England Hockey is committed to creating and maintaining a safe and positive environment and accepts the responsibility to safeguard the welfare of all adults involved in hockey. Like with young people, it is not always easy to see the signs of when an adult is being abused. All hockey clubs have a duty of care to anyone who is deemed to be vulnerable, which can include adults.
What is an adult at risk?
An adult at risk, as defined by the Ann Craft Trust, is anyone over the age of 18 that:
- Has needs for care and support (whether or not the local authority is meeting any of those needs)
- Is experiencing, or is at risk of, abuse or neglect.
- As a result of care and support needs is unable to protect themselves from either the risk of, or the experience of, abuse or neglect.
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England Hockey’s Safeguarding Adults at Risk Policy can be found on the right of this page. The policy and procedures apply to anyone over 18 who is involved in hockey.
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England Hockey strongly recommends that clubs have a safeguarding adults policy that is separate to their safeguarding children policy. This is recommended for several reasons:
- Adults and children can face different sets of issues to each other.
- Definitions and terms used in adult and child safeguarding can differ from each other.
- Reporting procedures and case handling are different.
- There is different legislation and policy for child and adult safeguarding.
- Adults have the right to self-determinate (choose whether they wish to receive help) whereas children do not.
Buddle, have some great resources and information on their website.
If your club or area wants advice or guidance about creating a safeguarding adults at risk policy, please contact Alison Hogg, Ethics and Welfare Manager, whose details can be found on the useful contacts page.
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This depends on your role and whether you are working in regulated activity with adults at risk. The criteria for needing an adult DBS check is different to those for children and it is highly unlikely that anyone involved in hockey will meet them. To qualify for an enhanced adult DBS check with an adult barred list check included, you will need to be doing one of the following activities in regulated activity:
- You are providing healthcare to an adult at risk (Only including first aid when it is performed on behalf of an organisation.
- You are providing personal care to an adult at risk (e.g. helping with eating/drinking, washing, dressing, oral/skin care)
- You are providing social work for an adult at risk.
- You are assisting with the general household matters of an adult at risk (e.g. managing a person’s money, doing their shopping)
- You are helping to conduct the affairs of an adult at risk (e.g. you have the power of attorney under the Mental Capacity Act 2005)
- You are transporting an adult at risk (Only applies to making trips for healthcare, personal care and social work. Drivers for trips that do not meet these criteria do not require a DBS check)
Those who are performing training, teaching, assistance, advice or guidance roles for adults that are receiving health or social care will usually not meet the requirements for regulated activity and therefore will not be required to get an Enhanced DBS Check. However, people in these roles may still qualify for an Enhanced Check without the adult barred list check if they are in an environment where most of the participants are receiving health or social care and meets one of the following criteria:
- The activity they perform occurs more than three days in any period of 30 days.
- It involves staying overnight with an adult at risk.
- The activity they perform occurs at least once a week on an ongoing basis.
Even if a person does not meet the requirement for a DBS check, it is still important that any organisation performs a thorough recruitment process and have thought about whether someone is suitable for the role that they are undertaking.
For more information about DBS Checks for working with adults at risk in sport, please consult the Disclosure and Barring Service’s guidance leaflet.
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The Ann Craft Trust have produced two online training courses for safeguarding adults at risk. You can find these courses by clicking here.
