BSAC Safeguarding Officer, Dr Linda Ritson, has provided an update on what the organisation is doing about Welfare Officers and how it plans to develop and strengthen its welfare and safeguarding framework.
What is a BSAC Welfare Officer?
A Welfare Officer is a pivotal role that sits at the heart of the wellbeing of all members, irrespective of their age or ability. The Welfare Officer is deliberately not an elected post in the way the committee members are, nor is the Welfare Officer a member of the club management committee. This is because the Welfare Officer operates independently, working alongside the management committee to ensure that the health and wellbeing and best interests of members is centralised in all discussions and decision-making. This independence also means that the Welfare Officer cannot hold any other club management role, avoiding any conflict of interest.
The appointment of the Welfare Officer is a joint decision between the Chair and the Diving Officer, as the role entails club (‘dry’) as well as diving (‘wet’) matters. The appointee, however, does have to be willing to accept the role!
More Welfare Officers
The biggest priority at the moment is to see a Welfare Officer in every club. If a club does not yet have a Welfare Officer in place, Mandy Hill of the BSAC Membership team will be in touch soon, ahead of the new BSAC AMS membership system implementation.
Welfare Officer support
To help support Welfare Officers, there are two training videos available, one for adult safeguarding and one for child safeguarding. The separation of the policies was deliberate so that there could be no emphasis on one or the other. We do not differentiate between children and adults in our training and the vast majority of our members are adults, therefore each should be at least equally prominent.
Recognising the age profile of BSAC members has meant that a core strand of the three-year strategy for BSAC is to focus on the 19 to 35 age range so that we can build sustainability in our club and direct memberships.
I want all clubs to feel that they can welcome members of all ages and abilities, whether as trainees or qualified snorkellers and divers.
