Safeguarding

Chew Valley Cricket (CVC) promotes and co-ordinates cricket activities in partnership with Chew Magna Cricket Club and Stanton Drew Cricket Club.

We recognise that all children participating in cricket (regardless of age, gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, ability or disability) have the right to have fun and be protected from harm in a safe environment. 

We ensure individuals working within cricket at, or for, our clubs provide a welcoming, safe, and fun experience for children. 

We provide an environment where the views of children, parents and volunteers are sought and welcomed on a range of issues. This will help us create an environment where people can voice any concerns (about possible suspected child abuse/neglect, and/or about poor practice) to the Club Safeguarding Officer

The partnership is committed to ensuring all children (all persons under 18 years) who participate in our cricket activities have a safe and positive experience. We do this by

1. Putting suitable arrangements in place to manage safeguarding risks.

2. Ensure we have the right people in place to run our activities safely and to respond to concerns.

3. Having clear routes for children, parents and our volunteers to raise concerns and reporting procedures to deal with those concerns.

4. Ensuring our activities are managed in line with ECB Safeguarding standards and best practice.

Chew Valley Cricket Safeguarding Arrangements.

• Chew Valley Cricket undertakes risk assessments of all training and match activities involving children and young persons to ensure the health, safety and welfare of those participating is safeguarded.

• We create a safe environment by putting in place the measures identified through the risk assessments and ensuring all our volunteers are aware of the arrangements and their own responsibilities.

• We monitor and review the measures to ensure they are working correctly and update where needed.

• We have clear codes of conduct for those participating in our activities including members and visitors, coaches and All-Star Activators and an Anti-Bullying Policy to ensure appropriate behaviour is maintained.

•  We have clear, documented procedures for investigating and reporting safeguarding concerns where they have been raised by participants, parents or CVC volunteers.

• CVC partnership clubs are expected to formally adopt Chew Valley Cricket Safeguarding Policies and procedures or to implement their own, equivalent arrangements to manage safeguarding risks from their own activities. Where clubs adopt their own arrangements, CVC will seek assurance from the club that they have met their duty of care.

• When Chew Valley Cricket works with external partners to provide cricket activities to children and young people, we will seek assurance from those partners that they have appropriate and comparable safeguarding arrangements in place to meet their duty of care to our members.

The Chew Valley Cricket Safeguarding Team.

Chew Valley Cricket adopts and implements the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) “Safe Hands – Cricket’s Policy for Safeguarding Children” 

We ensure all individuals working within or for Chew Valley Cricket are recruited and appointed in accordance with ECB guidelines and relevant legislation.

Chew Valley Cricket ensures all individuals working within CVC are provided with support, through education and training, so they are aware of, and can adhere to, good practice and the Code of Conduct guidelines defined by the ECB and CVC. We ensure all people who work in cricket for  CVC (such as officials, volunteers, team managers, coaches and so on) understand how the “Safe Hands Policy” applies to them.

• Chew Valley Cricket Committee are responsible for creating and adopting a Safeguarding Policy Statement and supporting protocols. The committee will monitor these arrangements, formally review their effectiveness and ensure actions resulting from the review process are implemented in a timely manner. The Committee will seek assurance from its partners that they have suitable and sufficient safeguarding arrangements in place to provide youth cricket activities on behalf of CVC.

• The Chew Valley Cricket Committee is responsible for appointing a Safeguarding Officer and ensuring they attend the necessary ECB training courses.

• Chew Valley Cricket Safeguarding officer is the first point of contact for parents, children and volunteers/staff within CVC and provide the local source of procedural advice for CVC and its members. They are the main point of contact within CVC for the ECB County Safeguarding Officer, the ECB Safeguarding Team and relevant external agencies in connection with child safeguarding. The Safeguarding officer is responsible for ensuring a correct and comprehensive reporting procedure exists for raising and managing child safeguarding concerns. The Chew Valley Cricket Safeguarding officer is

• Stephen Croucher

• Tel: 07974 186792

• Email: Stephen.jcroucher@gmail.com

• Chew Valley Cricket Safeguarding Administrator: manages the recruitment and DBS process on behalf of the CVC committee. They are responsible for administrating the Chew Valley Cricket Safe Hands Management System in line with ECB requirements.

• Coaches: are responsible for implementing the CVC safeguarding arrangements during their coaching sessions to ensure the safety and welfare of the participants. They must familiarise themselves with and comply with the ECB Coaches Code of Conduct.

Raising a concern

We ensure all suspicions, concerns and allegations are taken seriously and dealt with swiftly and appropriately. We ensure access to confidential information relating to child safeguarding matters, is restricted to those who need to know, in order to safeguard children – including the Club Safeguarding Officer and the appropriate external authorities, such as the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO), as specified within ECB child safeguarding procedures.