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Safeguarding Adults in Physical Activity and Sport

Safeguarding adults is everyone’s responsibility. On this newly-updated online course you will learn how you can effectively and appropriately support and promote the welfare of adults.

eLearning suite developed with:

Coaches need to adopt different approaches for responding to adult safeguarding concerns than those involving children and young people.

UK Coaching has teamed up with Ann Craft Trust, the UK’s lead agency for safeguarding adults, to create a brand-new and fully immersive learning experience. 

This eLearning is designed not just for coaches, but any individual who interacts with adults in various settings in sport and physical activity: participants, colleagues, spectators, and parents or guardians.

Coaches play a pivotal role in connecting with a network of people to create a safe and inclusive environment for all adults. This eLearning suite will equip those who coach sport, physical activity, leisure, or fitness – at all levels – with the knowledge, confidence and understanding to recognise, respond and report a welfare or safeguarding concern. 

We all have equal rights to protection from harm. It’s a human right!” – Ann Craft Trust

You will have the opportunity to ‘learn by doing’: testing and enhancing your decision-making skills in a virtual environment. This means that you can also see and understand the consequences of your decisions in a safe, pressure-free environment. 

* Please note: the Safeguarding Adults online course is not a direct alternative to either the Safeguarding and Protecting Children workshop or the Safeguarding and Protecting Children Renewal online courses.

Topical Module Options

There are two versions of this course to choose from. They both contain the core Safeguarding Adults in Physical Activity and Sport module, plus an additional module with a focus on a topical aspect of safeguarding adults: Professional Boundaries and Adults with Care and Support Needs.

Each version has the same price, and equal weighting. It is purely down to your choice as to which version you are interested in exploring.

Read the summary about each version below and choose the option that’s right for you.

The core content has been mapped to the Safeguarding Adult professional standard, and explores everything from myths surrounding adult safeguarding, through to the correct steps to take and behaviour expected in a safeguarding situation involving an adult at risk. Coaches can delve into practical tips relating to their specific coaching environment: club sports, community sport or activity, leisure and fitness.

    • Your safeguarding adult responsibilities and how to build these into your coaching practice.
    • How to recognise and respond appropriately to adult welfare concerns, including how to address lower-level concerns. 
    • Developing your personal action plan and a look towards your next steps in supporting the welfare of the adults you coach.

  • A digital Action Planner: Learners are supported to download, save, and complete their personal action planner. The action planner supports learners to identify current good practice and areas of development to further safeguard adults. What’s more, the action planner can be shared with others who support the activity environment – as safeguarding is everyone’s business. 

    Practical Advice: Learn fact from fiction from leading safeguarding adult experts, coupled with practical tips from coaches. No stone is left unturned. All learning and advice has been designed to be practically applied in all coaching environments, guiding learners step by step. 

    Immersive scenarios: Based on real events, the learning includes immersive scenarios, videos, and case studies. Learners are guided, in a supportive learning environment, to explore how they should respond and report a concern, working through the ‘grey’ areas and uncertainty of safeguarding adults to be more confident in the subject.

Plus, one ‘bolt-on’ topical module. Each bolt-on attaches to the core, focussing on specific and relatable subjects. 

This 30-minute topical module explores best practice in preventing professional boundaries being crossed, how to protect yourself (as a coach) and the adult you may be in contact with. 

This immersive, scenario-led, learning module explores:

  • Professional boundaries between coaches/ instructors/ leaders, and the adults they coach. 
  • Tools and tips of how to maintain best practice.
  • Recognising where is the line; responding and reporting welfare concerns.

Key Features

Scenario-led learning: This module dives straight into a scenario, encouraging learners to make judgements, identify concerns, and decide what should happen. Based on real events, the eLearning is sure to leave lasting memories and encourage coaches to consider what steps they should take to keep themselves and others safeguarded. 

Practical advice: Learners will learn how to establish and maintain appropriate and professional boundaries between any adult, including their coaching team and the adults they coach. Learn how to manage expectations, how to recognise a concern before it escalates, how to respond appropriately, and how to report it to your welfare and safeguarding lead officer. 

This 30-minute module explores the topic of safeguarding adults with care and support needs. What does the process look like when you have a concern about an adult with a cognitive impairment, a learning disability, or an adult who cannot protect themselves? The module equips coaches with the knowledge to know how they can protect adults who are more vulnerable, including if the carer is the one abusing. 

This module explores: 

  • What characteristics can make an adult more vulnerable and how coaches can work to understand an individual’s capabilities.
  • How to recognise welfare concerns in this more complex area. 
  • How to respond and report concerns appropriately, when to involve additional support and how to navigate a concern if the adult personal carer is the perpetrator. 

£25

Includes VAT

UK Coaching Club Premium members can enjoy a 20% discount on this eLearning course.

Full course details

  • This course is suitable for everyone who delivers coaching in clubs, community sport and physical activity, such as coaches, activators, sports administrators, front of house staff and volunteers.  

  • This course is self-paced and lasts approximately 90 minutes: one hour for the core module and 30 minutes for the topical module. You will be able to access it whenever you want, fitting it in around your lifestyle and commitments; there's no requirement to complete it in one sitting.  

  • From the point of enrolment, you will have access to this course for 12 months. There is no due date, but it will need to be completed during that timeframe. 

  • Our experienced advisors are on hand should you need any help with navigating through this course. 

  • For the best experience, we recommend you complete it on a desktop. If you have a visual impairment, we have designed the course to work with screen readers. 

  • If you are an organisation and want to purchase this course for your learners, get in touch. 

What do other people think of the course?

  • A very good course with lots of detailed information, real life scenarios and key action points regarding safeguarding adults. Would definitely recommend!
  • A very easy-to-use way of raising awareness and helping everybody to understand the issue of the safeguarding of adults, how and where it happens, how to execute your responsibilities, what to look for in terms of poor practice and abuse. All in all, a great way of helping everybody to have more confidence to help create and maintain great cultures and environments where everybody feels safe to be themselves and to enjoy themselves without experiencing poor practice or abuse.
  • Great course, enjoyed every minute. It really opened my eyes!
  • A well-constructed course that allowed the participant to learn key skills.
  • Anyone who is involved in coaching should take this course and retake it on a regular basis. While many of the answers can be seen as common sense, it still requires everyone to be more aware and then know the tried and tested steps that deal with some very difficult situations. That's when you need to be fully inc ontrol of what should happen and how. This course is well set out, with the right amount of challenge. That allows you to think twice, rather than race through the options. It certainly made me consider my own approach. Therefore, highly recommended.

Extremely worthwhile course which conveys key information to support clubs keeping adults at risk safe.

Kath Bennet – RFU Safeguarding Manager

I enjoyed going through the course. The questions and examples were relevant, and having different activities and graphics made it interesting to follow.

Maggi Tuck MCSI, BSc (Hons) – Swimming coach and Courtiers Head of Compliance