Victoria Brown spent 13 years within the police and it’s the expertise she realized throughout that point that she has delivered to her position because the safeguarding supervisor of Badminton England.
Having beforehand labored for England Golf and British Biking, Brown joined Badminton England in August 2022, with the problem of growing and delivering a safeguarding technique for badminton in England.
And it was her background within the police that has been instrumental in what she has tried to place in place.
Brown defined: “My skilled background was in policing. I got here out of the police about seven years in the past, I labored in a safeguarding and investigative position within the police. I left there, labored in Nottingham to hitch the game sector.
“I noticed the chance to maneuver into sport in a task I may use the abilities I picked up as a police officer over 13 years. It was a possibility to enter one thing that was simply safeguarding centered, which was one thing I used to be actually captivated with within the police. It was utilizing these expertise to take them into the game sector.
“It’s very completely different however the final 5 years of my profession within the police had been centered round safeguarding and the way different companies can have an effect on that, supporting households and weak folks.
“Seeing it at that degree, working within the police. All people has a touchpoint in life, there are folks with vulnerabilities in sport and there are issues you are able to do there. Should you do it nicely in sport, you possibly can have an effect on somebody’s life.”
Below Brown’s management, Badminton England had been nominated for an award on the Lime Mild Awards for Excellent Service for a Safeguarding Crew.
The nomination got here after the safeguarding workforce had made large strides, shifting from a concentrate on case administration to a higher emphasis on schooling and coaching and recognition of the broader worth of specializing in welfare.
Among the many methods applied, Brown got here up with the thought of Safeguarding and Wellbeing Week, which was held for the primary time in July.
It’s a part of a want to create a constructive tradition round safeguarding.
Brown added: “My position was introduced in to be extra proactive than reactive, displaying we’re a sport that cares for everyone, now we have no threshold, we wish to assist the place we will, it’s not nearly safeguarding and abuse in its strictest sense.
“We perceive we will assist and have a constructive impression on folks’s lives exterior sport. Fifty per cent of the issues that are available haven’t any relation to the game in any respect, it’s considerations about folks’s lives exterior of badminton.
“They arrive to us as a result of the individuals are concerned in badminton. It may very well be a toddler going to a membership however one thing’s not going nicely in school, however they disclose one thing in badminton. We are able to get in contact, present assist and assist them the place we will. It’s about preserving folks protected within the sport but in addition offering assist for issues occurring exterior in badminton, which we’re made conscious of due to their involvement in badminton.
“You’re the eyes and ears, the buddies, officers, folks throughout the membership discover adjustments or decide up on folks’s behaviours. You ask them how they’re feeling, what’s incorrect, and if we will do something to assist, we’ll do – if they need it.”