A safe, welcoming and respectful environment: where does your club stand? The free safeguarding self-assessment, section by section

By Géraldine Heinen28 August 20269 min read

Many clubs already have good practices in place without ever having put them down in black and white, and many intend to go further without knowing where to start. The "From intention to action" safeguarding self-assessment was designed for this: to take stock, in a few minutes, of what your club already does to offer its members a safe, welcoming and respectful environment, and to identify the next actions to develop in order to protect them better. This article explains what it is for, how it works and, section by section, what answering it will bring you.

1. What the self-assessment is for

The self-assessment answers a simple question: where does your club stand today in offering a safe, welcoming and respectful environment? It helps you take stock of the practices already in place and identify the next actions to develop, in particular for the protection of minors and more vulnerable people.

Four things to keep in mind before you start:

• It is not a test. There is no score, no ranking, no right or wrong answer.
• No club has put everything in place from the start. The clubs that get the most value from the assessment are those that answer as they are, not as they would like to be.
• The more honest your answers, the more useful the results will be.
• The aim is above all to identify your priorities and your next steps.

The service is free, with no obligation and entirely confidential. It is recommended that the questionnaire be completed by someone who knows the workings of the club well (a board member, a head of youth, an ethics officer). The report is sent only to this person and is not passed on to any other organisation without your agreement. The questionnaire is currently available in French; an English version is being prepared.

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2. How it works

The questionnaire addresses eight themes that are essential to contributing to a safe, welcoming and respectful environment. For each statement, you simply indicate your club's current situation:

• A: in place
• B: partially in place
• C: not in place

Depending on your situation, some elements may be more relevant than others; that is normal, and it is precisely what the report will take into account. Three notions come up throughout the questionnaire:

Read one after the other, the eight sections tell the story of a club that takes things in hand: it commits, it plans how to respond, it makes resources available, it prepares people, it communicates, it sets the expected behaviour, it reduces risks and it evaluates in order to improve. Here is what each one will bring you.

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3. Section I: formalising the club's commitment

What the section assesses: the level of written and official structuring of the club. Are there clear rules, procedures or documents? Are the different forms of abuse, violence, harassment or inappropriate behaviour defined in them? Are minors and more vulnerable groups, including people of diverse genders and identities, taken into account? Have these documents been officially validated by the committee or the board?

What answering brings you: a clear view of what is written down, what is only "in people's heads" and what does not yet exist. This is often the first surprise of the assessment: a club discovers that it already applies good practices, but that no document carries them, which makes them fragile at the slightest change of committee. This section lays the foundations for everything else: without a formalised and validated commitment, procedures, training and communication have no base. To find out what such a document contains, read our article What should a safeguarding policy contain?

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4. Section II: responding to and managing concerns or incidents

What the section assesses: the club's ability to respond to a problem. Do members know how to report a worrying situation? Is support planned for the people concerned? Does the club explain what happens after a report (who is contacted, what the steps are, what follow-up there is)? Does it have a clear and fair procedure? Are reports recorded, followed up and stored securely?

What answering brings you: the answer to the question every club leader asks themselves one day, usually too late: "if something happens tomorrow, do we know what to do?". This section lets you pinpoint the missing link: a reporting channel known to everyone, an identified contact person, explicit steps, a secure register. A club that has clarified these points before needing them protects its members, but also its leaders and coaches, who know what they can rely on.

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5. Section III: support and resources

What the section assesses: the resources and help made available to members. Does the club provide useful information to parents and guardians? Resources to support situations at risk (travel, overnight stays, use of digital tools)? A contact person or services to turn to? Does it know which external services to refer its members to when needed?

What answering brings you: a measure of what the club actually offers its members beyond the rules. Many clubs discover here that they have no list of external services (specialised teams, helplines, youth welfare services) when putting one together takes an hour and changes everything on the day a parent or a young person needs help. This section also highlights the particular moments of risk in the life of a club, such as tournaments with overnight stays or online chat groups, and lets you check that reference points exist for each of them.

