Four years on from Clive Sheldon KC’s report into non-recent sexual abuse in football, the Safe Sport Project Report has been published to galvanise all national governing bodies and organisations across UK sports into leading a wholesale, comprehensive change to safeguarding in sport. Could this finally be the turning point that UK sport needs?
There is a decidedly mixed tone of optimism and frustration in the co-chairs’ foreword for the new Safe Sport Project Report.
“This report is the outcome of the first step in the journey towards redesigning sport to be safe for everyone,” say Sarah Powell and Andy Salmon, CEOs of British Gymnastics and Swim England, respectively.
“Transforming the approach and systems for ensuring safe sport and its implementation will challenge us. We have to accept that, despite good intentions and progress, the impact of our collective action has not had the desired outcome and there is still significant work to do.”
Indeed, the Safe Sport Project Report, which was published on 24 June 2025, comes after several years of reports and inquests into safeguarding failings across both sports and other recreational activities, from Anne Whyte KC’s review of British Gymnastics in 2022, to the investigation into toxic cultures at ballet schools in 2023.
What is the Safe Sport Project Report?
The Safe Sport Project Report is the result of an independent, “survivor-informed” consultation on safeguarding practices in all sports across the UK. It has been led and supported by the UK’s five sports councils: UK Sport, Sport England, Sport Northern Ireland, sportscotland, and Sport Wales.
Using views and first-hand accounts from 146 organisations and more than 200 individuals, many of whom have had lived experience of abuse and safeguarding failings, the report aims to “establish a comprehensive and integrated approach to safeguarding in sport throughout the UK.”
This includes establishing a nationwide vision for safe sport, as well as a comprehensive framework, strategy, and Code of Practice, all of which will be implemented at both an elite and a grassroots level.
What issues is sport currently facing?
As stated in the foreword, not enough progress has been made to improve safeguarding frameworks across all sports, despite the increased awareness and scrutiny of such issues following both the Whyte Review and the Sheldon Report.
Part of the problem, according to the report, is the greater focus of resource on reactive measures, such as investigations, inquests, and dealing with disputes. This means that the harm and distress caused to those involved is not prevented, whilst opportunities for learning and improvement are also missed.
The current approach to safeguarding in the UK is also highly fragmented, varying from sport to sport, region to region and, in some cases, club to club. It is often difficult to establish who is accountable for leading on safeguarding, creating systems that many perceive as “procedural, institutionalised, and often adversarial”.
Furthermore, whilst some sports are successfully embedding safeguarding policies, procedures, and practices from the top down, many are failing to do so.
What does the report recommend?
Key to delivering on the report’s vision are the buy-in, accountability, and collaboration of stakeholders at all levels, including national governing bodies (NGBs). This is highlighted by Sarah Powell and Andy Salmon in no uncertain terms:
“We call for all national governing bodies across the UK and the five sports councils to lead the sector and be bold and brave by adopting these recommendations and supporting more detailed planning, feasibility, and implementation to ensure safe environments for all involved in sport.”
The report’s recommendations include:
- Following the design principles for a comprehensive and integrated safe sport system and culture. The ‘design principles’, which are outlined in more detail below, essentially concern a set of values for informing any and all approaches to safeguarding, whether that is at a club or national level.
- Developing a framework for safe sport. The framework, which the report aims to deliver in the next three years, will apply to all NGBs and sports organisations across the UK, although the report also accepts that a “pragmatic approach to implementation and compliance” will be required.
- Establishing a new independent body. According to one respondent in the report, sport “can’t mark its own homework”. As such, the report aims to develop an independent body that will lead on delivering the report’s strategy and framework. It will also be responsible for creating a Code of Practice that will be applicable to all NGBs. Although not a statutory body, it will have the authority to “monitor, enforce and hold sport to account for ensuring the delivery of safe sport.”
- Developing an independent complaints and resolution function. This will, according to the report, provide “a trusted, trauma-informed and safe process to support complainants, respondents and NGBs managing significant, sensitive and complex complaints.” This function would cover reporting, triaging, hearing, and appeals, as well as leading on alternative dispute resolution methods, such as mediation.
- Reviewing and reallocating funding to align with the safe sport strategy and framework. Aligning with the need for a more proactive approach to safeguarding, reallocation of funding will focus on reducing “the level of funding spent on lengthy legal cases and continue to increasingly shift that spend towards measures focused on prevention, learning and behavioural change.”