Everybody at WNP — children, adults at risk, and anybody else — should be safe here and should know who to tell if they are not. This page says who that is and how to reach them.
Raise a concernYou do not need to be certain, and you do not need to work out whether it is serious enough. That is our job, not yours.
If a child or adult is at immediate risk of harm, call the emergency services first. Tell us afterwards — do not wait to reach us before acting.
Maria leads safeguarding, welfare and inclusion at WNP. You can speak to her at a session, or contact the club and ask for her by name.
The NSPCC helpline is open to any adult worried about a child, on 0808 800 5000. Children and young people can call Childline free on 0800 1111.
Telling us costs you nothing and changes nothing about your place here.
Nobody has ever been made unwelcome at WNP for raising a concern, and nobody will be.
The same standards we set out for schools booking us, because they should not be different for anybody else.
Staff working with children and adults at risk hold enhanced DBS checks, and our instructors are Pickleball England qualified.
Maria Taylor is our dedicated Welfare & Safeguarding Lead. Concerns go to a person with responsibility for them, not into a general queue.
Risk assessments are available for our sessions and school work, and we hold public liability insurance.
Junior sessions are run as junior sessions, not as adult sessions with children in them.
Juniors have sessions built for them, with coaching pitched at them. See the junior pathway.
If there is something you need to know before your child attends — supervision, who will be there, what happens if they are upset — ask. We would rather answer than have you guess.
Every court hire is asked whether under-18s will be present, because safeguarding needs to know whether children are in the building.
If something went wrong on court — an injury, an incident, behaviour that was not acceptable — tell a session lead at the time if you can, and the club afterwards. Reports involving welfare are held securely and seen only by people with a reason to see them, not by the wider volunteer team.