Good Practice Guide for Instructors, Coaches and Volunteers 2023

This guide only covers the essential points of good practice when working with children and young people. You should also read the Blackwater Sailing Club Child Protection Policy and Procedures document which is always available for reference.

• Avoid spending any significant time working with children in isolation

• Do not take children alone in a car, however short the journey

• Do not take children to your home as part of your organisation’s activity

• Where any of the above are unavoidable, ensure that they only occur with the full knowledge and consent of someone in charge of the organisation or the child’s parents

• Design training programmes that are within the ability of the individual child

• If a child is having difficulty with a wetsuit or buoyancy aid, ask them to ask a friend to help if at all possible

• If you do have to help a child, make sure you are in full view of others, preferably another adult

• Restrict communications with young people via mobile phone, e-mail or social media to group communications about organisational matters. If it’s essential to send an individual message, copy it to the child’s parent or carer.

You should never:

• engage in rough, physical or sexually provocative games

• allow or engage in inappropriate touching of any form

• allow children to use inappropriate language unchallenged, or use such language yourself when with children

• make sexually suggestive comments to a child, even in fun

• fail to respond to an allegation made by a child; always act

• do things of a personal nature that children can do for themselves.

It may sometimes be necessary to do things of a personal nature for children, particularly if they are very young or disabled. These tasks should only be carried out with the full understanding and consent of the child (where possible) and their parents/carers. In an emergency situation which requires this type of help, parents should be fully informed. In such situations it is important to ensure that any adult present is sensitive to the child and undertakes personal care tasks with the utmost discretion

Issued by the Rear Commodore                                                                                                               
Reviewed January 2023