Sports Welfare Officer joins Active Cheshire

Across England, sports clubs and organisations are being supported by a new network of Sport Welfare Officers. They have been recruited by Active Partnerships and funded by Sport England, through an investment of National Lottery money. For more information about the project, see here.

The Sport Welfare Officers are working with National Governing Bodies (NGBs) and key partners, such as the NSPCC’s Child Protection in Sport Unit and Ann Craft Trust, to develop a new local approach to assisting and supporting club welfare officers, to create safer club environments, increase expertise at local and national level and share best practice to help prevent concerns.

The programme will see 63 Sport Welfare Officers employed across the network of 43 Active Partnerships. Lystra Landon has recently joined Active Cheshire as our Sports Welfare Officer.

Lystra is a registered Social Worker with over 23 years’ experience in safeguarding. She previously worked for the NSPCC Child Protection in Sport Unit as a Training and Development Consultant, at the forefront of safeguarding children in sport. Prior to this, she worked for several years as a Designated Safeguarding Officer in football, supporting a volunteer welfare officer workforce to fulfil their safeguarding responsibilities.

Lystra is enthusiastic about making sport safe and inclusive for everyone. She recognises the importance volunteers play, in ensuring that the welfare of their participants is of paramount consideration. Lystra is looking forward to collaborating with these individuals and organisations, to support them to improve their welfare culture, understanding of safeguarding and bring those welfare officers across different sports together to make sport safe for everyone.

Mike Watson, Chief Executive Officer at Active Cheshire commented:

‘I’d like to welcome Lystra to Active Cheshire and I look forward to continuing our focus on the safeguarding and welfare of all participants, coaches and spectators across Cheshire and Warrington. This commitment from Sport England and The National Lottery shows a clear determination to learn from recent reviews, and build upon the strong foundations already in place from NGBs and beyond.’

Get in touch.

If you are a welfare officer or have responsibility for safeguarding for group in your local community (which involves movement/physical activity or sport), we would love to hear how we could support you. Please contact Lystra: lystra.landon@activecheshire.org.