WELFARE OFFICER
The Welfare Officer shall:
- Be responsible for promoting and developing the codes of conduct within the Club particularly in respect of the young and minority groups.
- Be accessible and approachable to all.
- Act as an advisory resource on equity and child protection issues.
- The welfare officer should record, assess and clarify information received from volunteers, children or parents and carers who have child protection concerns. Any doubts or uncertainty about the concerns should be raised with a statutory child protection agency such as the local children’s services, or the NSPCC Child Protection Helpline and if necessary a formal referral to a statutory child protection agency or the police should be made.
NB It is not the role of the Welfare Officer to decide whether a child has been abused or not.
This is the task of the children’s services department who have the legal responsibility, or of the NSPCC which also has powers to investigate child protection concerns. It is however everybody’s responsibility to ensure that concerns are shared and appropriate action taken. The Welfare Officer should be aware of the local statutory child protection network, the role of the Local Safeguarding Children Board, and the existence of local child protection procedures.
The Welfare Officer should be aware of the relevant contact numbers and addresses of the statutory agencies in their locality. If concerns arise, for example when away on a trip, contact should be made with local agencies whose details will be in the phone directory. Children’s services departments have an out-of-hours duty team so can be contacted at any time.
