen to our Changes in positions of trust legislation podcast.

Case studies

Want to learn more about our work? You may be interested in our case studies below. These showcase our work in awareness campaigns, training and consultancy and working with key partners across the sport and safeguarding sector.

Meet the team

We have 25 years’ experience supporting the sport sector with safeguarding and welfare training, guidance and support. Our staff come from a range of different backgrounds, including social work, education, sport development, youth justice, child protection, and marketing and communications.

In addition to our years of experience supporting the sport sector, as part of the NSPCC we have access to the latest research and leading experts on specialist areas such as grooming, online safety, policy and legislation, child sexual abuse and many more topics.

Bespoke safeguarding in sport training and consultancy team

The bespoke safeguarding in sport training and consultancy team offers industry-leading services to help you keep children and young people safe. Whether it's places on our national training programmes, training tailored to your organisation's needs or you'd like independent assessments, reviews or event support, our team can help.

Learn more about bespoke safeguarding in sport training..

Bespoke safeguarding in sport training and consultancy team: Laura, Denise, Emma, Tom, Joe

England

The England team work to support and improve safeguarding and child protection practices within sports National Governing Bodies (NGBs) and Active Partnerships in England. This involves training, consultation and conducting annual safeguarding reviews to ensure safeguarding is being maintained and embedded within organisations. As part of this work, the England team aim to:

build the capacity and knowledge within sport organisations
enable sports organisations to recognise and respond to concerns relating to children
play an important role in Sport England's Uniting the Movement, working to ensure equity of safety for all children by building a shared understanding of the risk's minority groups face

England team - Jude, Carole, Liza, Graham, Rebecca, Helen, Amy, Rosie, Joanna (not pictured)

Northern Ireland

Paul Stephenson is our Senior Consultant for Northern Ireland. He works to support sports governing bodies to achieve and maintain their safeguarding standards. Paul assists organisations in having robust safeguarding policies and procedures but also encourages self-reflection to enable sports to examine their own culture and communication with their own stakeholder.

The Northern Ireland project supports sports organisations to:

engage parents to help their child to enjoy their sporting experience and fulfil their full potential
engage with young people and listen to their voices when shaping the delivery of sports activities and competitions
understand the role they have in supporting a young people's mental health and wellbeing
raise awareness of sexual abuse prevention

Northern Ireland team - Paul

UK Sport

The UK Sport team provide safeguarding and child safeguarding guidance, support and training to UK Sport sole funded organisations. The team supports performance organisations to maintain and embed safeguarding standards to help create safer sporting environments and cultures for elite and talented young athletes.

UK Sport team - Carole, Liza, Dannii

Wales

Our Wales team support and guide the Welsh National Governing Bodies and National Partners Organisations with their child protection and safeguarding provisions within the sector.

This is implemented through our framework for safeguarding and protecting children in and through sport in Wales. We work with the organisations on safeguarding aspects such as, policies and procedures, case management processes, engaging and consulting with children and young people, education and training, implementation and monitoring and influencing. Overall enabling them to maintain and embed a safeguarding culture and promoting best-practice safeguarding throughout the organisation.

Wales team - Cerri, Hannah, Rhys

Information, content and digital production

The information, content and digital production team work closely with colleagues from across NSPCC Sport, the wider NSPCC and specialist subject matter experts to develop and review digital content to help sports club and activity providers to keep children and young people safe in sport. The team find new and informative ways of getting safeguarding information to the sports sector.

About us