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Welsh Rugby Union
  • 30/04/2025
Transcript
00:00My name is Lindsay Chaplin. My job in Welsh Rugby is to manage education and training from an
00:12integrity perspective. So we manage everything to do with player welfare, safeguarding, medical
00:19care and also anti-doping, betting, anti-corruption and discipline. I've been an educator for about
00:2715-20 years but I actually delivered the first ever safeguarding training to the WIU or with the
00:35WIU I should say about 11 years ago. It was the first time they'd ever run safeguarding training
00:40in-house and through that I met Jeremy Rogers who at the time was the national safeguarding manager
00:46and we just hit it off and he liked my delivery and I stuck around. So I've been delivering
00:53safeguarding training for them for the last 11 years and then I came in the house full-time
00:59about three and a half years ago into this role. So I think it's important we share our story because
01:06I think rugby is really powerful and particularly in my team we see a lot to do with welfare, we see a lot
01:13to do with safeguarding, a lot to do with kind of how people are impacted and affected by the game
01:24and the connection and the real personal stuff, how it saves lives, we see that a lot and
01:34I think the only way that you can really impact and connect with people is getting them on board to
01:40understand the why. I think the why is really really important and it's not always the strap line, the
01:46tagline of whatever sponsor, partner or we believe is important at the time but actually it's why
01:54us as individuals get involved and what kind of made us make this step into sport or into wash rugby.
02:03So I think it's really important, it inspires people, for me particularly for young girls, I've got two
02:10little girls myself and I want them to know that working in sport is an incredible career, it's really
02:18fulfilling but also that we have a space that we deserve and that you know can be meaningful and our
02:26contributions can be meaningful so it's really important for me. So my biggest lesson so far
02:32is definitely about people. I think KPIs, targets, data is really important and I get that but for me
02:47it's actually taking a time to check someone's okay and if they're not what can I do even in
02:53a small way that's going to help them and impact them and whether that is delivering first aid for
02:58a club because you know they've got little ones and there's injuries and they want to make them safe
03:03or you know it's delivering safeguarding training for a club who has recently lost a member of their
03:09community to domestic abuse or um some kind of violence or tragedy and actually taking the time
03:17to listen and through that I guess help them with the healing process but also give them something to
03:25to live for and I think that's what we can do um really easily and really powerfully um so for me
03:33it's always about people always about people the time you spend with them and that never goes away like
03:39the amount of people that years later remember you just took the time to ask how they were
03:44and they've stayed involved or they've started volunteering or they've done something because
03:49you know your connection stopped them and helped them to think and and kept them involved or kept
03:57them on the right track or gave them a direction I I love that my proudest moment is being part of my
04:04team so the integrity team is really often seen as the pc police like the people that you know we don't do
04:12anything wrong you know we make all the right choices like that isn't the case like we're human
04:18you know every human's fallible but actually what my team has is a really unique um kind of just embedded
04:32idea of what's right and commitment to doing what we can to assist that and I think
04:40I think being part of that you know we're not from a kind of superiority perspective nothing like that
04:48but just wanting to do the right thing uh makes me genuinely proud to be part of my team every day
04:56and in terms of achievement um the figures that we as a team my team of educators I'm really lucky
05:08I have a team of 21 educators delivering um you know on difficult topics every day safeguarding
05:16anti-doping betting discipline misconduct but they're an incredible team I'm really really
05:22fortunate to have them they're all incredibly highly skilled educated qualified but also they
05:29absolutely get it and the figures of kind of you know we are on an annual basis training
05:36anywhere between three and a half and four and a half thousand people and that directly makes our
05:42club safer and I'm really proud of that because that raises awareness for safeguarding it makes them
05:48qualified in first aid it enables them to strap an injured player it prevents someone from saying
05:56something they shouldn't have and and offending or upsetting someone or then creating the need for
06:02a sighting or a red card um and as cheesy as it sounds I know 100% what we do makes a difference
06:11so that's that's massive for me advice for my younger self
06:15I wish I wish I was as brave when I was younger as I am now I think time life experience um
06:26has taught me not to waste as much time as I used to worrying about the small stuff
06:32but also to be braver to stick up for the important stuff so um I'm a really proud ally and
06:39advocate um for all things you know inclusion diversity just good you know good people
06:48doing the right thing um but now I think I'm much braver and I
06:56I don't care less but I have less time for the concerns and the consequences and I'm now braver to
07:05just say actually this is right so I'm going to stick up for it and I'm going to do it and I
07:11I wish I I wish I'd learned that earlier because um I think it takes bravery um but it definitely
07:20makes a difference so yeah I wish I was braver earlier