In Ireland, under the Children First Act 2015, all organisations working with children must carry out a specific Child Protection Risk Assessment, and produce a Child Safeguarding Statement, that is available on request, that outlines the policies and procedures which are in place to manage the risks that have been identified.
All parkrun events in Ireland hold a printed copy of this statement, which can be found below.
2.5.1 parkrun Ireland Child Safeguarding Statement
parkrun Ireland is a part of the charity parkrun Global ltd. delivering regular, free, timed, volunteer-organised walk, jog, run events across Ireland. parkrun Ireland organises two types of event: 5k parkruns and 2k junior parkruns.
The events take place weekly, usually at 9:30 am, every Saturday (5k) and Sunday (2k), in areas of open space. They are simple to organise and a team of local volunteers manage each event. The events attract and welcome people of all ages, including children. junior parkrun is for 4-14-year-olds, with older children being allowed as exceptions on a case by case basis.
For all participants, and children in particular, participation is primarily for fun, being free from undue pressure from parents, other adults or their peers, and in the full understanding they are participating in a volunteer-delivered timed walk/ jog/ run rather than a race.
parkrun Ireland is committed to safeguarding all children and young people. All our events work under the guidance, instruction, and principles of our safeguarding policies, processes, and procedures, all of which can be found on the parkrun safeguarding hub. All our volunteers and staff working with children throughout the organisation seek to create a safe environment for children and young people to participate, whether they are running, walking or volunteering.
parkrun has a procedure for maintaining a list of mandated persons in accordance with the Children First Act (2015). This list is managed and updated by the Global Safeguarding Team. There is also a procedure for appointing the relevant person. These procedures are both outlined in the “parkrun Ireland Relevant and Mandated Persons Procedure”.
The parkrun Ireland Safeguarding Risk Assessment (below) indicates the areas of potential risk of harm at both 5k and 2k (junior) parkrun events, the likelihood of the risk occurring, and gives the required policy, guidance or process documents required to alleviate these risks.
Both our Child Safeguarding Statement, and our Safeguarding Risk Assessment (below) have been developed in line with requirements under the Children First Act 2015 (the Children First: National Guidance, and Tusla’s Child Safeguarding: A Guide for Policy, Procedure and Practice).
In addition to our Risk Assessment document, there are further procedures that support our intention to safeguard children whilst they are at parkrun in any capacity, including:
- Procedures for the management of allegations of abuse or misconduct by staff or volunteers against a child participating in parkrun in any way.
- Procedures for the safe recruitment of staff and volunteers to work with children.
- Procedures for access to child safeguarding training and information, including the identification of the occurrence of harm.
- Procedure for the reporting of child protection or welfare concerns to the Statutory Authorities (e.g. Tusla).
- Procedure of a comprehensive Incident Management System.
For further information please contact safeguarding@parkrun.com.
We recognise that implementation is an ongoing process. We are committed to the implementation of this Child Safeguarding Statement and the procedures that support our intention to keep children safe from harm whilst at parkrun. This Child Safeguarding Statement, along with all our safeguarding processes and procedures, will be reviewed every two years, or as soon as practicable after there has been a material change in any matter to which the statement refers.
For queries, please contact any member of our Safeguarding Team at safeguarding@parkrun.com.
Relevant Person:
Please contact Clare Fowler, Relevant Person and Designated Lead Person under the Children First Act 2015 at clare.fowler@parkrun.com
For further information of how to respond to or report abuse, please follow our Safeguarding Reporting Process or our Whistleblowing Policy - accessible via safeguarding.parkrun.com.
Date of adoption: 16 September 2024
Intended date of review 16 September 2026.
2.5.2 Child Safeguarding Risk Assessment (parkrun Ireland)
This risk assessment considers the potential for harm to come to children whilst they are at a parkrun event in any capacity, whether running, walking, or volunteering, including the area of online safety when accessing the internet in relation to parkrun activities.
In accordance with the requirements of Section 11 (1) of the Children First Act 2015, the risk is of abuse and harm, not health and safety, which is covered by our general parkrun risk assessments.
