Keeping Your Child Safe in Sport Week

This year’s Keeping Your Child Safe in Sport Campaign runs 6-12 October 2025 and the Child Protection in Sport Unit (CPSU) are asking sports parents to play their part and talk to their children about how they can bring out their best through positive actions and support.

Why is the Keeping Your Child Safe in Sport Campaign important?

In 2024-2025, the NSPCC Helpline handled 623 child welfare contacts where the risk or concern was taking place in a sports setting. This was an increase of 47% compared to 2023/2024.

Parenting can be tough, and every family faces different challenges. These can be things like financial worries, lack of support, or their own childhood experiences can all influence how parents support their children.

That’s why it is important to reflect on your behaviours and better understand what your child needs to help keep them safe, secure and help them enjoy and thrive in sport.

How to play your part:

1. Listen to your child – do they play sport for fun, for friendship or because they enjoy the competition? And how do they want you to support them? Some children love loud cheers of encouragement, while others prefer a quieter show of support like a hand signal or a smile.
2. Keep sport fun – make children feel good by praising effort and progress as well as performance. Help them cope with difficult situations like team selections and competitions with encouragement and constructive feedback. 
3. Respect everyone – show what great sportsmanship looks like by cheering on the whole team, and respecting the coach and officials (even if you disagree with their decisions).
4. See something, say something - are adults shouting insults, criticising mistakes or challenging official decisions? Raise any issues with your club’s welfare officer or match day official.

What you do and what you say will make a difference to how your child feels, but it also makes a difference to how safe they are in their sport.

The Child Protection in Sport Unit (CPSU) has developed some question cards that you can use with your child to start a conversation.

You can download the cards here.

The questions on the cards are:

1. What are the best things I can say/do before training/competition to make you feel supported?
2. Who would you turn to if you had any worries while playing sport?
3. What do you wish that I would do less? How does it make you feel?
4. Have you seen an adult do something that made you feel worried? What did they do and how did you feel?
5. How does your sport make you feel and what do you want to get out of it?
6. What do I do that helps you be your best?
7. What are the best things I can say/do during a competition?

See something, say something

If you understand what your child needs to be their best, you will find it easier to spot when others are doing things that could be potentially harmful.

For example, are adults shouting from the side lines? Are they criticising mistakes? Are they focusing on a child’s weight? Do they challenge official decisions? Do they disrespect others? Are they pushing competitions when the child is too young?  

If you see something, say something. Your club or activity organisation should have a welfare officer and you can raise anything you see or hear with them.  

And if you are worried about anything that may cause harm to your child’s wellbeing, you can always contact your club’s welfare officer, or British Weight Lifting’s Safeguarding Lead at safeguarding@britishweightlifting.org.

If you need to report a concern, you can submit a confidential report by clicking the link below:

Report a concern here

Why you matter in your child’s sport:

Hear from Professor Camilla Knight, Director of Impact at Greenhouse Sports, as she explains why parents and carers matter so much in a child's experience of sport and physical activity.

She gives advice, hints and tips on what you can do to offer your child support - all based on more than 20 years of study and research into parental involvement in youth sport.