Safeguarding in Sport Continuous Improvement Program
Safeguarding in Sport Continuous Improvement Program (SISCIP).
Sport plays a significant role in our communities, it improves the physical and mental wellbeing of all that participate regardless of age, ability, background or gender.
It promotes a sense of belonging, enhancing social connectivity, inclusion and the building of long-term friendships.
All Australians should feel safe to participate in sport at any level and it is why Sport Integrity Australia has developed the Safeguarding in Sport Continuous Improvement Program (SISCIP).
The Program provides sports with education, training and ongoing support so they can provide a safe and inclusive environment for all members, including children and young people.
What is the Safeguarding in Sport Continuous Improvement Program?
The Safeguarding in Sport Continuous Improvement Program (SISCIP) is designed to help sporting organisations build their capability to provide safe environments for children, young people, and all members to participate in sport.
This includes protecting them from abuse, providing safe and inclusive experiences and highlighting that safeguarding is the responsibility of everyone involved in sport. The SISCIP is underpinned by the National Integrity Framework (NIF) and the National Principles for Child Safe Organisations (National Principles).
By working through this program, it can assist National Sporting Organisations (NSOs) and National Sporting Organisations for People with a Disability (NSODs) to meet their state and territory child safeguarding compliance requirements.
The program aims to embed a culture of child safety and member protection by:
- Building the capability of NSOs and NSODs to keep children, young people, and members safe.
- Leading a cultural shift that prioritises the safety of children, young people and members.
- Enhancing knowledge and understanding to respond to child abuse threats.
- Bolstering community confidence that sports are safe for children, young people and members.
- Enabling sports to demonstrate their commitment and leadership in safeguarding to all members at all levels of sport.
What are the benefits?
There are many benefits to signing up to the Safeguarding in Sport Continuous Improvement Program, they include:
- Creating safe sporting environments so that every child, young person, and member can feel and be safe when participating in sport.
- Advocating a nationally consistent approach to safeguarding in sport.
- Promoting best practice child safeguarding to align with the National Principles for Child Safe Organisations. assisting sporting organisations to meet legislative and regulatory requirements, such as state/territory-based Child Safe Standards.
- Providing a mechanism for sport to assess their maturity in child safeguarding and member protection practices and processes.
- working collaboratively with sports to develop a fit for purpose tailored Safeguarding Risk Action Plan that helps to meet their identified risks and needs.
- Sports identifying high risk areas and implementing strategies and actions to minimise and manage these areas with the support and guidance of Sport Integrity Australia.
- Collaborating with and guiding sports to continuously improve and progress its child safeguarding and member protection practices and processes.
Structure of the program
The program is structured so that the sport will continually assess and improve their safeguarding practices and processes. Once signed up, sports will complete an online safeguarding self-assessment based on the 10 National Principles.
This self-assessment will be made available to sports to complete on an annual basis so that they can identify where improvements have been made and where further work is required.
Snapshot of the program
- The Program is voluntary.
- The sport signs up to the program.
- Your sport completes an online Safeguarding Self-Assessment.
- A Sport Integrity Australia Safeguarding Team Member/s will meet with your sport to review your safeguarding practices and processes and will follow this up with an assessment report.
- The assessment report will be utilised to support your sport to develop a Safeguarding Risk Action Plan.
Take the lead and find out more
Contact the Safeguarding Team to find out more about the Safeguarding in Sport Continuous Improvement Program by emailing: safeguarding@sportintegrity.gov.au
Program FAQs
What is the Safeguarding in Sport Continuous Improvement Program?
The Safeguarding in Sport Continuous Improvement Program (SISCIP) is designed to help sporting organisations build their capability to provide safe environments for children, young people, and all members who participate in sport.
The program is underpinned by the Safeguarding Children and Young Person Policy and the National Principles for Child Safe Organisations (National Principles). By working through this program, it will assist National Sporting Organisations (NSOs) and National Sporting Organisations for People with a Disability (NSODs) to meet their state and territory child safeguarding standards requirements.
The SISCIP provides a point in time assessment tool to measure where the sport is on their safeguarding journey, and where they can prioritise their next steps to enhance and embed safeguarding in their sport. This is a collaborative approach, with the Sport integrity Safeguarding Team working with each sport to identify their areas of strength and where improvements may be made.
Who can sign up to the Safeguarding in Sport Continuous Improvement Program?
National Sporting Organisations and National Sporting Organisations for People with a Disability are eligible to sign up to the program. In signing up to the program, the sport is committing to work with Sport Integrity Safeguarding Team to implement all aspects of the program.
