Safeguarding in Sports UAE: Who Is Responsible for School Sport and External Providers?

Safeguarding in sports in the UAE is the shared responsibility of the principal, the Designated Safeguarding Lead, and every coach, instructor and external sports provider who works with students, from after school clubs to gymnastics, swimming and football academies. All of them should be vetted, trained and clear on how to report a concern. Wadeema’s Law makes reporting a child at risk a legal duty, and both KHDA and ADEK hold the school responsible for activities it runs or approves, including those delivered by third parties.

Sport is one of the best things a school offers. It builds confidence, teamwork and wellbeing. It is also a setting where safeguarding can be assumed rather than checked. Coaches are trusted, clubs are run by enthusiastic people, and external providers arrive with good references. Then something goes wrong, and the school discovers that nobody was sure who was responsible.

This article is written for principals and school leaders who are responsible for whole staff teams, and for the owners and managers of sports clubs and academies that work with schools. It explains who owns safeguarding in sport, what the law and the regulators say, and what training your PE staff, coaches and external providers need. It covers school teams, after school clubs and external sports providers, such as gymnastics, swimming, football, tennis and martial arts academies, that coach your students or use your facilities. It sits within your wider school compliance programme, and it applies in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, where the regulators and policies differ.

Why does sport carry a higher safeguarding risk?

The activities themselves are not the risk. The conditions around them are. Sport and clubs often involve:

• Close physical contact, such as coaching technique, injury treatment and spotting
• Changing rooms, showers and swimming facilities
• One to one or small group coaching away from the main building
• Travel to fixtures, tournaments and trips, sometimes overnight
• Strong trust and a power gap between a respected coach and a young athlete
• Messaging, social media and photography connected to teams and events
• External providers, such as sports academies, who may know the students well but the school only slightly, and who bring their own staff, policies and ways of working

None of these is a reason to restrict sport. Each is a reason to have clear rules, trained adults and visible oversight.

Who is responsible for safeguarding in sports in a UAE school?

A common gap is unclear ownership. In a well run school, responsibility is shared and written down.

• The principal: holds overall accountability for safeguarding across the whole school experience, including sport, trips and clubs.
• The Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL): receives and manages concerns, decides on referrals, and keeps records. In many Abu Dhabi schools this role is called the Child Protection Coordinator. Sports staff should be able to reach the DSL at weekends and on trips.
• The head of PE or activities coordinator: oversees day to day practice, supervision, changing arrangements and the approval of clubs and providers.
• Coaches and instructors: follow the code of conduct, avoid unsupervised one to one situations, and report concerns immediately.
• External providers, including sports academies and visiting coaches: are held to the same standards through a written agreement, vetting and training before they start, and name their own safeguarding lead (in Abu Dhabi, sports entities must appoint a Child Protection Coordinator).
• Governors: ask for assurance that sport and activities are covered in the school’s safeguarding reporting.

If any of these roles is unclear in your school, that is the first thing to fix.

What do the law and the regulators expect?

Wadeema’s Law, Federal Law No. 3 of 2016, is the foundation of child protection in the UAE. Reporting a child at risk is a legal duty, not a matter of preference. A coach who sees something worrying is expected to act through the school’s safeguarding process, starting with the DSL.

In Abu Dhabi, ADEK’s policies speak directly to activities and outside providers:

• The ADEK Extracurricular Activities and Events Policy (version 1.1, September 2024) requires schools to have external providers, staff and volunteers read and consent to the ADEK Student Protection Policy, and the activities coordinator must ensure external people who work with students sign to confirm they have read and understood it.
• Activities involving external providers need ADEK approval, and every activity needs adequate adult supervision until students are handed to staff or a parent, plus a risk assessment and an emergency plan.
• Activity leaders must be appropriately qualified or experienced, for example meeting ADEK coach requirements for sports. For field trips, ADEK sets adult to student ratios and a minimum of two adults, including a woman where female students attend.
• The ADEK Safeguarding Policy (version 1.1) requires a safeguarding lead or committee, which can be filled by the Child Protection Coordinator, and treats external and third party workers as staff. Full compliance was due by 1 February 2026.

Sports clubs and academies in Abu Dhabi also have duties of their own. The Department of Community Development’s Child Protection in Sport Policy, launched in 2025, applies to sports entities, excluding sports associations, federations and the sport that schools run themselves. It requires each entity to appoint a trained and certified Child Protection Coordinator, to adopt a child protection policy, to make sure everyone who engages with children completes child protection training, to keep a database of the people who work with children, and to report concerns through the coordinator. School run sport sits under ADEK, so an external academy working in an Abu Dhabi school may be subject to both.

