Safeguarding Updates
Reminder: Protective Equipment and Clothing for the New Season
As the new season gets underway, we’d like to remind coaches, players, parents, and match officials of the importance of ensuring all protective equipment, clothing, and footwear is safe and suitable for rugby.
World Rugby sets the official standards (Regulation 12) and laws (Law 4) relating to player clothing and equipment. However, not all retailers and manufacturers comply with these requirements. To make the standards easier to understand, the RugbySafe Essential Guides provide clear, practical advice to help players choose and use the right protective gear, clothing, and footwear.
Under World Rugby laws, match officials are required to carry out pre-match checks and have the authority to reject any items they consider unsafe. To avoid issues on match day, we encourage parents and players to review the RugbySafe guidance before buying equipment or footwear and ask coaches to share this information with their teams.
The RugbySafe Essential Guides can be accessed here:
https://www.englandrugby.com/run/player-welfare/rugbysafe(opens in a new tab)
Club Safeguarding Audit 2025 – Reminder to submit early!
Under Regulation 21, clubs offering age grade activities or wishing to play 17-year-olds in the adult game must complete the Club Safeguarding Audit. The deadline for clubs offering age grade this season is 24th October 2025. Adult-only clubs must request access to the audit if they wish for 17-year-olds to play up by emailing safeguarding@rfu.com(opens in a new tab) as it is not automatically assigned to those clubs.
We highly recommend submitting as early as possible and using the audit to assist with clubs having key safeguarding provisions in place with the start of the season. Guidance on how to access and submit the audit is available via the Community Rugby Help Portal(opens in a new tab). If you have any difficulties with completion, please contact the RFU Safeguarding Team via safeguarding@rfu.com(opens in a new tab), or your CB Safeguarding Manager.
Book onto new In Touch course dates!
After a fully booked start to the season, new In Touch course dates are now available for the remainder of 2025. Club Safeguarding Officers, assistants, and committee members with safeguarding responsibility are encouraged to book early via the GMS Course Finder(opens in a new tab), as places are limited. Timings of the dates listed are all 7:00pm-9:30pm.
8th October, 9th October, 30th October, 12th November, 27th November, 9th December
Keeping Your Child Safe in Sport Week 2025 – Save the date!
During 6th – 12th October 2025, the NSPCC Child Protection in Sport Unit (CPSU) is running its yearly campaign – Keeping Your Child Safe in Sport (KYCSIS) Week – designed to assist parents and carers in their understanding how to play their part in keeping children safe in the sport. The RFU Safeguarding Team is supporting the campaign, through promotion of events, resources, and guidance throughout that week, to encourage clubs to engage with their parents and carers and direct to the information provided. Please watch out for these promotions in the coming weeks!
Information on KYCSIS 2025 can be found on the CPSU website(opens in a new tab) and resources for parents and carers can be found in their Parents’ hub(opens in a new tab), such as eLearning, videos, and guidance.