Coaches Code of Conduct

The aim is to combine all the talents of all our volunteers to build a Training team. There is of necessity a process of identifying common standards of behaviour acceptable to all and the RFU. A code of conduct recognises the valuable contribution a volunteer makes to an organisation and seeks to protect him or her by identifying the common pitfalls.

In becoming a community coach you cross from being a private citizen into one with a public profile and subject to public scrutiny of your performance & behaviour. You will be judged by the public as a proxy for the club. The following code aims to identify possible areas of difficulty and avoid ambiguity and in this way protect the player, the coach and by extension the club.

Continuous Professional Development (CPD)

To coach at WRUFC you must:

• Membership with the club is compulsory, renewed annually

• Maintain extended CRB disclosure and renew every 3 years

• Maintain Rugby Ready status with the online component renewed every 12 months

• Lead coaches for each age group under 11 achieve level 1 coaching certificate

Lead coaches for U13 and older require level 2 coaching certificate

• Support coaches achieve the Tag Ready/Rugby Ready award

• Lead coaches achieve an emergency first aid qualification (EFA) revalidated every 3 years

• All coaches to attend the level 1 Safeguarding Young People in Rugby Union, now called “Play it Safe” revalidated every 3 years. Chair and Vice-chair attend the level 2 safeguarding children in rugby union course, now called “In Touch”.

Conduct on the Pitch (at Wortley and away):

Coaches are exemplars to the children in our care and as such our behaviour has to be exemplary. You represent the club, the RFU and the game of rugby union. Volunteers must be professional.

Responsibility to Yourself

• Don't lose own enjoyment of the game. Plan & work within own confidence limits.

• Seek support of your peers within the training team and the wider club

• Aspire to be better - CPD

• Seek support of the RFU (CCC mentoring, RDO)

Responsibility to Players:

When coaching or refereeing young players match officials must ALWAYS:

• Consider the safety and well-being of players first and always.

• Be a positive role model - Dress, Punctuality, Demeanour, Behaviour & Language

• Plan a coaching session with achievable goals

o Active – Games versus drills

o Purposeful – need to plan to ensure goals are met

o Enjoyable - Keep it fun. Young players play for fun and enjoyment and that winning is only part of it.

o Safe - activities appropriate to the age, ability and experience of those taking part.

• Develop a working relationship with players, based on mutual trust and respect.

o Communicate on the child’s level, explain decisions & encourage feedback.

o Emphasise positive reinforcement using positive exemplars.
DO NOT use language which may cause the player to lose confidence or self esteem.

o Be Inclusive - All players deserve equal opportunity of play. Avoid overplaying of players (particularly talented players).
o Equality - respect the rights, dignity and worth of all

• be aware of medical issues affecting their players and must seek regular updates of ID cards and medical declarations from the junior registrar for their charges

• Appreciate the needs of the players – which means what?

• NEVER Engage in any inappropriate contact with young players.

• NEVER tolerate bad language or verbal abuse from young players.

Responsibility to Parents:

• Hold & maintain the appropriate, valid qualifications

• Display consistently high standards of behaviour and appearance.

• Keep personal information confidential & subject to the Data Protection Act – contact details and child’s medical info

• Do Not smoke in front of the children

• Do Not drink or make reference to alcohol in front of the children

• Do Not make sexual references in front of the children

• To uphold and promote the club safeguarding policy

• To uphold and promote the clubs photographic policy

• To uphold and promote the clubs touchline policy See “Dear Spectator”

• Avoid unacceptable behaviour

Responsibility to Colleagues

• Make yourself available for regular meetings to plan, share best practice and troubleshoot

• Seek help and support from colleagues and be ready to give it in return

• Keep the training team informed of absences so cross cover can be arranged

• Be aware of training targets so players are “handed on” suitably skilled at the end of each season.

Responsibility to club:

• To be a positive role model while wearing Wortley colours: appearance, professionalism, punctuality, politeness and language

• Cyberspace is public space, the same standards are needed in any PUBLIC sphere

• Obtain appropriate levels of qualification
Responsibility to RFU and game as a whole

• Be an ambassador for the sport – consistently high standards of dress, behaviour and activity

• Follow all guidelines laid down by the national governing body and the Club.

• Promote the positive aspects of the sport (e.g. fair play).

• Help police the sport – report unacceptable behaviour

Conduct off the pitch:

School Uniform rules apply. If you are wearing Wortley colours you are representing Wortley and on pitch standards apply. Your private life remains your private life so long as you keep it private. Please bear in mind that cyberspace and social network sites are very much the public domain.

There is no circumstance where a coach would meet a child player in private outside of normal club activities. Should such a meeting occur accidentally, and a parent was not present it should be ended ASAP by the coach leaving and report it to the CSO.

