Mitigating Abuse of Children and Vulnerable Adults in Your Affiliate

Touch Football has been experiencing significant growth in Australia over recent years. It has become increasingly popular across various age groups and demographics, including both recreational players and competitive leagues.

As more and more people are attracted to the sport, this also means the level of minors and vulnerable people who take up the sport is also increasing.

While this trend is positive for the future of Touch Football in Australia, it also means that clubs need to consider the risks associated with these younger and more vulnerable people taking up the game.

The protection of children and vulnerable adults is the responsibility of those entrusted with their care - particularly in organisations whose employees or volunteers interact frequently with them.

Perceptions of unsafe environments, insensitivity, delayed response or mishandling can easily compound the error in the eyes of alleged survivors, their families, the public and, potentially, the courts. 

The human, reputational, and financial impacts of an allegation or act of sexual abuse can be mitigated within the first hours and days, but only if the response is handled correctly.

Total immunity from risk is impossible, however, it's important for organisations that face such risks to implement appropriate risk management and proactive crisis response services, as well as effective insurance in case of an incident.

Think you’re covered… you may not be!

Many businesses believe that their commercial general liability, employment practices liability, professional liability or directors and officers insurance will cover sexual molestation instances. However, many insurers may deny coverage on the basis that the alleged acts of abuse fall outside of the specifications of the policy.

These types of cover typically respond only on presentation of a claim for damages and will not typically include prevention or crisis response services.

Creating safer environments with cover and prevention

It's important to consider a carrier with strong global experience in this space. Sportscover have recently teamed up with Beazley to offer a new service-led solution… Safeguard. Powered by Beazley, Safeguard is designed to help clients minimise the risk of abuse within their organisation and to respond effectively if an event occurs through both prevention and response services.

Prevention Services

This includes access to a dedicated risk management website by Praesidium. This is a risk management firm with over two decades of experience helping organisations reduce the risk of sexual abuse through the likes of helplines, model policies, background screening, selection toolkits, online abuse prevention training, a dedicated phone advice service and foundational webinars.

Response Services

Our offering means that our experts are consultative partners to help insureds work through all situations - not just the crisis situations.

However, the crisis response includes deploying experts to support an insured through the initial crisis period with legal services, counselling, financial help, investigatory services and dedicated reputational damage control.

Why is this cover important?

Australia is climbing the ranks of the most litigious countries in the world, and settlements for sexual abuse cases are increasing significantly in frequency and value. Organisations can find themselves exposed without appropriate cover, leading to potentially disastrous reputational and financial outcomes.

In the face of several major settlements in recent years, Victoria has introduced legislation requiring all non-governmental organisations, that are funded by the Victorian Government who supervise or have authority over a child to be adequately insured against child sexual abuse. We expect this to be mirrored in other states. Recent examples of abuse claims in 2024 include…

• $5.9M settlement against a Sporting Club
• $3.3M settlement against a Not-for-Profit
• $2.4M settlement against a Tasmanian Not-for-Profit

Make sure you and your business are covered:

For more information or to discuss how Safeguard can provide you with adequate Abuse protection, call Sportscover today…

Melbourne: T: (03) 8562 9100

Sydney: T: (02) 9268 9100

Brisbane: T: 0417 079 061

E: info@sportscover.com

W: sportscover.com