Over 160 Sports Professionals Participated in a Virtual Sharing Forum on “How to Enhance Corporate Governance of the Sports Sector through Child Safeguarding”

Plan International Hong Kong always believes that to maximise the impacts of child safeguarding work, we need to do it step by step and more importantly, to do it with the collaborative power of different sectors. In recent years, cases of child abuse happened frequently in the sports sector. There is great concern about whether children are being protected properly during sports training in society. Thus, it is necessary to establish a clear and thorough child safeguarding policy so that staff members can follow strictly while performing child safeguarding work.

Following the success of the first “Roundtable: Child Safeguarding Policy in Sports Setting” in June 2020, Plan International Hong Kong held the virtual sharing forum on “How to Enhance Corporate Governance of the Sports Sector through Child Safeguarding” on 6 May 2021 with the participation of over 160 professionals from the sector. Experts from the industry were also invited as honourable guests and speakers, including Mr Timothy Fok, GBS, JP, President of Sports Federation & Olympic Committee of Hong Kong, China; Dr Trisha Leahy, PhD, JD, SBS, BBS, Chief Executive of The Hong Kong Sports Institute; Dr Sandra Tsang Kit-man, JP, Board Director of Plan International Hong Kong and Non-official Member of Commission on Children, HKSAR; Mr Wong Yau-kuen, Henry, Chief Leisure Manager (Sports Funding) from Leisure and Cultural Services Department; Mr Kennedy Lai, Representative from the Hong Kong Flying Disc Federation and Chairman (Soft Disc Sports) of Asia Oceanic Flying Disc Federation (2020); and Dr Kanie Siu, Chief Executive Officer of Plan International Hong Kong.

(From left to right) Dr Trisha Leahy, PhD, JD, SBS, BBS, Chief Executive of The Hong Kong Sports Institute; Dr Sandra Tsang Kit-man, JP, Board Director of Plan International Hong Kong and Non-official Member of Commission on Children, HKSAR; Mr Wong Yau-kuen, Henry, Chief Leisure Manager (Sports Funding) from Leisure and Cultural Services Department;  Dr Kanie Siu, Chief Executive Officer of Plan International Hong Kong; Mr Timothy Fok, GBS, JP, President of Sports Federation & Olympic Committee of Hong Kong, China and Mr Kennedy Lai, Representative from the Hong Kong Flying Disc Federation and Chairman (Soft Disc Sports) of Asia Oceanic Flying Disc Federation (2020) hosted the opening ceremony of the virtual sharing forum.

Mr Fok stressed in the opening speech that coaches and training teams should build a trustworthy relationship and keep frequent communication with athletes, especially children and adolescents, as they have to work closely with them. It is legitimate and normal that strict guidance, criticism, and even physical contact for the purpose of correcting poses and skills are included in the training. However, some black sheep in the industry have left negative impressions on the nature of sports training. He also mentioned that the “Me Too” incidents that happened over the past few years are intolerable in the global sports industry. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) not only creates guidelines on how to handle these incidents, but also encourages sports organisations to formulate a code of conduct and a safeguarding policy subject to the actual condition. Dr Tsang raised that as a well-developed region, the system of child participation and safeguarding in Hong Kong is still left behind. News on child abuses can be frequently heard and we should all think of an effective way to prevent those cases from happening again.

In addition, Dr Leahy shared her experience on formulating and establishing a child safeguarding policy in the Hong Kong Sports Institute, as well as the impact of the policy on enhancing the governance in the organisation. She emphasised that without athletes, the sports organisation would not exist and the industry could not be well-developed in the long run. Thus, the institutes should shoulder the responsibility of securing athletes’ safety during sports training. Dr Siu also provided suggestions on formulating a child safeguarding policy and expressed her wish to transform Hong Kong into a Child Safeguarding City. Last but not least, Mr Lai shared his experience working in the front line and how Plan International Hong Kong assisted the Hong Kong Flying Disc Federation to formulate tailor-made child safeguarding policy so that the participants could have a deeper understanding on the work and fruitful outcomes of implementing Plan International Hong Kong’s child safeguarding policy.

Over 160 professionals from the sports sector participated in the forum and discussed about how a child safeguarding policy could help enhance corporate governance.