Meet Minerva’s Club Welfare Officers

31st May, 2024

Andy Stewart continues to be the main Welfare Officer, supported by Anna Jones who rows with Midweekers and is focusing on the Junior team.

What do we do?

We deal with any welfare concerns that are raised at Minerva, bringing in expertise from British Rowing or other external bodies when required or raising within our own club management structure. We lead on the very important issue of safeguarding which is about protecting children and adults from physical and emotional hurt by having the right training, attitudes, policies and processes in place. This includes ensuring that all adults at Minerva working with under-18s have been vetted, DBS checked and have completed the appropriate safeguarding training.

We are spending the summer reviewing our clubs safeguarding policy, looking to establish a code of conduct for our junior team and assessing existing safeguarding knowledge and understanding across the club, so that we might look to plug gaps with local training. Ultimately, we all have a role to play. Everyone at Minerva should always be thinking about everyone else’s welfare, and embedding that in their approach, actions and interactions with others.

Why might you contact us?

You might have a concern about something you have seen or an issue that you would like someone to listen to. Speaking to either of us is in confidence, we log any issues raised so that we can look at any trends and give support and advice where needed. Safeguarding can be a bit like a jigsaw puzzle, if a central team is in charge of collecting the pieces, a much clearer and accurate picture can emerge. That’s why we keep an eye on issues and concerns that initially may have seemed low level but that over time have grown into something bigger that may require external intervention or support, its also why we need all members to remember to share any concerns with us however big or small.