Rise has welcomed two new members of the team who will carry out vital work - supporting organisations to keep children and adults safe in sport. 

Sarah Baylis joins as Rise’s sports welfare manager for North of Tyne – and will work across Newcastle, North Tyneside and Northumberland. Richard Steele is sport welfare manager for South of Tyne, covering South Tyneside, Sunderland and Gateshead. 

Both Richard and Sarah will support National Governing Bodies (NGBs), sports club welfare officers, and local community organisations to improve their safeguarding policies and practices to create safe, inclusive environments for children and adults. 

Sarah said: “I’m looking forward to working with organisations to prioritise inclusion and motivate cultural change to create safer and more welcoming environments so that everyone can enjoy and feel safe to participate in sport and activity.” 

Richard adds: “The role is a great opportunity to work with a wide range of partners.” 

Clare Morley, chief executive officer at Rise, said: “We’re pleased to welcome Sarah and Richard to our team and we value the work they do. It’s essential that sport is a safe and inclusive environment for everyone.   

“We are committed to ensuring that children, young people, and adults can take part in physical activity and sport in a safe environment and we’re always working hard to continually improve our safeguarding practices.” 

Sarah and Richard will offer:  

• Support – they can help club welfare officers to create a safer culture within their organisation.  

• Training – they can provide, or signpost to, training for staff/volunteers in person or via Teams on a variety of sport-specific and safeguarding topics.  

• Auditing – they can help to ensure clubs are meeting the safeguarding and welfare requirements set out by National Governing Bodies.  

• Signposting – they can direct clubs to appropriate services and sources of support.  

• Networks – they can make connections for people to share news, information and best practice.  

• Events – they can attend events to raise awareness of safeguarding and wellbeing amongst participants, parents and carers. 

Contact details:

Sarah: sarah.baylis@wearerise.co.uk or 07933 519864

Richard: richard.steele@wearerise.co.uk or 07526 511841

National network 

Sarah and Richard are part of a wider, national network of sport welfare officers, who are supporting clubs and organisations across England. This network was created as part of Sport England’s policy response to the Whyte Review. 

The aim of the network is to increase welfare capacity and expertise at a local and national level and share best practice to help prevent concerns, making sport safe for everyone.