Become a Welfare Officer

All BF affiliated Clubs & Events must have a Welfare Officer in place.

The Club Welfare Officer (CWO) should not be a coach working within the club nor someone personally connected to the coaches (eg family member or in a relationship with the coach or one of their family members).  This is to protect both the Club Welfare Officer and the individual reporting any concerns from any potential conflict of interest.

Where possible we advise clubs to set up a generic “welfare@xxx” email address to be used by  the welfare officer, this can then be widely published on the club’s website and posters at the club. It will not only avoid personal email addresses from being put into the public domain but also allows continuity of access to the email should their be a change in welfare officer.

British Fencing will grant a 12 month “in training” period for identified volunteers to train up to meet the full Club Welfare Officer standard. 

A detailed Step by Step Guide to Becoming a Welfare Officer can be found here.

Minimum Requirements

Club Welfare Officer (in training)

• BF membership (minimum level of “Supporter”). This ensures that you agree to follow the policies of BF and importantly are covered by the BF public liability insurance (subject to appropriate checks and qualifications being in place)
• Valid and up to date criminal record check – please see updated checking information due to COVID-19 (updated 20.03.2020)
• Safeguarding and Protecting Children in sport workshop (valid for 3 years)*

*UK Coaching or (in Scotland) Safeguarding in Sport http://www.safeguardinginsport.org.uk/

Club Welfare Officer (fully trained)

England/Wales

• CSPU Time to Listen (valid for 3 years) – Time to Listen is a 3-hour course for Club Welfare Officers (CWOs).  CWOs must have attended a UK Sport Safeguarding and Protecting Children (SPC) workshop previously and typically need to bring their club reporting procedures to the workshop.
• En Garde!…Ready? – En Garde!…Ready? is BF’s Welfare Pack. The En Garde!…Ready? course will give CWOs the information that they need to support their clubs to implement fencing specific welfare polices and procedures.

If a club has policies and procedures in place then we would recommend that after attending an SPC course, trainee CWOs familiarise themselves with the policies and procedures and then attend the CSPU Time to Listen course.

Scotland

• Child Wellbeing and Protection Officer (CWPS) –  For all coaches and welfare officers two modules, consisting of an on-line learning module followed by a 3 hour class (which can be virtual)
•  Safe Hands 1&2  – This is currently under review and in 2020 will become Child Wellbeing and Protection Officer Training (CWPO).  Until this is formally launched all CWO should continue to attend the Safe Hands courses.

All Scottish welfare courses are available from www.safeguardinginsport.org.uk.

BF courses can be found here https://www.britishfencing.com/welfare-zone/welfare-courses-zone/  and additional courses will be run on-demand, so please contact us if you can’t find a suitable course in your area.

Other welfare qualifications may be accepted in some cases – these should be submitted to equality@britishfencing.com.