Club Welfare Officers attending the 2015 Go-Ride Conferences will have the opportunity to discuss core safeguarding practice and explore good practice when taking young members on club trips.

The conferences take place across the country and are free for all Club Welfare Officers at Go-Ride Clubs if they are British Cycling members.

As an integral member of every club, we want to support all Go-Ride Club Welfare Officers in ensuring that young people have a positive experience within our sport. In order to achieve this, we have developed a cycling-specific club welfare officer workshop, based on the information provided in response to the recent Club Welfare Officer Survey.

The bespoke workshop will be delivered by a cycling-specific tutor and aims to ensure that CWO’s have the knowledge to implement child protection practices in Go-Ride clubs.

Club trips

The morning session will cover cycling-specific guidance on club trips, whether this is to race or to socialise, with core safeguarding practice embedded throughout the session. The workshop will focus on ensuring that delegates have an understanding of the principle of loco-parentis and recognising the club’s responsibilities and welfare processes that you may need to utilise on club trips. Welfare Officers will also cover core safeguarding practice such as who is protected under safeguarding and how to recognise the different types of abuse and how to report a concern.

Safeguarding implementation documents

In the afternoon session Welfare Officers will be asked for their input on two documents which are being developed as part of British Cycling’s Safeguarding Implementation Plan, ensuring they are fit for purpose. ‘Parent behaviour guidelines’ will help inform parents on appropriate behaviour when attending events and club sessions, whilst the second document will inform young people of how to stay safe in terms of welfare when cycling and what to do if there’s a problem.