Suffolk County Cricket Board

County Welfare Officers Report following National Seminar on 17th September 2011 at Loughborough...

The seminar was more practical based this year on the duties of the County Welfare Officer and its possible dealings with LADO and scenario type exercises which were very worthwhile. The main changes are to the Safe hands Workshops which all Club Welfare Officers must attend every 3 years. The courses are becoming more practical based and are only related to Cricket hence this is the only course recognised by ECB and Suffolk Cricket.

Suffolk is running a Safe Hands Workshop on Wednesday 19th October 2011 at King Edward VI School Bury St Edmunds so if out of date then please contact Jo Turner as there are still spaces.  It is important that Club Welfare Officers are up to date as it is a pre requisite that to allow Clubs to enter and play in the Suffolk Cricket leagues and Two Counties Cricket League. Failure to comply could mean disqualification from the leagues for your teams.

1. Updates
Managed Migration
This now falls within Cricketing Department at ECB and not Welfare, though it was accepted that overseas coaches need to be verified and checked if working with children. (Please note recent e-mail circulated by Jo Turner)
Deputy County Welfare Officer
Good practice for counties to have a deputy as well as main Welfare Officer, most counties have now adopted this and some have 2 or 3 deputies. (Suffolk needs to recruit a deputy to myself anyone who may be interested please contact me, Jo Turner or Rob Jones at Suffolk Cricket Board for further information)

Safe hands 
a) No significant updates planned for this year so decided to continue to use the current yellow version.

Safe Hands Workshops and SPC courses
a) Changes have been made to the workbook and guidance given to Tutors and County Welfare Officers following the pilot, feedback still required on future Courses from attendees. (Workshops mainly geared for new Club Welfare Officers)
b) ECB is developing a Refresher Workshops for current Club Welfare Officers and it is hoped to roll this out in the New Year.  It may contain some distance learning and it will be more practical based taking on feedback about having to go over the same thing every 3 years.
c) Currently Welfare Officers should attend a SPC course (Safeguarding and Protection Course) .It is hoped that with the introduction of the above Workshops that this will no longer be the case.
d) ECB SPC courses are also being revised and they are looking to make them mainly e- learning. The ECB do recognise that people can attend similar courses within their work or that they may be presented by other organisations. They have accepted to recognise these in all other fields regarding cricket, except those involved in coaching who must complete the ECB SPC course because it is geared towards cricket participation

Review of ISA/CRBs
a) This was suspended after the elections but is still under review with certain parts of the old legislation being implemented under the Protecting of Freedoms Bill. ECB is still in consultation with Ministers, but it is likely that one of the outcomes will be the portability of CRBs
b) Recommended review of current CRB verifiers, it is proposed that all Club Welfare Officers having attended the Workshop will be able to verify CRB .It s hoped that all verifiers would have attended the Welfare Officer Workshop but still in discussions with Umpire Associations.

Up to date lists of Club Welfare Officers and CRB checks
ECB are trying to ensure they and we have up to date records of Club Welfare Officers.
The current list are dated and even after much chasing last year  by Jo Turner and myself  it does appear the list held by Suffolk Cricket Board in incorrect, hence I will be chasing a number of you for up to date information.
The leagues produce handbooks with current Welfare Officers some are in name only having not attended any Cricket related training. The more worrying aspect is that over 40% of those that we have details of, have not been CRB checked or have let it lapsed.
Can I ask the following?
1 If your club has recently changed Club Welfare Officers can you up date me or Jo Turner with current CWO details?
2.  If you are the current CWO that you check whether your CRB is up to date. I will be checking the data held by ECB so may be contacting some of you.
3. If you have not attended a Time to listen or Safe hands Workshop in the last 3 years then ensure you book yourself on one.
 This was discussed at recent Suffolk Cricket Board and Leagues will be asked to take a tough stance on this for next season and if the CWO is not up to date with Safe hands workshop or CRB, it could lead to your club not being allowed to participate in League Cricket.

LADO `s
You may come across these if you deal with an incident at your club and could be invited to attend a strategy meeting. It does happen as I was invited to one this year regarding a referral.
We have 3 in Suffolk and I have attached telephone numbers which cover differing parts of the County   North 01502 405188   South 01473 581871   West 01284 352205 for information.

Can I thank you all and if you wish to discuss anything raised in this report then please do not hesitate to contact me.

Graham MOSS
Suffolk CC County Welfare Officer
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07752 415619