Conduct in Cyberspace:

Private Lives must remain Private:

Social Media Sites: Any social media site you maintain must remain closed to casual enquiries. Children will seek to look coaches up – it is essential they are not able to find anything embarrassing or compromising. It is suggested that we try to look ourselves up and see how easy information is to find.

There is no reason for any coach to “friend” a player or give them any access to personal sites.

There is no reason for any coach to have direct communication by phone, text, tweet or whatever the next generation of communication may be
Email address: It is recommended that coaches obtain a separate email address for rugby matters and keep rugby business separate from personal mail. It is likely that children will obtain this email address from their parent’s computers. When this happens it must be reported to the CSO

Safeguarding:

It may be that many of these codes seem to you to be glaringly obvious or unnecessarily pedantic or unreasonably restrictive but I would just say two things:

1. These rules are present to avoid the repeat of a serious incident that has already occurred in some club in our region at some time. The guidance is there because somewhere, at sometime, someone did not think it obvious, did not follow a guideline and a serious problem emerged

2. Public Perception: The presentation of our working practices to the membership and the public, that we take these issues absolutely seriously is as effective in reassuring parents as it is in repelling an inquisitive predator. This presentation is as important as enacting the working practice itself. A rare example of where style is as important as content.

The net is fine to ensure it keeps the predator out, not to ensnare a hardworking, good hearted volunteer. If any of what follows asks you to change some aspect of your work for WRUFC please do not take it personally; there is absolutely no reason to be defensive, there is no accusation. However the codes are there for the protection of all and have to be followed.

The point emphasised at the safeguarding courses is that we have to be open to the idea of risk and that risk may come from any source. There are two sorts of risk:

• The predator – They will not advertise themselves, they will actively disguise their behaviour. They will groom the club, its officials and their intended victim. In all the examples given they were always the last person you could imagine, the most helpful, the most safe. They are not a creepy man in a light tan mackintosh that lurks on the fringes. They hide in plain sight.

• The Inappropriate – not actively seeking to cause a problem but simply doesn’t realise that they are.
Both groups will be in denial that their activity is inappropriate so are not going to volunteer to change their behaviour. Safeguarding is about PREVENTING inappropriate behaviour by making it impossible. However we also have to have our eyes open and police for people that are looking to ignore or get around the safeguarding policy.

Coaches must be more aware of the sensitivities than parents and stick closely to the letter of the policy. They should raise the profile of the safeguarding policy and promote it.
Support, promote and above all, stick to the club Safeguarding Policy

Always work in public:

Ensure you never find yourselves alone with a child. Lead and support coaches can chaperone each other or with the CSO “Two or none, but never one”.

Unavoidable and appropriate contact:

When contact is necessary is should be in the open, in public, with other coach present, with many witnesses and with appropriate chaperone present (parent/CSO/other coach).

Examples:

• Adding / Removing layer (coloured bibs, baselayers, training tops)

• assisting with Tag belts,

• tying laces,

• check studs

First Aid:

Only suitably qualified persons may administer first aid and only in the presence of a chaperone (parent or CSO)
Avoiding Inappropriate contact:
It is best to avoid the accusation by ensuring you are never alone with a child.
Stay in the open, in public and with a chaperone “Two or None but never One”

Clothing / Dressing / Changing room activities:

Officials MUST NOT

• Dress or undress a child. A parent will always be present to do this. A child must tuck his/her own shirt into their trousers

• Change in the same area as young players

• Allow mixed sexed changing facilities

• Shower with young players – agree with the coaches a timetable

• Be alone with young players at any time – if a young player comes into the dressing room ensure another adult is present

Transport:

Coaches must never
• Give a lift to a player without their parent / guardian present

• If children are travelling with an adult chaperone the children are dropped off first. The situation should not emerge that a child was left until last with an unchaperoned driver.

• Take a young player to your home

Communication:

All communication with players outside of training must be indirect

• Through established lines of communication – website, newsletter or

• Through parent/carers by email, phone or text.

There is no reason for a coach to hold a child’s mobile phone number or personal email address, nor for the child to hold the coaches mobile phone number.

It seems likely that a child could acquire a coaches contact details: If direct communication does occur between child and coach then CSO must be informed and will approach the parent and parties involved. Coaches must not respond or reply to texts, emails or any other form of direct approach from a player.

Photographic Policy:

Coaches and club members must be more aware of the sensitivities than parents and stick closely to the letter of the policy. They should raise the profile of the photographic policy and promote it.

Touchline Policy:

We must police our own sport: Officials must always report, in writing, to the Club Safeguarding officer (Donna Stevens) or CB Welfare Officer (John Sheppard) and/or club Secretary (Mike Shewring), behaviour by adults which you feel contravenes RFU Child Protection Policy

• Verbal bullying by coaches/parents/spectators

• Physical abuse by coaches/parents/spectators

• Inappropriate or aggressive contact by an adult to a young person

• Verbal abuse directed at you by young people or adults