Table Tennis England tightens child protection: All supervised roles now require DBS checks

Late in the afternoon at a small suburban club, a 19-year-old volunteer bends down to pick up scattered balls. No one notices the sweat on the back of his neck, or the careful distance he keeps from the children as he puts the rackets back in the rack. Before a ball touches the blade of any young talent, I usually look at the adults standing beyond the table. Who are they? Have they been vetted? Is the sporting moment being held inside a system of protection strong enough? In England, table tennis has just made that protection stricter from September 1, 2026.

The announcement from Table Tennis England is short but reaches a vital point. On September 29, 2026, from 18:00 to 19:00, Kyhl Daly – the association’s Designated Safeguarding Officer – will hold an online webinar for Club Welfare Officers, club and league committee members, and volunteers who regularly work with children. The main subject is the change brought by the Crime and Policing Act 2026. The new law removed the “supervision exemption” from the legal definition of Regulated Activity. Previously, a coach or volunteer working with children under supervision could miss a DBS check. From September 1, 2026, supervised roles are treated exactly like unsupervised ones.

To outsiders, this is a sentence in a legal document. To someone who has spent a lifetime following young players, it is the boundary between a club that protects children in name and a club that protects them systematically. Based on my experience attending youth tournaments, I can say that a clear child-protection process is a measure of a club’s maturity, because it shows that adults understand their limits and the risks behind closed doors. When a club lets a stranger work with children, a DBS check is not an expression of suspicion. It is a commitment that the organization will not allow any single adult to set the boundaries on his or her own.

Many people fear the new rule will drive volunteers away. I understand that fear, yet from a child’s perspective the burden is necessary. Some children are born in the shadow of a small league, waiting all their lives for a single spotlight. I have seen many of those lights go out not because a child lacked talent, but because no one protected the child’s right to play in a safe environment. One of the blind spots in grassroots table tennis is the thought: “A senior coach is nearby, so no one will try anything.” The new rule removes that false comfort. The dangerous person rarely acts in a crowd; he looks for the dark gap within supervision. Requiring every adult to hold a DBS is a way to close that gap.

I once watched a young player tear his ACL while training alone during lockdown. I still remember my own sentence: “A torn ligament is a small death, but a young person’s discipline is the real miracle.” The same applies to safeguarding: prolonged failure can kill sporting spirit before the body matures. Preventive discipline – including background checks – is a miracle adults can actively create.

At 51, I can still hear a gem whispering beneath the mud of an U15 court. But some gems are never formed because the adults around them are not safe enough. A DBS check does not detect talent; it protects the space in which talent can grow. I often tell young scouts: “Don’t rush to sign a player. Go watch the boy’s seventh match before dark.” Now I add: do not rush to hand your child to a club that shows off its training hall but has no clear safeguarding process.

Finally, I am not asking you to treat this as paperwork. Treat the September 29 webinar as a cultural review of your club. If a volunteer leaves because he refuses to be transparent, the club has just saved itself from future pain. If he stays and completes the DBS application, you are building a protective fence for children who could become champions. I waited ten years for rain to uncover a gem; responsible adults should wait long enough to see a process properly enforced. The rain began on September 1, 2026. The wise will carry an umbrella from September 29.