It is important to recognise what we mean by children’s wellbeing. As part of Scotland’s national approach to ‘Getting it Right for Every Child’ (GIRFEC), the wellbeing wheel demonstrates the eight indicators that are believed to be essential for a child’s overall wellbeing.
By having a universal language and understanding for all people that work with children, collectively we can contribute to promoting, supporting and safeguarding a child’s wellbeing whether they are in an educational, health, community or sports setting. It is essential that in sport we understand not only how participation in sport contributes to these wellbeing indicators, but also what we need to do if we are ever worried that something is impacting a child’s wellbeing. As part of the ‘Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014’, the concept of wellbeing and the GIRFEC approach is now enshrined in law.