To ask the Minister for Communities to detail any guidance his Department provides to sports groups on the abuse of trust in youth sporting settings.

The Department for Communities has produced Children and Adult Safeguarding Guidance for DfC sponsored Arms Length Bodies. The guidance (available on the Department’s website) is intended to inform DfC sponsored ALBs and staff of their responsibilities under child protection and adults at risk legislation and point them to further sources of information and advice should they need it.

As this issue is also an operational matter for Sport NI, I have sought the requested information from the interim Chief Executive who has advised me as follows:

“Sport NI has long supported the NSPCC campaign to change the law and close the loophole created when sports coaches were excluded from the initial criteria around “abuse of trust” positions and we celebrated and communicated the change in the law when it came. Sports organisations have been asked for years to ensure their codes of conduct reflected the breach of a position of trust as a reason to remove a coach/official before the law even changed. Since the law changed in NI, Sport NI via our contract with the NSPCC’s Child Protection in Sport Unit (CPSU) have shared the following information with all National Governing Bodies.

Preventing abuse in positions of trust in sport and activity: https://thecpsu.org.uk/resource-library/best-practice/preventing-abuse-in-positions-of-trust-in-sport-and-activity/ Briefing papers for both the sport and dance sector

Positions of trust – FAQs about the changes: https://thecpsu.org.uk/resource-library/best-practice/positions-of-trust-faqs-about-the-changes/

Sport NI have also communicated what is good practice via our Safeguarding Children and Young People in Sport workshop delivered to sports coaches across NI”.