In Dubai, KHDA requires third party activity providers to be approved and licensed by the relevant authorities, and states that the school remains responsible for health and safety even when a third party runs the activity. Schools also follow the KHDA Guidelines for School Trips and Events, and every staff member signs the KHDA Code of Conduct.

Neither ADEK nor KHDA sets out a detailed vetting checklist for external coaches in the policies cited above, which is why your own policy matters. It is what turns a regulator’s expectation into something your staff can follow.

This is also where imported guidance can mislead. Safeguarding frameworks written for UK clubs and national governing bodies contain useful ideas, but they refer to different legislation and different referral routes. Your staff need training grounded in the framework your school actually answers to.

Which external sports providers does this cover?

Safeguarding does not stop at your own staff. It applies to any outside organisation or individual who coaches students or works with them on your site, including:

• Gymnastics, swimming, football, tennis, basketball, martial arts and dance academies that run sessions for your students
• Visiting coaches and specialist instructors brought in for PE, teams or clubs
• Holiday camps and weekend programmes held on your premises
• Academies that hire your pitches, courts, halls or pool, even where the school does not run the session
• Hosts and organisers of tournaments, fixtures and trips your students attend

Where does the school’s responsibility sit? Where an academy runs a session as part of your programme, or recruits your students through the school, the school remains responsible, so treat the provider as part of your team. KHDA states that the school remains responsible for health and safety even when a third party runs an activity, and ADEK requires approval and safeguarding commitments for activities with external providers. Where an academy simply hires your facilities, the position is less clear, so agree in writing who is responsible, which safeguarding standards apply and how a concern reaches your DSL, and check what your regulator requires.

What about the owners and managers of sports clubs and academies?

If you own or manage a sports club or academy that works with schools, safeguarding is your responsibility as well as the school’s, and a school will expect you to show it. In practice, that means:

• Appoint a named safeguarding lead. This is your own Designated Safeguarding Lead: the person who receives concerns, keeps confidential records and is the school’s point of contact. In Abu Dhabi, the DCD policy calls this role the Child Protection Coordinator and requires it to be trained and certified. In Dubai, check the requirements of the authority that licenses your academy.
• Have a written child protection policy and a coaches’ code of conduct, and make sure every coach has read and signed both.
• Vet and train every coach, including part time, substitute and subcontracted coaches, and keep a list of everyone who works with children.
• Set clear reporting routes. Concerns go to your safeguarding lead, and to the school’s DSL when a student from that school is involved.
• Cover the sport specific risks: physical contact, changing rooms, messaging, photography, travel and one to one coaching.
• Keep your evidence ready for schools: your policy, your lead’s contact details, vetting and training records, licences and insurance.

Z PD also trains the coaches and managers of sports providers. The Safeguarding in Sports course is available as eLearning, so your whole team can complete it at their own pace and follow the same standard as the schools you work with.

How do you safeguard external sports providers and after school clubs?

External providers are where schools most often rely on trust instead of process. A simple, consistent approach protects students and the school.

• Vet every provider and coach before they work with students, and record them in the school’s staff and provider records
• Require safeguarding training before the first session, not after the first term
• Put the school’s child protection policy and code of conduct into the contract, and have the provider sign to confirm they have read it
• Check that each provider holds the licences and approvals their activity needs, and obtain regulator approval where it applies
• Ask for the provider’s own safeguarding policy and vetting evidence for every coach who will be on your site, including substitutes and subcontracted coaches
• Require the provider to report any concern about a student to your DSL immediately, and agree who investigates
• Agree the rules for changing rooms, photography and transport, so the academy’s staff follow your standards on your site
• Agree in writing your right to review the provider’s practice and to remove any coach from working with your students
• If parents contract directly with the academy, tell them clearly what the school does and does not oversee
• Keep a register of who is on site, which students are in each club, and who collects them
• Avoid unsupervised one to one sessions, and use open, visible spaces wherever possible
• Set clear rules on communication with students, including messaging apps and social media
• Name a member of staff responsible for each club, with the DSL’s contact details displayed

Apply the same standard to activities that run outside school hours. If students believe it is a school activity, the school can be held accountable for it.

What should safeguarding training for sports staff cover?

Generic safeguarding awareness is a good start, but sports staff face situations other teachers rarely do. Effective training covers:

• Recognising signs of abuse, neglect and exploitation in a sporting context
• Appropriate and inappropriate physical contact, and how to coach safely
• Changing rooms, swimming and medical situations
• Trips, travel and overnight arrangements
• Communication with students, parents and the wider community online
• Responding to a disclosure and the exact steps to report under UAE law
• Concerns about another adult’s behaviour, and how to raise them

Leaders and the DSL need a deeper level, including how to review practice, handle allegations and present arrangements to inspectors.