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6. Section IV: training and preparation of members

What the section assesses: the level of preparation of the people involved. Are members trained in the basic principles, that is to say detecting and responding to incidents or concerns? Do coaches, volunteers and board members receive training or discussion time suited to their responsibilities? Are the people in contact with minors or more vulnerable groups prepared for the specific risks?

What answering brings you: a map of your club's real skills. Documents protect no one if they are not carried by people able to recognise a signal and respond appropriately. This section helps you distinguish between general awareness for everyone, more in-depth training for those who supervise on a daily basis, and specific preparation for the most exposed roles. It is often the basis of a first realistic training plan, spread over a season.

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7. Section V: visibility and promotion of commitments

What the section assesses: the visibility of commitments and of the help available. Does the club visibly communicate its commitments (notices, social media, website)? Does it organise concrete awareness actions (campaign, event, activity)? Does visible information explain to young people and members where to find help or how to report a problem?

What answering brings you: an outside view of your club. A commitment known only to the committee does not exist for a 14-year-old, nor for a parent registering their child. This section makes you check that your commitments are visible where your members actually are: on the changing room walls, in the entrance hall, on the Facebook page, in the start-of-season e-mail. It also reveals the awareness opportunities the club already uses, or could use, to bring its values to life beyond the texts.

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8. Section VI: rules of conduct and commitments

What the section assesses: the behavioural framework expected in the club. Are there clear rules of conduct defining expected behaviour and behaviour that is not accepted? Are they known to members and supported by concrete commitments (code of conduct, charter, signature)? Do partnership or membership agreements require partners and external suppliers to respect these rules? Do job descriptions and recruitment offers include them?

What answering brings you: the verification that the club's expectations are explicit for everyone, and not just implicit for long-standing members. This section points to frequent blind spots: the camp provider, the sponsor present at events, the new coach recruited in a hurry in September. It lets you see where the rules of conduct should be integrated, in contracts, agreements and advertisements, so that everyone commits knowingly from the moment they arrive.

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9. Section VII: risk reduction

What the section assesses: how the club anticipates risks. Does it carry out risk assessments (Word grid to download) for activities, travel, accommodation and facilities? Does it cancel an activity when the risks are judged too great? Does it carry out appropriate checks when recruiting people in contact with minors or vulnerable groups (interview, references, criminal record extract)? Does it avoid entrusting responsibilities to people who present a risk to the safety or well-being of participants?

What answering brings you: a measure of what your club does upstream, before problems arise. This is the most concrete section: it deals with specific actions (requesting a criminal record extract, checking two references, assessing the risks of a trip with an overnight stay) and with a capacity for decision (knowing how to say no to an activity). It helps you identify the practices to formalise, in particular in the recruitment of coaches and volunteers, which is the club's front door. To go further, our article Implementing a safeguarding policy in your club details the corresponding tools.

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10. Section VIII: monitoring and evaluation

What the section assesses: the club's ability to improve over time. Does it regularly identify and adapt its priorities and actions on the basis of feedback and involvement from its members (surveys, discussions, meetings), of identified risks and of the analysis of incidents, concerns or reports?

What answering brings you: the realisation that safeguarding is not a project you finish, but a practice you maintain. This section invites you to look at how the club learns from what happens within it: does a handled incident become an improvement to the procedure? Is feedback from parents and young people collected and used? It is this section that turns the seven previous ones into a living approach, with annual priorities rather than a fixed list.

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11. What you receive afterwards

Once the questionnaire is submitted, your answers are analysed and you receive a personalised report with your strengths and concrete leads for improvement, section by section. The report does not just point out what is missing: for each theme, it proposes realistic actions for a club, such as creating a list of external resources, formalising a reporting procedure, integrating rules of conduct into partnership agreements, or organising a first discussion session with coaches.

The questionnaire ends with a few optional questions about the club's location, its main sport and its agreement to be contacted again. They allow us to identify possible funding opportunities (municipality, province, federation, private partners) to support your club in implementing its priorities.

Completing the self-assessment is already an important step: it is the move from intention to action.

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