'Duty of care' is a legal principle which describes a legal obligation to act reasonably to ensure that others are not exposed to unreasonable risk of harm due to your acts and or omissions.
In the context of coaching, duty of care is the coach's responsibility to take reasonable steps to manage the risk of harm to participants. If that responsibility is not met, a coach could be legally liable for a breach of duty of care. As a coach, taking reasonable steps to ensure the reasonable safety of all participants is the best way to protect yourself against claims of negligence.
By 'reasonable', it is meant that you must adopt objectively reasonable coaching practice, and not go above and beyond in your assigned role, so that reasonable care and skill is displayed when coaching. This may look different from sport to sport or depending on the level of sport you are coaching. However, there are some fundamental duties and responsibilities that pertain to all coaches, no matter the context.
Duty of Care in practice
In practice, taking reasonable steps to ensure reasonable safety can be broken down into three generalised steps:
- Assessing the risk beforehand.
- Providing proper training and supervision during sporting activities.
- Ensuring access to medical care is available in case of an accident.
1) Assessing the risk beforehand
Before a physical or sporting activity even begins, there are certain responsibilities that you as a coach have to discharge. This may include:
- performing safety checks of a facility before delivering a session or event
- assessing whether any of the participants have existing injuries that the coach needs to be aware of
- when planning activities, ensuring that the skill level of participants match the skill level of the activities you will ask them to perform
- advising participants to wear correct clothing and protective equipment. Make sure they know how to use protective equipment properly, especially in higher risk situations
- ensure that participants are aware of the risks involved in the activities.
Depending on the physical activity or sport and level of play, the risks, and subsequently your responsibilities, may differ. As a coach, participants rely on your expertise of the physical activity or sport and place a level of trust in you to ensure their reasonable safety. While the law does not demand that you entirely eliminate all accidents during physical or sporting activities, you are required to assess the risks involved and take reasonable steps to manage these risks.
Be aware that depending on the NGB or sports organisation you are a part of, you may be required to have logs of environment safety checks or weather checks, etc.
Familiarise yourself with the policies and common practices relevant to your physical activity or sport and, in particular, the level at which you are coaching.
2) Providing proper training and supervision
During physical and sporting activity, it is imperative to provide sufficient supervision and ensure that you are correctly training your participants. This may include:
- following your NGB, sports organisations, and environments guidance for coach-to-participant ratios, or any other relevant policies
- demonstrating and/or teaching proper use of equipment. Not allowing the use of equipment for purposes other than what it is intended for
- matching the level of skill of participants with the activities expected of them. While you want to train them to do their best, make sure not to put them at unreasonable risk by advising them to do something outside their skill set or abilities
- ensure that appropriate personal protective equipment and clothing is worn
- ensuring an appropriate number of participants use the equipment at any one time
- supervising the use of equipment when necessary. Do not let participants use equipment unless they have had proper training
- preventing participants from participating in unreasonably dangerous activities
- ensuring participants are aware of the risks involved in participating in the activities.
If you feel the activity is no longer safe, stop it.
3) Ensuring access to medical care is available in case of an incident.
In case of an incident, it is necessary that you have an emergency action plan (EAP) in place. This may include:
- making sure all relevant staff are trained in the necessary medical and emergency procedures
- make sure first aid is readily available in case of injury
- if appropriate, train participants and staff about the dangers of concussions, and how to recognise if someone might have one
- make sure you follow your organisation’s health and safety policy to prioritise the health of the participants. Do not allow participants to return to play before they have fully recovered from injury.