One aspect of safeguarding that Levelling the Playing Field specialist partners may overlook is cyber security. For organisations who often hold sensitive information about their beneficiaries, it’s not an area they can afford to ignore.
Funders are increasingly mandating effective data protection within their funding applications, which is another big reason it should move up the priority list for organisations within the Sport for Development sector.
David McCarthy is CEO of SolSoft, who tailor their cyber offering for small to medium size organisations, particularly the not-for-profit sector. He uses the analogy of home security to illustrate the importance of security online:
“In the pre-internet days, we all understood that if we left a window or door open, the opportunist would make the most of that eventually. In the cyber world, the equivalent of the small window left ajar is rampant.”
This should alert leaders working in Sport for Development, including specialist partners across the Levelling the Playing Field network.
Working in a sector where funding is tight and time is pressured means focus is often solely on the day-to-day operations, with issues like cyber security left for a rainy day.
But in addition to securing safeguarding information which is highly sensitive, there are forthcoming legal requirements which will make ‘Cyber Essentials approved’ status mandatory. For several reasons, then, this is an issue that organisations can no longer ignore.
As SolSoft CEO David says: “Small to medium sized organisations must weigh up whether the level of risk matches their level of insurance and expertise. For many, that’s quite a scary calculation.”
Levelling the Playing Field partners sustaining their organisation via funding and data protection will help the continued push to achieving our common goals:
- Increase the number of ethnically diverse children taking part in sport and physical activity
- Prevent and divert ethnically diverse children from becoming involved in the Criminal Justice System