As part of Safeguarding Adults Week, we are delighted that 12 members of the British Judo Association have recently completed the NSPCC Virtual Classroom Time To Listen Course to become Club Welfare Officers.

The Covid-19 pandemic has meant that face-to-face training courses have become impossible to deliver, so much of our training activity has moved online and this course was no exception. The virtual course delivered via Zoom, consisted of 3 modules, all of which were three and a half hours long in total and were delivered in 2 sessions, over a period of a week.

Each week the members logged on to join the online classroom, which allowed them to interact with their tutors and their fellow Club Welfare Officers sharing their experience, concerns and ideas. All of those taking part in the session expressed their thought that the sessions were “relevant, engaging and equivalent to a face to face classroom input, with the added bonus of a reduced course fee and not having to travel large distances to get to the sessions.”

Following the successful conclusion of the course, the BJA has validated 12 members to have an overview of safeguarding within their clubs, be better prepared and to be more able to look after those more vulnerable children and adults who regularly take part in judo. Within those 12 members, we welcome 6 new members to the role.

A big thank you goes out to the training delivery team of Brett Bader, Carl Parkin and Kerry Tansey who have worked together to make sure the consistency of the training was maintained throughout.

If anybody else requires to revalidate their Time to Listen qualification or is interested in becoming a Club Welfare Officer please contact Keith Eldridge at keith.eldridge@britishjudo.org.uk or Marina Dain at marina.dain@britishjudo.org.uk.

Please look out for future dates being made available for revalidation on the website.