To help coaches, officials and others working with players and participants, your club should provide:

Information about opportunities to be accredited/qualified

Ask your club about opportunities to further your skills and knowledge by accessing accredited training programs.

Policies and procedures on discrimination, harassment and child protection

Your club should have a clear and concise Member Protection Policy. This policy should explain your club's commitment to provide a fair and safe environment for players and participants - especially children and young people - as well as procedures for responding to complaints. You should be aware of this policy and your individual responsibilities.

Codes of conduct

You need to be clear about what is acceptable and unacceptable behaviour. Your club should ensure that all its members are aware of and abide by codes of conduct.  It is important that you sign and follow the club's codes of conduct.

Guidelines for working with players and participants, especially children

Clubs should provide coaches, officials and others with guidelines to help them when working with children, young people and other players and participants.

Guidelines or strategies that may be useful include:

• Supervision for children and young people - The number of supervisory staff needed will depend on the age and number of children involved, and whether there are disability considerations.
• Being alone with a child or young person - Do not isolate yourself with a child, and avoid being alone with a child
• Change Rooms - Before going into change rooms knock or announce that you will be coming in. Try to have another adult with you.
• Collection by parents/guardians - Your club needs to let parents/guardians know about its policy on the collection of children.
• Overnight trips - Always have more than one adult with children on an overnight trip/camp, and do not separate yourself and children from other adults.  Ensure that all children are adequately supervised.
• Injuries and illness - Your club must have guidelines for handling injuries and illness that may occur during sporting activities.
• Use of images of children and young people - Your club needs to have clear guidelines on the use of children's images -  for example, on promotional material.
• Bullying, harassment and discriminatory behaviours - Prevent abusive initiation or team bonding activities, rough, physically hurtful or sexually provocative games, scape-goating, ridiculing, rejecting and isolating behaviour.

Procedures for responding to complaints and reporting allegations of discrimination, harassment or child abuse

Your governing body or club should have a Member Protection policy or other complaint handling policies and procedures for dealing with discrimination, harassment and child abuse.

Coaches, officials and others in positions of authority must respond to complaints or concerns. Do not ignore issues, or dismiss them as trivial.

You have a leadership role. If you witness inappropriate behaviour, take the opportunity to go through codes of conduct with your team or an individual, to remind them of these codes and expected standards of behaviour.

Complaints about discrimination, harassment and child abuse should be reported to your club's Member Protection Information Officer or a person in authority within your club.

In some States/Territories you may be legally required to report a child abuse complaint directly to the police or child protection authority.

Make sure you are informed about processes that could follow from reporting incidents, and be prepared to take part in any investigation or action undertaken.

Your club may ask coaches and others to undergo a police check or a Working With Children Check

It is important that clubs, parents/guardians and participants have confidence in coaches, officials and others who work with children and young people.

In NSW, Northern Territory, Queensland, Tasmania (2005) and Western Australia (2006) it is mandatory to undergo screening or meet certain requirements to work with children. As other States/Territories review their legislation, it is likely that reference checks, police checks or Working With Children Checks will be required.

If you take a team interstate to NSW, Northern Territory, Queensland, Tasmania, and Western Australia you will need to check their requirements.

Ask your club to keep up to date on requirements, and to keep you informed of your responsibilities and how to meet them.

Where to next>> Your roles and responsibilities