Duty of Care in Sport

The UK Government commissioned an independent review of 'Duty of Care' in sport, led by Baroness Grey-Thompson and published in April 2017, in response to the government's 2015 sport strategy 'Sporting Future.' The review's introduction explains its scope directly: 'I adopted a deliberately broad definition of "Duty of Care" — covering everything from personal safety and injury, to mental health issues, to the support given to people at the elite level.' The review looked across a wide range of sports and levels of participation, from grassroots to elite, rather than treating duty of care as a narrow legal doctrine confined to physical injury cases.

The review situated duty of care within a broader institutional and cultural context, noting that the sector was under increased scrutiny: 'The sector is arguably under more scrutiny than ever before, with allegations of non-recent child sexual abuse in football, and accusations of a culture of bullying in some sports.' Its central conclusion was that '[s]port cannot think of itself as special or different and able to behave outside what are considered acceptable behaviour patterns' — treating duty of care as encompassing safeguarding and welfare obligations that go well beyond the traditional negligence-based duty owed by an organiser to a competitor's physical safety.

Among its priority recommendations, the review proposed the creation of a Sports Ombudsman (or 'Sports Duty of Care Quality Commission') with 'powers to hold national governing bodies (NGBs) to account for the Duty of Care they provide to all athletes, coaching staff and support staff.' Other recommendations included an independent benchmark survey to measure duty of care across the sector, a named board-level 'Duty of Care Guardian' role at every national governing body, and a government-established Duty of Care Charter setting out how participants and staff can expect to be treated.