It is important to understand that it is not possible to eliminate risk completely, but risks can be significantly reduced if they are properly managed.
| Potential risk of harm to children | Likelihood of risk occurring (L, M, H) | Seriousness of consequence if it did occur | Responsibility for risk | Current controls to reduce the risk/future actions to reduce the risk |
| Pushy parents | High | Could be L, M or H depending on severity | Run Director, Event team, Safeguarding lead | At junior parkrun, all event teams receive Tusla child protection training via online training. The issue of pushy parents is also included on the parkrun Safeguarding Hub including advice on how to manage these situations. All incidents of pushy parents are reported to the Safeguarding lead who follows it up. |
| Non-collection of a child | Low | Medium | Run Director | Guidance for event teams is provided via the Safeguarding Hub via the Non-collection of a child procedure. All incidents of non-collection of a child are reported to the Safeguarding lead who follows it up. |
| Children forming an inappropriate relationship with and adult volunteer Over familiarity |
Low | High | Event Director, parent | All teams are trained on this via the above mentioned training. Before a junior event is launched, all core team members are Garda Vetted to ensure no one barred from working with children can take a core role. Events are held in public places; there are no private spaces (no changing rooms, no indoor spaces at all) where adult volunteers can be alone and out of sight with children. Toilet facilities where there are any are associated with the publicly available facilities and are not provided by or managed by parkrun. To minimise the risk of grooming, we have clear social media policies, with all communication between children and adults restricted to official parkrun channels, and only in relation to the day to day running of parkrun events. Whistleblowing procedures are in place and available via the Safeguarding Hub so that concerns can be appropriately reported. |
| Unauthorised photography and recording activity | Low | Medium | Run Director | Photographers are registered volunteers who adhere to the parkrun photography policies (available on the Volunteer Hub) These volunteers wear high-viz jackets so anyone else taking photographs would be easily spotted and approached by the Run Director. |
| Lack of correct Garda Vetting for key volunteers | Low | Medium | Safeguarding Lead | Roles at 5k events do not require Garda Vetting checks. At junior parkrun events Event Directors, Run Directors and regular volunteers are Garda Vetted. The Safeguarding Team maintain secure records of the names of the core team at junior parkrun events and the date of their Garda Vetting check. Teams are contacted to audit this to ensure that any new volunteers apply for a Garda Vetting check. Garda Vetting checks are completed in conjunction with Athletics Ireland and must be refreshed every three years. |
| Peer to peer behavioural issues | Low | Low | Run Director, Event Director | Anti-bullying policy in place available on the Safeguarding Hub. |
| Missing Child | Low | High | Run Director | Missing child policy in place and available on the Safeguarding Hub. |
| Child being abducted or taken away by an unauthorised adult | Low | High | Run Director | Our 5k events require all children under the age of 11 to run within arms length of a parent/ carer/ adult of their parents choosing. This rule is strictly enforced via our incident management system. Our 2k courses are designed so that children are within sight of a marshal at all times. Marshals should be positioned no more than 100m apart and within clear sight of the next marshal. In addition each event has at least one volunteer adult tail walker, who walks at the back, to ensure no-one is left out on the course at the end and provides additional eyes and ears on the event. |
| Concerns of abuse or harm not reported | Medium | High | Event Teams | How to identify abuse and how to report it is covered in the aforementioned training and on the Safeguarding Hub. In addition, we monitor our reporting data to identify countries who are under reporting incidents, and provide additional resource and support accordingly. |
| Lack of knowledge of organisational and statutory reporting procedures. | Medium | Medium | Safeguarding Lead, Ambassadors, Country Manager | We have a highly experienced and knowledgeable Global Safeguarding Team who regularly attend training courses and workshops to ensure their knowledge and work is of an industry leading standard. They work alongside Country Managers to ensure local laws, cultures, and traditions are suitably considered when implementing child protection best practice, and responding to incidents of concern. In addition, when necessary, the parkrun team will work together with external bodies such as Athletics Ireland, Tusla, and the ISPCC to seek advice and share information. |
| Recruitment of inappropriate volunteers | Medium | Medium | Ambassadors, Event Directors, Country Manager | parkrun have a robust volunteer recruitment and management process in place for recruiting, training, and managing all its volunteers, according to the level of risk they pose at an event. In addition, for junior events, all core team members are subject to a Garda Vetting check to ensure they are suitable to volunteer with children. |
Relevant links and resources: