Safeguard your members

Most of what crosses a club medical desk is exactly what it looks like. A small number of moments aren't: an injury pattern that doesn't match the story, a change in behaviour, something a child says in passing. Clubhouse gives those moments a formal path, from a documented observation to a safeguarding flag to the MPIO's inbox, where nothing gets lost. This page walks that path, and the one rule that matters most: the standard is reasonable grounds for concern, not certainty.

Recognising safeguarding concerns covers the clinical and behavioural signs that should make you pause: injury patterns, how a player presents, moments of disclosure. Read it once, ahead of time. Uncertainty is normal. The MPIO is there to sort out uncertain cases, and a concern that turns out to be nothing can be closed, where a missed one can't be undone.

When a concern forms around an injury you're managing:

1. Write an Internal note on the injury first. Keep it neutral, descriptive and attributed ("player said", "mum said"), with no speculation about cause. The note may later be read by the MPIO, the Office of the Children's Guardian, police or child protection services, and it must never be deleted or changed after you escalate. Internal notes send no notifications, so writing one alerts nobody.
2. Select Safeguarding at the top of the injury details, beside Delete (the Edit button is lower down, on the Injury information card). Once the injury is flagged the button goes, because an injury is flagged once.

Flag for safeguarding asks for three things:

• What have you observed? The same discipline as the internal note: what you saw and what you were told, attributed to who said it. The form won't accept a couple of words, so give the MPIO something they can act on.
• How urgent is this? Immediate, Within 24 hours or General concern. Urgency tells the MPIO how to prioritise it, not whether they hear about it: every flag reaches them straight away.
• Co-flagger (optional). A second member of the medical team who shares the observation, picked from Another medical staff member…. The flag goes through fine without one. A co-flagger is corroboration, and it means the MPIO can speak to either of you.

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You aren't the only way in. Parents and players can raise a concern from their own app with no injury involved, and it lands in the same confidential MPIO inbox as your flag. Your route is the injury, because that's where your observations live.

Flag & notify does three things, and the form lists them under When you confirm: the MPIO is notified immediately by push and email, a confidential concern is created that only the MPIO can open, and the injury shows a flagged marker to the medical team. From then on the injury carries a Flagged for safeguarding notice saying who flagged it and when, never what was said. The detail lives on the MPIO's confidential record, not the injury. Coaches and families see nothing.

For a concern not tied to an injury, such as an adult's behaviour or something disclosed away from any incident, leave the clinical record out of it. Speak to the MPIO directly, or use the confidential Raise a concern form on the Safeguarding & Member Protection page, which families and players can reach too.

You'll usually hand over at the flag, but knowing what happens next helps you trust it. The MPIO works from an inbox with three tabs that only they can see:

• Needs attention is the live to-do list. Your flag lands here, showing the urgency you set, and a red count on Concerns in the MPIO's menu keeps track of it.
• With the committee holds concerns referred to the club committee, Football NSW, the Office of the Children's Guardian or police, with the body recorded. They're out of the MPIO's hands but still open. Football NSW is explicit that referring is not closing, and a matter stays open until it's actually resolved, however long it sits with the body it went to.
• Archive is for concerns that are genuinely finished. Nothing is ever deleted. Archiving needs one of five recorded reasons (Resolved at the club, Referred on; now with that body, No further action required, Not enough information to act, Duplicate of another concern), and an archived concern can be reopened.

The MPIO can archive several concerns at once with Archive selected and one shared reason, except child safety concerns, which are deliberately archived one at a time.

Concerns that arrive outside the app, like a phone call, an email or a conversation in the car park, are recorded with Log a contact, so the inbox is the complete record and not just what came in digitally. Working the MPIO inbox goes through it tab by tab.

NSW mandatory reporting, the Children's Guardian Act, Football Australia's member protection framework and the club's own policy all sit behind this workflow. Club policy and roles is the one read that covers them. Two things worth holding on to:

• You are protected under the Children's Guardian Act 2019 (NSW) when you raise a concern in good faith, whether or not it's substantiated.
• These cases are hard. Football Australia and Football NSW offer employee assistance and peer support. Feeling out of your depth is the signal to involve the MPIO, your technical director or outside supervision, not to carry it alone.

• You've read the indicators article before a live concern, not during one.
• You can find Safeguarding without hunting: top of the injury details, beside Delete.
• You can name your club's MPIO, and their Needs attention tab isn't quietly growing.
• Your internal notes would stand up as a record made at the time: facts you observed, statements attributed, nothing speculative.