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Administrators - What to do now |
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As a sports administrator you are responsible for providing a safe environment for children and young people. In order to do this you need to ensure that your club has clear, well publicised guidelines outlining expected standards of behaviour, particularly in relation to physical contact with children.
- Observe the coach, if possible, so you can refer to specific actions during your discussion. If you don’t witness the behaviour but you have reasonable grounds for concerns about inappropriate physical contact taking place, you should still address the matter.
- Advise the coach to:
- seek player/participant permission before performing a particular activity that may require contact – the action should not proceed if the player feels uncomfortable
- be explicit about what they are going to do and why
- give verbal instructions first and keep physical contact to a minimum
- demonstrate the skill/skills in a public environment in sight of others – this can present a challenge when coaches/children may be alone (e.g., tennis; and not touch genital areas, buttocks, breasts or any part of the body that might cause embarrassment or distress).
- Check that any physical contact is appropriate to the skill development required for the sport. For example, teaching a child to swim will involve holding arms/feet to demonstrate appropriate movements and supporting the child in learning to float. Holding the child under the breasts or around the groin is inappropriate.
- Monitor the situation and take further action if necessary.
- Talk to the person expressing the concern about the level of physical contact necessary to legitimately teach the particular skill – it may be that the contact has been misunderstood or misconstrued (this can sometimes occur if people have different religious/cultural attitudes to physical contact).
- Discuss the matter with the coach and explain that touching young participants (e.g., by placing a hand on the shoulder, patting them on the back) can result in suspicion and parental concern, particularly if the behaviour occurs repeatedly.
- Recommend that touching be confined to teaching specific skills and emphasise that informal touching is not advised as a means of relating to young people.
- Talk to the person about the their concerns.
- Explain that physical contact is acceptable in situations where:
- the coach/official needs to either treat or prevent an injury
- physical contact is part of the person’s role (e.g., in responding to a sport’s injury) and the person is properly trained or qualified practitioner
- the child/young person is distressed and the contact is on the hand, arm, shoulder or upper back.
- Discuss the matter with the coach and advise that:
- children and young people should be congratulated and comforted in public, not private
- contact should be directly related to the event (e.g., winning a game) and not be prolonged, unnecessary or targeted to a particular child or young person. Young people/children may be embarrassed by or uncomfortable with behaviours that are acceptable to adults
- some cultures and religions disapprove of physical contact between adults and children, particularly if the coach is male and the young person female.
- Monitor the situation and take further action if necessary.
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