What does the Safeguarding in Sport Continuous Improvement Program involve?
The sport must first complete and submit a sign-up form, this is available by contacting the Safeguarding Team via email: safeguarding@sportintegrity.gov.au.
Once a sport has signed up to the SISCIP, they will be required to complete an online Safeguarding Self-Assessment. This is located on the Australian Sports Commission (ASC) online platform, Game Plan.
The point in time assessment tool is used to measure where the sport is on their safeguarding journey, what the sport is doing well and where improvements can be made to enhance and embed safeguarding in their sport. This assessment is underpinned by the 10 National Principles for Child Safe Organisations and will assist to operationalise the National Principles that is practical for your sport.
On completing the self-assessment, the sport will meet with their Sport Integrity Safeguarding Team Lead to go through the assessment and discuss the sport’s safeguarding practices and processes. Following this meeting a report will be developed and provided to the sport.
The report will be used to help the sport develop a Safeguarding Risk Action Plan for implementation. Ongoing support is provided to by the Safeguarding Team Lead through the scheduling of regular meetings.
This is an ongoing process to help sports build their safeguarding capabilities and to help enhance and embed safeguarding. The self-assessment will be conducted on an annual basis to identify improvements made and where further enhancements can be implemented.
Is there funding available for sports to participate in the program?
Projects, activities and/or initiatives identified through the development of a Safeguarding Risk Action Plan may be eligible for funding. Further details will be provided to sports upon signing up to the program.
What support is available to sports when they sign up to the program?
Sport Integrity Australia will work in partnership with sports. By signing up sports can leverage expert resources, education and supporting materials from Sport Integrity Australia.
How long does the Safeguarding in Sport Continuous Improvement Program take to complete?
This program is ongoing with continuous improvements being made to help build the sport’s safeguarding capabilities to provide safe and inclusive environments for children, young people and all members. All sports are unique, they differ in size and in the resources that they have at their disposal, and as such, they will be at different stages of safeguarding implementation.
This program is designed to support continuous improvement, which will also assist sports to identify changes to requirements and expectations on an ongoing basis.
Is the Safeguarding in Sport Continuous Improvement Program compliance based?
No. The Safeguarding in Sport Continuous Improvement Program is not a compliance piece, nor will a sport be awarded a certificate for undertaking the program. The program will, however, support organisations to demonstrate their ongoing commitment to safeguarding and in turn help to implement the sports state/territory legislation requirements, community and member expectations associated with safeguarding.
How will the Safeguarding in Sport Continuous Improvement Program support all levels of sport?
The program will support NSO/NSODs to implement safeguarding practices and processes that can be shared across all levels of their sport. Importantly, the NSO/NSODs will provide leadership to drive a cultural change in prioritising safeguarding and to embed safeguarding practices and processes across all levels of their sport.
The program will deliver and promote a nationally consistent approach to safeguarding that is aligned to the National Principles, that underpins the Safeguarding Children and Young People Policy and the standards that exist in many of the states/territories.
Why should your sport sign up to the Safeguarding in Sport Continuous Improvement Program?
All organisations that provide services to children and young people have a responsibility to ensure that they provide a safe environment that meet the needs, interests and rights of children and young people.
This program will support sport to embed a culture of safeguarding by:
- creating safe sporting environments so that every child, young person, and member can feel and be safe when participating in sport.
- advocating a nationally consistent approach to safeguarding in sport.
- promoting best practice child safeguarding to align with the National Principles for Child Safe Organisations.
- assisting sporting organisations to meet legislative and regulatory requirements, such as state/territory-based Child Safe Standards.
- providing a mechanism for sport to assess their maturity in child safeguarding and member protection practices and processes.
- working collaboratively with sports to develop a fit for purpose tailored Safeguarding Risk Action Plan that helps to meet their identified risks and needs.
- sports identifying high risk areas and implementing strategies and actions to minimise and manage these areas with support and guidance of Sport Integrity Australia.
- collaborating with and guiding sports to continuously improve and progress its child safeguarding and member protection practices.
What outcomes will the sport achieve by signing up to the program?
Ultimately, the program provides better outcomes for all members, including children and young people, which in turn can bolster participation numbers in your sport, lead to greater revenue raising and improve the sports reputation within the community.
The program has been designed to:
- build the capability of sporting organisations
- prioritise the safety of children, young people and all members
- enhance knowledge and understanding of how to respond to child abuse threats
- bolster community confidence that sports are striving to provide safe environments for children and young people
- enable sports to demonstrate their commitment and leadership in safeguarding all members at all levels.