Singapore Gymnastics Commitment to Child Safe Sport

Singapore Gymnastics Commitment to Child Safe Sport

Singapore Gymnastics (SG) is committed to having a proactive and preventative approach to the safety, wellbeing, participation, and empowerment of all Children who access gymnastics programmes across Singapore. In late 2018 SG declared their position on developing, promoting, and ensuring a child safe environment by adopting and implementing a Child Commitment Statement. Over the past few years all affiliated Gymnastics Clubs have also acknowledged the importance of this by agreeing and implementing their own Club Child Commitment Statement

On top of the two documents, Singapore Gymnastics have over the past few years, taken additional measures to strengthen its lead in Child Safety by: • Developing organisational child safe plan and framework • Implementing adoption of Child Commitment Statement by all clubs as part of the club re-affiliation standards from 2020 onwards • Comprehensive annual review of the SG Member Protection Policy to ensure best practice and relevance to the community • 60% of the National Office are trained in responding to Safe Sport related cases • Adherence to recruitment protocols that reduce risk to the community and follow due diligence for all employment appointments, particularly any involving coaching and working with children • Set up a dedicated Child Safe webpage on the SG website, which consolidates and shares: o a guide to creating a healthy and safe sport environment off the field of play. Whether you are a coach, administrator, or parent, we all have a role to play in playing sports a fun and rewarding experience. o a Child Safe Virtual Training guide, sharing guidelines on how to optimise the use of the internet while minimising its potential harm o Safe Sport Reporting Protocols • Creation of a SG Club Child Safe Online Module which is now a requirement of Club Affiliation since 2021. The SG Club Child Safe online module is designed to share the best practices followed by top Child Safety industry leaders and CoachSG Safe Sport agency. This is to create organisational awareness of abuse within Singapore’s local community, starting with club owners, managers, and administrators.

Singapore Gymnastics continues to ensure that child safety and the practise of safeguarding children in sport is embedded in its organisation’s culture, reflected in its policies and procedures, and understood and practised by all the members of the community at all levels of the sport.

We ensure that everyone understands their role and the behaviour we expect in relation to keeping athletes, coaches, judges, volunteers, members, and staff safe from harassment and abuse through the applications of the respective Codes of Conduct and the Member Protection Policy. We have Code of Conduct Policies, approved, and endorsed by the Board that outlines SG’s expectations of behaviour from athletes, coaches, judges, volunteers, members, and staff.

In 2021 the Board adopted a Child Safe Policy. The policy clearly demonstrates Singapore Gymnastics’ further commitment to the safety and wellbeing of children and young people. The policy, which came into effect on

1 January 2022, gives guidance on the processes and procedures that aim to ensure children’s safety and wellbeing across all areas of the organisation’s work.

With the membership base being predominantly children under the age of 18, it is important that SG uphold a commitment to a Child Safe environment and have now taken the next step by adopting a new Child Safe Policy. The Child Safe Policy stands alongside SG’s Member Protection Policy that was adopted in January 2019, and further expands on SG’s Coaches Code of Ethical Practise. These documents show the importance that SG places on ensuring it has a prioritised focus on child protection.

The purpose of the Child Safe policy is to: • Clearly demonstrate Singapore Gymnastics’ commitment to the safety and wellbeing of children and young people. • Inform all leaders, staff, and volunteers of their obligations to act ethically towards children and their roles and responsibilities in ensuring the safety and wellbeing of children. • Give guidance on the processes and procedures that aim to ensure children’s safety and wellbeing across all areas of the organisation’s work.

The implementation of the policy is part of SG’s larger strategic Child Safe Plan, which also includes educational workshops, courses and online modules that support and inform our gymnastics clubs and coaches.

SG in its commitment to communicate the policy to all stakeholders conducted forums and workshops. The policy was distributed directly to Affiliated Clubs and Technical Members. To encourage all affiliated clubs and coaches to become familiar with the policy, a 10-question assessment was developed that would allow clubs to have staff complete to ensure their understanding of the Child Safe Policy.

The Sport Singapore Unified Code was launched on 23 November 2021. It is the cornerstone of the Safe Sport Programme and sets out a unified reference for the Singapore sporting community that defines, describes, and explains the forms of abuse and harassment which may take place in the sporting environment. Together, the Safe Sport Unified Code and the Safe Sport Programme form the national framework for safeguarding in sport.

SG are working with SportSG to ensure that all the current SG documents and processes are aligned to the Safe Sport Unified Code. SG will continue to support ongoing education and training for all stakeholders, ensuring that the information provided is up to date.

SG will continually advocate to develop a safe, inclusive, and supportive environment. Our policies and procedures seek to address risks to child safety and to establish a child safe culture and practices. All stakeholders have access to the policies and understand their implications in the policy. We will continue to regularly review our policies, gain endorsement of changes, and advise all stakeholders of the changes.