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Download fileEvidencing the need to broaden the position of trust legislation to include sports coaches
journal contribution
posted on 2023-02-27, 10:18 authored by Daniel RhindDaniel Rhind, Andrew Fellows, Emily DaviesWhen an individual is in a position of trust over another person, the age of consent is raised from 16 to 18 in the United Kingdom. Currently, the definition of a Position of Trust is restricted to professions such as teachers, care workers and youth justice workers. Recent high-profile cases have contributed to a growing consensus amongst key stakeholders of the need to broaden this legislation to include other roles, such as a sports coach. This study represents the first investigation into the number of concerns recorded by local authorities across England and Wales regarding sexual relationships between a person who is in a potential Position of Trust which is not currently covered by the legislation and someone who was aged 16 or 17 years old. Freedom of Information Requests resulted in full responses from 142 out of the 172 local authorities. A total of 653 cases were recorded over a 4-year period. The most prevalent of the identified roles were related to sport, however, roles related to religion, youth work, transport and uniform services were also cited. Regional differences regarding the number of cases recorded are highlighted and the implications of these findings are discussed.
History
School
- Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences
Published in
International Journal of Physical Education, Fitness and SportsVolume
11Issue
3Pages
1 - 8Publisher
IOR PressVersion
- VoR (Version of Record)
Rights holder
© The AuthorsPublisher statement
This is an Open Access Article. It is published by IOR Press under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC BY). Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Acceptance date
2022-06-22Publication date
2022-07-06Copyright date
2022ISSN
2277-5447eISSN
2457-0753Publisher version
Language
- en