Child Safeguarding & Player Welfare

Every child who trains with LSA has the right to be safe, to be treated with respect, and to enjoy their football. The welfare of the child comes before results, before reputation, and before the convenience of any adult in the building.

This policy is written to the Children's Act, 2022 and to Article 53 of the Constitution of Kenya, which gives every child the right to be protected from abuse, neglect, harmful cultural practices, all forms of violence, inhuman treatment and punishment, and hazardous or exploitative labour.

Everyone connected to the academy: coaches, team managers, administrative staff, volunteers, board members, physiotherapists and medical staff, drivers, visiting coaches and scouts, partner organisations working on our sessions, and parents and guardians at our grounds.

A child is anyone under the age of 18, as defined by the Children's Act, 2022.

• Everyone working with our players is recruited through a process that includes an application, an interview and references that we actually take up.
• No adult works unsupervised with children before their references and identification have been checked.
• Every coach and volunteer is taken through this policy and the codes of conduct below when they join, and signs to say they have read them.
• Any adult who declines to be checked does not work with our players.

Everyone working with our players will:

• Put the safety and wellbeing of the player ahead of winning, development targets and their own standing.
• Work in an open environment. Avoid being alone with a player where you cannot be seen, and if a one-to-one conversation is needed, hold it in sight of others.
• Keep to their role. Physical contact is for coaching, first aid and safety, it is explained before it happens, and it stops when the player says so.
• Speak to players in a way that would not embarrass anyone if it were repeated to the player's guardian.
• Communicate with players under 18 through their parent or guardian, not privately. No private messaging, no personal social media contact with a player.
• Never transport a player alone in a vehicle unless it is an emergency, and tell a guardian and another member of staff when it happens.
• Never give alcohol, tobacco, or any substance to a player, and never train or coach under the influence of any of them.
• Challenge bullying, discrimination and abusive language from anyone at a session — including from another adult, and including from a parent.
• Report a concern rather than investigating it themselves.

• Play for the badge and for each other. Respect teammates, opponents, coaches and match officials, in victory and in defeat.
• Bullying, in person or online, ends a player's involvement with the academy. So does any form of discrimination.
• Tell a coach, a guardian, or the safeguarding officer if something happens that makes you uncomfortable — about a teammate, about an adult, or about anything else.
• Be honest about your age and your identity. Age fraud carries disqualification.
• Look after yourself: turn up on time, in the right kit, ready to train, and tell a coach about an injury rather than playing through it.

• Support your player and the players around them. Encourage effort, not just outcome.
• Leave the coaching to the coaches during a session, and leave the officiating to the officials during a match.
• Never abuse or threaten a player, a coach, an opponent or a match official. We will ask you to leave, and we will not apologise for it.
• Deliver and collect your player on time, and tell us in advance if someone else is collecting them.
• Tell us about any medical condition, allergy or medication that a coach would need to know about in an emergency, and keep it up to date.
• Raise a concern with us directly rather than on social media, so that we can act on it.

• Sessions are staffed so that no coach is alone with a group, and a register is taken at every session.
• Players are released only to a parent, a guardian, or a named adult a guardian has told us about.
• First aid provision and an emergency contact list are present at every session and fixture.
• For away fixtures and tours, guardians are told the itinerary, the staff travelling and the arrangements for the players in advance, and give written consent.
• Overnight arrangements, where they arise, separate adults from players, and no adult shares a room with a player.

Images of children are a safeguarding matter as much as a privacy one. The rules are the same as those in section 7 of the Privacy Policy, and in summary:

• No image is published without written guardian consent recorded against that player, and consent can be withdrawn at any time.
• Players are photographed in kit and taking part. Never in changing rooms, never receiving medical treatment.
• We do not publish a child's full name with their image unless a guardian has specifically agreed, and never their contact details, school or home area.
• Anyone photographing at our sessions — press, scouts, partners — does so under this policy, and is told which players may not be photographed.
• Staff do not take images of players on personal devices.

You are not being asked to diagnose anything. You are being asked to notice, and to pass it on. Abuse takes several forms, and more than one can be present at once:

Physical

Hitting, shaking, or otherwise causing physical harm — including pushing a player to train through injury, or using exercise as punishment.

Emotional

Persistent criticism, humiliation, shouting, threats, or holding a player to expectations they cannot meet.

Sexual

Any sexual act or contact with a child, and any exposure of a child to sexual material or behaviour.

Neglect

Failing to meet a child's basic needs — leaving them unsupervised, exposed to cold or heat, without water, or without help when hurt.

Bullying

By an adult or by another player, on the pitch or online. Repetition is not required for it to count.

For anything else, tell the designated safeguarding officer. You do not need to be certain, you do not need evidence, and you will not be asked to justify raising it.

Designated safeguarding officer

To be confirmed: name of the designated safeguarding officer

Reporting line

To be confirmed: safeguarding reporting line

Email

academy@lifeandsports.co.ke

In person

Any coach at any session, Lang'ata, Nairobi, Kenya

1. 01Write down what you saw or were told, in the words used, as soon as you can, with the date and time.
2. 02Do not question the child further, and do not promise to keep it secret — promise instead that you will tell only the people who need to know in order to help.
3. 03Do not confront the person the concern is about.
4. 04Pass it to the safeguarding officer the same day.

If the concern is about the safeguarding officer, or if you have raised something and nothing has happened, go directly to the police, to the Directorate of Children's Services, or to Childline Kenya on 116. Nothing in this policy asks you to wait for us.

1. 01The safeguarding officer records the concern and makes the child safe first.
2. 02Where there is any suspicion of abuse, the matter is referred to the Directorate of Children's Services or the police. That referral is not ours to withhold, and it is not conditional on the academy's own view of the evidence.
3. 03Any adult the concern is about is stood down from contact with players while it is looked into. Standing someone down is a precaution, not a finding.
4. 04The player's guardian is informed, unless doing so would put the child at greater risk.
5. 05We cooperate fully with any statutory investigation, and we do not run our own in parallel with it.
6. 06The person who raised the concern is told that it was acted on. They are not necessarily told the outcome, because that is usually the child's information rather than theirs.

Age fraud is a welfare issue before it is a competitive one: it puts a younger child on a pitch with someone materially bigger, and it takes a place from the player it belonged to. We verify age at registration, we play players in the age group their documents support, and disqualification follows where fraud is found.

Safeguarding records are kept separately from ordinary player records, accessible only to the safeguarding officer and, where necessary, to statutory agencies. They are shared on a need-to-know basis and never as gossip. Retention is covered by the Privacy Policy: safeguarding records may be kept beyond the ordinary retention periods where a duty of care or a legal obligation requires it.

This policy is reviewed at least once a year, and immediately after any safeguarding incident, so that what we learned changes what we do. The date at the top of this page reflects the current version.