Canoe Wales is the national governing body for paddle sport in Wales. We:

  • Manage the National White Water Centre which is located on the river Tryweryn in Bala, North Wales
  • Represent the interests of our club and individual members
  • Advocate on behalf of the interests of the sport in Wales
  • Provide coaching and development programmes from local to international level
  • Stage national and international competitions.

Child Protection

Creating a safer environment within our sport in order that everyone can enjoy themselves safely is everyone’s responsibility - coaches, volunteers, sport and recreation organisers, local clubs and associations, schools, all levels of Government and, of course, the participants.

It recently became a requirement for all coaches to receive training on child protection and hold an enhanced disclosure / CRB check by the end of 2010. This BCU document outlines the required level of Child Protection Training for all coaches and volunteers, which will depend on the level of contact you have with children and how much responsibility you have for welfare issues within your organisation.

The latest version of the BCU 'Child Protection Policy 2010' and the 'Photographic and Filming Guidelines' are available for you to read or download here.

The Minimum Required Training

All coaches must undertake some form of child protection training - for those who do not have regular contact with children as a coach or volunteer, an online course may be all that is required. The BCU's online course can be found here.

Some other Child Protection training courses are accepted as equivalents to those provided by the BCU, please consult the Equivalent Training Guidance document to see whether any training that you have already attended will be accepted.

Basic Workshops

For most coaches, a 3 hour course such as the Safeguarding & Protecting Children workshop provided by sports coach UK will be sufficient. Canoe Wales will be running several of these workshops across the country, including at the regional coach update weekends. Courses run by Canoe Wales will, of course, be tailored to relate to kayaking and canoeing; however sports coach UK also provide the workshop as a generic course that is applicable to all sports. The list of dates of scUK courses running across Wales can be found online, just follow the link. If you live on the English borders, you may find a more convenient scUK course in England, so take a look at the scUK workshop finder.

Advice for clubs

Clubs should take the matter of child protection and harassment seriously and preferably appoint a person responsible for this area. If it is a small club it may well be the chairman or secretary. This person does not need to be an expert in Child Protection, but should have attended the relevant Time to Listen Training. It is not up to any club member or official to decide if child abuse has occurred, but it is their responsibility to take action, however small the concern.

Useful links for Club and Competition Welfare Officer:

Framework partnerships

Support for Coaches – an independent person

As part of our service to coaches, Canoe Wales and the BCU offer an "independent person" service. The independent person can be contacted by a coach in the event of an allegation being made against them, allegations such as negligence, discrimination, a child protection issue or any other alleged breach of the coaching code. If you have had an allegation made against you and wish to discuss the situation in confidence, you can contact our appointed independent person, Nigel Timmins. He will outline the procedure and offer advice as appropriate. You can contact Nigel in confidence on 01768 480 084.