What does a whole school approach look like?

For a principal buying training for an entire staff team, the strongest approach joins sport to the rest of your safeguarding programme. PE staff, coaches, activity providers, transport staff and administrators should all receive training that matches their role, delivered together or in coordinated sessions on your school’s dates.

Z PD delivers the Safeguarding in Sports course as eLearning, online live training and in school training on your dates, in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. The eLearning option lets your whole organisation complete the course, whether that is a school team, a sports club or an academy. It sits within a whole school compliance programme alongside DSL training, safeguarding awareness and governor training. One programme, one consistent message, and one set of evidence for inspection.

A quick checklist for principals

• Is responsibility for sport and clubs written down, with a named person for each?
• Have all coaches and external providers been vetted and recorded before starting?
• Do you have a written agreement with every external sports provider, including academies that hire your facilities, covering who is responsible for safeguarding?
• Does each external provider have a named safeguarding lead, and do you hold their contact details?
• Have they completed safeguarding training that reflects UAE law?
• Have external providers signed to confirm they have read your child protection policy?
• Do staff know how to reach the DSL on trips and at weekends?
• Is there a clear policy on communication with students and on photography?
• Can you show an inspector your arrangements for sport as easily as for lessons?

If you answered no to any of these, that is where to start.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is responsible for safeguarding in sports in a UAE school?

Responsibility is shared. The principal holds overall accountability, the Designated Safeguarding Lead (the Child Protection Coordinator in many Abu Dhabi schools) manages concerns and referrals, the head of PE or activities coordinator oversees day to day practice, and every coach, instructor and external provider must follow the school’s procedures and report concerns.

Do external coaches and sports providers need safeguarding checks?

Yes, as good practice and under your own school policy. In Abu Dhabi, ADEK requires external providers to read and consent to its Student Protection Policy. In Dubai, KHDA states that the school remains responsible for health and safety when a third party runs an activity. Neither sets a detailed vetting checklist for coaches, so your policy should: vet and record every adult before they work with students, and complete safeguarding training before the first session.

Does this apply to external sports academies, such as gymnastics, that use school facilities?

Yes, wherever an academy coaches your students or works on your site while students are present. If the academy runs the session as part of your programme or recruits students through the school, the school remains responsible, so vet and agree standards as for any provider. If it hires your facilities independently, agree in writing who is responsible, what safeguarding standards apply and how concerns reach your DSL, and check your regulator’s requirements.

Does a sports club or academy need its own DSL?

It should have a named safeguarding lead, and a school will expect one. In Abu Dhabi, the Department of Community Development’s Child Protection in Sport Policy requires sports entities, other than sports associations, federations and school run sport, to appoint a trained and certified Child Protection Coordinator. In Dubai, check the requirements of the authority that licenses your academy. Either way, the lead should hold the club’s records and be the school’s contact for any concern.

Does Wadeema’s Law apply to sports coaches?

Yes. Wadeema’s Law, Federal Law No. 3 of 2016, is the UAE’s child protection law and makes reporting a child at risk a legal duty. Coaches and instructors in a school should raise any concern through the school’s safeguarding process, starting with the Designated Safeguarding Lead.

What safeguarding training should sports staff have?

All sports and activities staff should complete safeguarding awareness training covering signs of harm, appropriate physical contact, one to one situations, communication with students, trips, changing facilities and how to report a concern. Leaders and the Designated Safeguarding Lead need deeper training.

Are sport and after school clubs part of a KHDA or ADEK inspection?

Safeguarding is a core part of school inspection in both emirates, and the school is responsible for activities it runs or approves, including those delivered by third parties. Schools should be ready to show the same vetting, training, supervision and records for sport and clubs as for lessons.

Can Z PD deliver safeguarding in sports training for a whole school or sports organisation team in Dubai and Abu Dhabi?

Yes. Z PD delivers the Safeguarding in Sports course as eLearning, online live training and in school training, for PE staff, coaches, activity providers, sports club and academy teams, and wider school staff in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. View the course, book a call or email info@zenpd.ae to discuss your requirements.

Book Safeguarding in Sports Training for Your SchoolZ PD delivers safeguarding in sports training for whole school teams across Dubai and Abu Dhabi, in school and on your dates.View the Safeguarding in Sports course or book a 30 minute call with Z PDEmail: info@zenpd.ae | Phone: +971 4 576 8498 | WhatsApp: +971 58 587 3184www.zenpd.ae