JOG Welfare Policy

Scope

JOG is an inclusive sailing club, offering competitive destination racing to all people regardless of their background. JOG prides itself on having a friendly, helpful, and supportive atmosphere and expects all involved with JOG to contribute towards its inclusive ethos.

With this welfare policy, JOG aims to take an active role in promoting yacht racing as a safe sport by providing an environment that is diverse, equitable and inclusive.

This policy applies to anyone who is participating in JOG event(s). For clarity, participants include (but are not limited to):

Yacht owners competing in JOG event,
Crew of any competing yacht,
Any supporter or associates either on land or on the water,
JOG volunteers (whether on the Committee or helping the Committee with an event) and anyone working in a paid or contracting capacity.

Expected standards

JOG expects competitors to race responsibly and make appropriate provisions for the safety of crews and boats. This includes respecting the prevailing Rules of Sailing under the Notice of Race and the Sailing Instructions, including the Code of Conduct and terms and conditions of JOG (Link).

Where participants are minors, their parent or guardian must sign a Consent Supervision form and this should be uploaded into the minors online account.

With this welfare policy, JOG further looks to ensure that all people involved in its events (at sea or ashore) contribute towards the safe, supportive, respectful and inclusive club atmosphere by ensuring they treat all those involved in events with dignity, courtesy and respect, and respect cultural, ethnic, religious, gender and sexual orientation differences.

To achieve this, JOG will not tolerate unacceptable behaviours such as those listed below:

Bullying, both verbal, physical, or by other means such as exclusion,
Hazing or humiliation,
Homophobia, sexism, racism, or any other abuse of a person based on their appearance, beliefs, or other characteristics,
Physical abuse,
Sexual abuse,
Other forms of inappropriate behaviours including but not limited to harassment.

By participating in JOG events at sea or ashore, all participants de facto agree to comply with JOG’s welfare policy.

Welfare Officer

JOG’s welfare policy is a policy of the JOG Committee, the implementation of which is delegated by the Committee to the JOG Welfare Officer. The Welfare Officer is appointed by the JOG Committee. The Welfare Officer needs to be a member of JOG but needn’t necessarily be a member of the JOG Committee. The role can be held jointly by up to two members. To be appointed, the Welfare Officer will need to be DBS checked to ensure that the person is of suitable character. The JOG Committee will ensure that the Welfare Officer has the resources needed to fulfil the role effectively, including being able to reach out to the RYA where appropriate.

The Welfare Officer’s role is to oversee the application of this policy and serve as a point of contact for anyone wishing to make a complaint against a participant in a JOG event who they feel has breached this policy.

The Welfare Officer will:

Act as the point of contact for anyone wishing to report any alleged concern,
Respect the confidentiality of parties in respect of any raised concerns.
Determine the appropriate course of action, either through the process detailed in this policy, or reporting more serious concerns to the relevant/competent authorities, such as the police or refer the case to the RYA for advice.
Communicate objectively and clearly with all parties involved in a timely manner.
Give an overview and progress on the cases received to the JOG Committee at its regular meetings.

Reporting Concerns

Concerns can be reported directly to the Welfare Officer by email at [email protected]

In addition, anyone wishing to raise concerns in person at JOG events should feel free to approach directly the Welfare Officer, or any other member of the JOG Committee in attendance to discuss their concerns. It should be noted however that depending on the concerns raised, those may not be dealt with immediately at JOG events, as due process will be followed for any concerns raised. For example, the JOG Welfare Officer may ask for a subsequent confirmation in writing by email.

Should competitors consider that the concerns they have could be a breach of the code of conduct within the Racing Rules of Sailing, they should raise a protest after racing. Raising a protest can be done from the official noticeboard of each race or event.

JOG Processes

As and when a concern is raised under the JOG welfare policy, the Welfare officer will look to follow this process:

The Welfare Officer will acknowledge in writing by return of email any concern emailed to [email protected] within 1 week of their submission.
Once reported, the Welfare Officer will log the concerns and determine the appropriate course of action:
- Report the concerns to the relevant competent authorities and may be required to disclose names and break confidentiality (e.g. by sharing details with the Police in the case of grave cases for example where there is suspicion of criminal behaviour).
- Seek advice by discussing the case without disclosing names (whether those reporting the concerns, or those the concerns are about or any witnesses and/or the name of their vessels) with the RYA Safeguarding Team.
- Seek advice by discussing the case with a subset of the JOG Committee.
- Help to achieve a resolution informally with parties involved in more minor cases.
Where the Welfare Officer has sought the counsel of a subset of JOG Committee, the Welfare Officer will feedback to the relevant parties what action has been taken as soon as possible after it has been taken, where appropriate.
As part of JOG due diligence, the Welfare Officer will log and report the case and the action taken (without disclosure of names) to the JOG Committee so the JOG Committee can ensure that its welfare policy is effective. The records of JOG will follow the JOG privacy policy here www.jog.org.uk/privacy-policy

Where the Welfare Officer has sought the counsel of a subset of JOG Committee Members, it may be:

to seek views from JOG Committee members about the best course of action given the concern raised.
to decide on the participation of a yacht or a person in future JOG events.
The action(s) taken by the subset of JOG Committee Members may include, but are not limited to:
- A written warning to the offending party, to make them aware that their behaviour is unacceptable.
- A ban for the offending party from participating in future club events for a given period (including for life).
- A ban for the offending parties/yacht for a given period (including for life).

With this Welfare Policy, the JOG Committee is looking to further the ethos of JOG as a safe and inclusive sailing club, offering competitive destination racing to all JOG events participants. It encourages all JOG participants to continue to help and support others in learning and developing their sailing skills in a friendly, supportive, courteous, and joyous manner.

Annex A:

Definitions (World Sailing definitions)

Bullying – unwanted, repeated, and intentional aggressive behaviour usually among peers and can involve a real or perceived power imbalance. Bullying can include actions such as making threats, spreading rumours or falsehoods, attacking someone physically or verbally, vandalising personal property, deliberately excluding someone, making practical jokes with cause awkwardness or embarrassment, endangering a person’s safety, or negatively affecting performance.

Hazing – an organised, usually team-based, form of bullying in sport, involving degrading and hazardous initiation of new team members by veteran team members.

Harassment – directly or indirectly engaging in conduct that the respondent knows or ought to know (a) causes harm or inspires the reasonable belief that harm may be caused to the complainant or a related person (b) amounts to sexual harassment of the complainant or a related person. It can be based on any grounds including age, ability or disability, gender, gender identity, marital status, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, language, socioeconomic background or identity or other kind of unfair discrimination. It can take a variety of forms, the most common including suggestive sexual comments, racist insults/jokes, verbal abuse, or unwelcome attention.

Sexual harassment – any unwanted and unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature, whether verbal, non-verbal or physical.

Sexual abuse – any conduct of sexual nature, whether non-contact, contact or penetrative, where consent is coerced/manipulated or is not or cannot be given.

Homophobia – antipathy, contempt, prejudice, aversion, or hatred towards, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex or Asexual persons.

Sexism – the belief that one sex or gender is superior to another. Sexism is distinguished by prejudice or by discrimination based on person’s sex or gender. Although sexism can affect anyone, women and girls are more often affected by sexism.

Physical abuse – non-accidental trauma or physical injury caused by punching, beating, kicking, biting, burning or otherwise harming another person.