Safeguarding

Our commitment

Junior football and junior netball both train here, so children are on these courts most weeks. Haxby Town Council is committed to providing a facility where they are safe, and everyone using the courts shares that responsibility.

Who is responsible for children at the courts

The courts are unsupervised. The council doesn't provide coaching, stewarding or supervision, and there is no one on site.

• Whoever makes the booking is responsible for the people in their group, including any children.
• Clubs are responsible for their own sessions — their coaches, their DBS checks, their ratios, their own safeguarding policy. This statement doesn't replace any of that.
• Parents and carers should satisfy themselves about arrangements for any session their child attends.

Photographs

The site asks for optional photos of the court's condition when you arrive and leave. This is the part of the site most likely to touch on safeguarding, so it's built deliberately:

• Photograph the court, not people. Take the shot when the court is clear, or from an angle that avoids people. If someone ends up in frame, retake it.
• Photos are never public. They're stored privately and can't be opened from a link — the site checks who you are first. Only the person who took the photo and the council's committee can see it. They are never published, never shown to other users, and never used for promotion.
• Location data is stripped before upload, so a photo can't reveal where or when it was taken.
• They're deleted automatically after 4 weeks, whether anyone remembers to or not.
• Nothing is ever required. No one is refused a court for declining to add a photo, so no one is ever pressured into taking one.

If a photo containing a child is uploaded, tell us and we will delete it immediately — no explanation needed.

Raising a concern

If you're worried about a child's safety at the courts:

• If a child is in immediate danger, call 999. Don't wait for us.
• Otherwise contact Haxby Town Council at clerk@haxbytowncouncil.gov.uk, marking your message for the attention of the safeguarding lead.
• You can also contact City of York Council's children's social care, or the NSPCC helpline on 0808 800 5000.
• If your concern is about a club's session, raise it with that club's safeguarding officer as well.

Concerns are taken seriously and treated confidentially.

Reviewing this statement

This statement covers the courts and this website. It sits alongside — and does not replace — the council's own safeguarding policy and those of the partner clubs.