Phew! 2024 has been another busy year for the Ann Craft Trust Safeguarding Adults in Sport team.
Phew! 2024 has been another busy year for the Ann Craft Trust Safeguarding Adults in Sport team.
As we reach the end of the year, it’s time once again for us to share some of the fantastic work we’ve achieved to support sport organisations across England and Wales.
We’re focused on achieving our objectives as a team and a charity. We’re ensuring that everything we do aligns with the Ann Craft Trust Strategic Plan, which we launched at the end of 2023.
A National Network of Sport Welfare Officers
The Ann Craft Trust Safeguarding Adults in Sport Team managers and associates supported the Active Partnerships national network of Sport Welfare Officers.
We reflected on their knowledge and experience, and ensured that their training enabled them to fulfil their roles. We are currently reviewing feedback and considering how we can support them further.
A Record Year
In 2024, we supported record numbers of people through the Safeguarding Adults in Sport Framework process.
With our training and our policy reviews, over the course of the year we helped around 300 sport and activity providers to develop their safeguarding adults responsibilities.
In April, Sport Resolutions kindly hosted us to deliver an online session on case management. We benefitted from their expertise in drawing together what good practice looks like in this sphere.
Also in April, we supported the launch of the UNICEF Culture Tool. This was a collaboration between a number of sporting partners including The Ann Craft Trust, Lime Culture, the CPSU, and the Commonwealth Games Federation.
In November, we ran a roundtable discussion at our 2024 Safeguarding Adults Conference in Nottingham. The panel including Katy Downing, Scott MacKechnie, and Vickie Merrick. Our discussion covered best practice, the importance of partnerships, and the role of sport organisations to support the adult. You can read a summary of the discussion here.
New Tools, New Training
We launched The Safeguarding Adults in Sport Roadmap in May, along with an accompanying new eLearning course.
We couldn’t have done it without the support of our partners. Genuine partnership working can take time. But it is important to get these things right, and the response to The Roadmap has been very encouraging. We also remain committed to listening to and acting on feedback from anyone who uses this resource.
We also launched two new training courses this year, including a joint venture with UK Coaching.
Beyond this, we have been working with CIMPSA to update the safeguarding adults technical specialism, and with NGBs and other partners to create new professional standards for safeguarding leads.
Many NGBs are now using The CPSU’s Tool for Recording and Analysing Concerns in Sport (TRACS). As a result of gathering this adult case data, any organisation involved in safeguarding adults in sport can better identify numerous trends and risk factors. This can support education programmes, and potentially influence certain policy changes. We look forward to further analysing this invaluable data next year.
Safeguarding Adults in Sport in Wales
Jodi Evans, our Safeguarding Adults in Sport Manager for Wales, has been working with Welsh NGBs throughout the year. Two have completed the Framework, and there is growing engagement regarding safeguarding adults. More in-person connections means that the network is growing in both strength and expertise.
During Safeguarding Adults Week, Jodi ran an online session with Sport Wales and Platform, which examined mental health through a different lens. You can access the slides from this session here.
In 2025, Let’s Look Out For Each Other and Keep Working Together
When people talk about safeguarding in sport, all too often they leave adults out of their discussions. We look forward to getting to a place where we can talk about everyone, regardless of age. We will get there, and we remain committed to this aim. But we can’t do it alone.
We ask everyone to remember the key theme from Safeguarding Adults Week 2024: Working in Partnership. Many people and organisations are involved in safeguarding in sport. We all come from different backgrounds, but we all want the same thing: For our participants to feel safe, and to be safe.
Thank You
We’d like to thank our key safeguarding partners, The CPSU. We work on many joint forums, programmes and training, and we look forward to the recruitment of a new head of service. But at the same time, we recognise the contribution of the previous head of service, Michelle North. We were sorry to see her leave earlier this year.
We also want to thank our committed associate trainers who support the sport managers in delivering training and taking on some bespoke consultancy. Again, we couldn’t do it without you!
Finally, we’d like to thank our funders, Sport England, Sport Wales, and UK Sport, for their ongoing support.
We ask all our partners to stay in touch throughout 2025. Talk to us, stay committed to safeguarding adults, and we can work together to minimise the risk of harm.