The role of the County Safeguarding Officer
The County Safeguarding Officer is a point of contact ONLY for Club Safeguarding Officers (CSOs) when concerns are raised at Club Level or from within a league. Occasionally, they should also be available as a contact for Clubs, should someone feel they cannot approach their own CSO.
If a County Safeguarding Officer is made aware of a serious safeguarding concern, they should, in line with EN Safeguarding Reporting Procedures,
- Consider the concern,
- Support the CSO or other person to report the matter to police, social services and/or police,
- Advise the CSO/club what to do next,
- and/or liaise with the EN Lead Safeguarding Officer and/or Regional Safeguarding officer
The County Safeguarding Officer is primarily not there to receive reports of, record or investigate serious or repeated instances of abuse or poor practice: that is for the England Netball safeguarding team to do so.
On occasions the England Netball safeguarding team may ask that the County officer carries out enquiries and interventions with clubs or individuals to resolve low level or isolated incidents of concern.
The County Safeguarding Officer will deal with any concerns raised in any County led programme including Performance and County League.