Academic joins international pool of experts to help keep sport safe for children Council of Europe role to aid bodies with safeguarding
ONE of the UK’s leading figures in child protection in sport has been selected to be part of an international pool of experts offering advice and support on safeguarding children to global sporting institutions.
Dr Melanie Lang, Reader in Child Protection in Sport at Edge Hill University, has been appointed to the Council of Europe’s pool of international experts on safe sport in the academic expert category.
Experts appointed to the pool will advocate on safe sport for children to international institutions and sporting bodies, as well as in their home country.
Dr Lang, who is co-founder and codirector of the Centre for Child Protection and Safeguarding in Sport (CPSS), is the only British academic appointed to the pool.
She said: “I’m thrilled to be selected to be part of this important European initiative.
“The pool means national and international sports organisations have a recognised body of experts they can go to for evidence-based advice and support on safeguarding children from violence and promoting their rights in sport.
“It’s the next step in to helping sports organisations design and implement effective policies and build their capacity to promote children’s rights in sport, and the backing of an organisation as prestigious and committed to human rights as the Council of Europe means there’s a real chance to make a positive difference.”
The pool of international experts on safe sport brings together expertise covering all forms of violence and abuse against children in sport.
It unites experts across different fields who have a role to play in preventing and combating any form of violence and abuse against children in the field of sport. These include policymakers, researchers and academics, specialist supporting people with lived experience, child safeguarding officers, trainers/consultants, and agents of change.
The pool builds on the previously established group of European experts on sexual violence in sport which has existed since 2017. Dr Lang was also part of this panel.
Dr Lang already works closely with various national sports and coaching organisations to provide research, advice and consultancy on their safeguarding and child protection strategies and has worked across a range of topics relating to safeguarding and child protection in sport to policymakers, coaches, athletes and charities from the UK, China, Japan and Ghana.
To discover more about courses at Edge Hill, visit ehu.ac.uk/study.