From 07-15 February, London Sport’s Welfare Team hosted the first ever London Safeguarding in Sport Week. The aim of the week was to raise awareness of the importance of working together to embed a culture of safeguarding and welfare into sport clubs and organisations, and to educate and upskill sporting leaders, creating safe and enjoyable spaces for all.
We were joined by a range of guest speakers delivering free workshops and sessions throughout the week, where we engaged over 115 participants from a range of different sports, clubs, organisations, and governing bodies.
Key themes from the week included:
Talking to Young People About Domestic Abuse: equipping club welfare officers and coaches with skills to discuss domestic abuse and prevention strategies with young athletes.
Engaging Parents in Sport: building positive relationships between sporting leaders and parents, emphasising openness and adaptability to better support young athletes.
Online Safety and Protection: training on protecting young people from online exploitation, helping club leaders navigate digital safeguarding challenges.
An Evening with Paul Stewart: former professional footballer Paul Stewart shared a powerful account of his lived experience as an abuse survivor.
Criminal Exploitation & County Lines Awareness: addressing the risks of gang involvement and criminal exploitation, with knowledge on how to protect young people in communities.
Helena Keenan, Sport Welfare Officer at London Sport gives her account on the week:
We kicked off the week with an event led by Tender – an online webinar for club welfare officers, safeguarding leads, and coaches, about how to talk to young people about domestic abuse. Tender raised the important issue awareness of domestic abuse, sexual violence and sexual harassment, and promoted effective approaches to preventing it. The interactive session was really useful for participants to learn about serious topics in a safe and supportive environment.
Over the weekend we encouraged clubs and community groups to make a social media pledge, showcasing them in their sport and committing to making safeguarding the number 1 priority in sport.
We also facilitated an informative online webinar helping sporting leaders and coaches to build positive relationships with their young athletes’ parents. The session was led by Gordon Maclelland through his business, Working with Parents in Sport. Participants said that they learnt how to be ‘adaptable and open to communication,’ and ‘upfront and transparent with parents,’ enabling them to tailor their coaching approach to their club members’ needs.
11 February was Internet Safety Day 2025, so we hosted an E- Safety Training for coaches, club leaders, welfare officers, and parents. These leaders took part in an informative session about online child exploitation. The session was led by The 2 Johns, who work across the country, educating children and young people about how to stay safe on social media.
On 12 February, the sport welfare team welcomed attendees to an Audience with former professional footballer, Paul Stewart (Tottenham Hotspur, Liverpool, Manchester City and England), who is an abuse survivor, and is now CEO of Safeguarding Fundamentals. He delivered a powerful talk of his lived experiences of abuse, and discussed how we can work together to prevent abuse and ensure the highest level of safeguarding and welfare delivery in sports clubs and organisations. Award-winning journalist, author and broadcaster, John Aizlewood, hosted the evening, and welcomed a panel of experts including Sally O’Donnell – SO Training & Consulting, Mark Vaughn – Safeguarding Lead Snowsport England, and Chloe Morfey-Greenberg – Sport Welfare Officer at London Sport and Founder of Beyond the Ball.
The positive feedback we received from attendees was moving and spoke to the impact of the session. This included:
“It was extremely moving and thought provoking and I really admire him for speaking out, and continuing to talk about what he’s been through, despite the obvious personal pain it causes him. I’ve had some good conversations with my son’s football club contacts as a result. I’m keen to try and get all of their teams to attend a session with Paul as I think the talk he gives to young football players will be really valuable. Plus, it’s helped my understanding and have shared some of what I heard so far, and will talk further in my next team meeting about it. Really important to keep progressing the work happening around safeguarding in our sector”.
On the Thursday, we worked with Catch 22 to lead an online webinar for coaches, club welfare officers, and safeguarding leads on Criminal exploitation, County Lines, and Gangs. Catch 22, is a not-for-profit business which provides support for young people, professionals, parents, and carers, with the aim of preventing or stopping child exploitation and missing incidents. Experts from Catch 22 shared their knowledge and insights to help participants learn about the dynamics of criminal exploitation, the impact of County Lines operations, and the realities of gang involvement.
Then to close the week, we hosted the second part of the Tender session, Talking to young people about Domestic Abuse.
Overall, we are really pleased with the turnout and feedback from the week, and we look forward to taking on our learnings and exploring how we apply that to our work. From those who provided feedback: All attendees agreed or strongly agreed that the session they attended was useful; 63% of participants rated the sessions they attended at excellent; 95% would recommend the session they attended to others; All would recommend our services to other organisations.
“Safeguarding is more than just a tick box”.
“The importance of instilling safeguarding as a key priority across all organisations”.
“I learnt about the impact abuse can have later on in life not just whilst it’s happening”.
#LondonSaferSport
#LetsMoveLondon
