Adult safeguarding

Safeguarding is about the proactive steps you take to create a safe and supportive environment and prevent harm from happening in the first place. It also includes how you respond if something does go wrong, including clear reporting pathways and expected responses.

You may sometimes hear the term adults at risk. This usually refers to adults who may be less able to remove themselves from harmful situations, for example because of an intellectual or physical disability. In sport, power dynamics can also increase vulnerability, including in high-performance environments.

HR policies usually relate to employees and cover issues such as bullying, performance management, and obligations under employment law. Safeguarding is broader and focuses more on participants in sport, where relationships may be less formal, but power dynamics are still significant.

The two areas are closely aligned and may address some of the same issues, such as sexual harassment. However, the responsibilities and responses can be different. Safeguarding also reflects our duty of care to volunteers and others who are not employees. While it often focuses on player protection, it can also apply to people in other roles, for example a team manager being regularly insulted by a coach, or a physio being propositioned by a team manager.

A healthy rugby environment helps create and sustain a healthy participant base and increase success for the sport.

Adult safeguarding matters for many reasons. Most importantly, it helps protect the safety and wellbeing of participants. It also affects:

•    Participation and retention
•    Success on and off the field
•    Public trust in the game
•    Health and safety obligations
•    Commercial partnerships
•    Government funding
•    Obligations to umbrella sporting bodies.
•    Integrity Code and legislative obligations, including investigation in the public interest even where the code has not been formally adopted.

Yes. Adults and their families can be groomed, and research suggests this does not stop at younger age groups. Grooming can occur in any setting where there is a power imbalance, including adult sport.

Athletes may be particularly vulnerable because sport can normalise close physical contact and reduce a person’s sense of personal boundaries over time. From an early age, athletes may experience frequent and sometimes very personal contact from a range of people for legitimate reasons, which can make unhealthy behaviour harder to recognise.

Coaching environments can also increase vulnerability, especially where one person controls selection, playing time, opportunities, or access to resources. Poor speaking-up pathways can increase the risk further, particularly if people see others lose status or suffer negative consequences after raising concerns. Team culture and group pressure can also make it harder for someone to act, even when harm is occurring.

Families and other adults can also be groomed into believing that harmful behaviour is normal or necessary for sporting success. An athlete may also fear that their family will be affected, blamed, or shamed, which can add pressure to comply.

Think about what behaviour you see as acceptable in the environments you are part of. We know that addressing lower-level behaviours early can make a big difference in preventing more serious harm. Build your confidence as an active bystander. That does not always mean confronting someone directly, but it does mean knowing what support and reporting pathways are available. Even if you have only noticed a small concern, reporting it may help build a wider picture. Think even about what language is used, what is tolerated and what needs to be challenged.

With your team or club, think about the values and culture you want to create. Are those standards being clearly set and consistently modelled? Know how to access support and consider what education or training your club or team could use to help keep everyone safer.

Harm is not just a rugby problem - it is a community problem, and rugby can be part of the solution. Clubs that do not set clear standards or live their values often lose members and struggle to retain trust. They can also face situations where the actions of club members outside rugby are linked back to the club and seen as part of its culture. That can affect sponsorship, membership, and people’s pride in their club. Rugby is also often criticised as sexist or as having a culture of harm. We need to work together to change that story by showing what good culture, accountability, and care look like in practice.