Safeguarding in Sport Special Interest Group
'Principles of Participation: Including Child Athletes in Decision-Making in Sport - Moving from Rhetoric to Reality'
Tuesday 27th June 2023 9:30am - 11:30am
Guest Speaker: Dr Melanie Lang
Involving children and young people in decision-making in sport is more than a legal imperative underpinned by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child; it is key to democratising sport and realising safe sporting environments. When done well, children’s participation, often referred to as giving them a ‘voice’, can enhance child safeguarding and protection from abuse by breaking down power imbalances, encouraging disclosures and a listening culture, and creating innovative, more athlete-centred sporting spaces.
However, sport in the UK and globally has been slow involve athletes in decision-making and there remains much misunderstanding among sport stakeholders about what meaningful child participation looks like in practice. As such, incorporating children’s voices can be said to be the missing link in most current strategies to safeguard children and promote their rights in sport.
This session will identify some of the barriers to child participation in sport and present a framework for best practice in implementing meaningful child participation to help sport stakeholders better engage children and young people in decision-making.
| Ticket Type | Price | Cart |
|---|---|---|
| Non Member Ticket SIG- Principles of Participation: Including Child Athletes in Decision-making in Sport- 27th June 2023 | £15.00 | |
| Members Ticket SIG- Principles of Participation: Including Child Athletes in Decision-making in Sport - 27th June 2023 | £0.00 |
Dr Melanie Lang is Director of the Centre for Child Protection and Safeguarding in Sport (CPSS) and Reader/Associate Professor in Child Protection and Children’s Rights in Sport at Edge Hill University, north-west England. Her research and teaching focus on the policy and practice of child protection and abuse prevention in sport, gender-based violence in sport, and children's rights in sport, especially participation rights or the right to a ‘voice’. Melanie has delivered training and consultancy on children’s rights and violence prevention in sport to national and international sports and human rights organisations, including the Council of Europe, the International Olympic Association, and the Canadian Coaching Association. She has published three books – The Routledge Handbook of Athlete Welfare (2021), Safeguarding, Child Protection and Abuse in Sport: International Perspectives in Research, Policy and Practice (2015), and Bullying and the Abuse of Power (2010) – and her work has been funded by the European Commission, the International Olympic Association, and Sport England. Melanie is a former elite youth athlete and has lived experience of sexual, physical, and emotional abuse in sport and non-sport contexts.
Opportunity to network with others and know I am part of a community of people committed to working for children and families; challenge to keep up to date and evidence-informed in my practice; sounding board with others for considering how best to improve policy and practice
