Manage your sport’s safety risks

This article appears in the May 2009 edition of Sportshorts.

Sport clubs need to contend with many risks, especially in areas such as finance, governance, events, volunteers or their environment.

For volunteer committees, the practice of risk management – identifying and fixing risks – can seem overwhelming. But its importance is undisputed. Effective risk management underscores member safety and club viability. Committee members are also expected, by law, to manage risks.

SafeClub focuses specifically on clubs’ sports safety risks and uses simple risk management techniques to help create safer sport.

“SafeClub is a sports safety training program for community sports clubs,” says Kristy Abbott from Youthsafe, the organisation which developed SafeClub in conjunction with Northern Sydney Central Coast Health.

“Using user-friendly risk management techniques, SafeClub helps clubs deal with injury risks that could occur on field and during associated club activities, such as in the canteen and car park,” said Ms Abbott.

In practice, SafeClub is two, three hour training sessions run by Youthsafe facilitators. Participants develop a club-specific sports safety manual and receive ongoing support from Youthsafe.

“The safety manual includes a safety policy, safety action plan, injury records and safety sub-policies.

“The clubs we’ve worked with to date have really valued the simplicity of SafeClub, along with its practical outcomes. It’s also important that participants walk away with the confidence to tackle risk management.

“A recent research project conducted by the University of NSW showed that clubs taking part in SafeClub significantly improved their safety measures. Steps included appointing a safety officer and including safety as a regular item of meeting agendas,” said Ms Abbott.

Football NSW were one of the first to get onboard with SafeClub, trialling the program last year. Football NSW Risk Manager, Michelle Hanley, has no doubt of its value.

“SafeClub has already benefited the football clubs who completed the course in 2008, by highlighting the importance of injury prevention and risk management relative to issues at the club level.

“It helped clubs identify their duty of care responsibilities and has contributed to making the club more aware of safety, injury prevention and risk management in general.

“The feedback on the SafeClub manual is that it’s a very useful resource and provides easy to understand information to assist in the practical implementation and ongoing safety awareness.

“Football NSW is confident that the availability of SafeClub will assist in reducing and preventing injuries and incidents within the sport,” said Ms Hanley.

More information or to become involved in SafeClub: Kristy Abbott, Youthsafe phone 9809 4615 kristya@youthsafe.org