To ask the Minister for Communities whether any assessment has been made by Sport NI of the number or proportion of sports clubs and sporting organisations working with children and young people that are not subject to safeguarding requirements through (i) Sport NI funding; (ii) governing body affiliation; (iii) council facility-use agreements; and (iv) council grant conditions.

As this issue is an operational matter for Sport NI, who have provided me with the following response.

“No assessment has been made by Sport NI of the number or proportion of sports clubs and sporting organisations working with children and young people that are not subject to safeguarding requirements through (i) Sport NI funding; (ii) governing body affiliation; (iii) council facility-use agreements; and (iv) council grant conditions.

Sport NI requires National Governing Bodies funded through Sport NI major investment programmes, e.g. Sports Systems Investment – Governing Bodies / System Partners Investment, to meet Safeguarding in Sport Standards. Sport NI have a contract in place with NSPCC to monitor compliance against those standards and ensure compliance against those standards is maintained. Those standards are cascaded (e.g. affiliated clubs must have safeguarding policies, officers, training, safe recruitment, etc.). Safeguarding is therefore formally monitored in the funded / affiliated part of the system, not the whole sports sector.

Co-operating to Safeguard Children and Young People in Northern Ireland guidance provides the overarching policy framework for safeguarding children and young people in the statutory, private, independent, community, voluntary and faith sectors of which sports clubs and sporting organisations would form a part. This is good practice and not a requirement. This can be found at https://www.health-ni.gov.uk/publications/co-operating-safeguard-children-and-young-people-northern-ireland.

The Safeguarding Board for Northern Ireland (SBNI) was established under the Safeguarding Board (Northern Ireland) Act 2011 (the 2011 Act). The 2011 Act establishes a statutory objective for the SBNI, attributes functions to it and duties upon it. The primary aim of the SBNI is to co-ordinate what is done by each person or body represented on the Board for the purposes of safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children in Northern Ireland. The SBNI may compile and analyse information concerning safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children. The SBNI reports to the DoH as the sponsor Department for the discharge of its statutory functions.”