Rugby: Fast-track soon for police checks on children's rugby coaches

Photo / Rotorua Daily Post

Parents and rugby administrators are welcoming changes that will result in quicker police checks for prospective junior coaches from next year.

The captain of the Hamilton club Varsity Taiohi, Te Taka Keegan, said he sent applications for police vetting checks on coaches and administrators in 2008 but never heard back.

His club, like others throughout Waikato, South Canterbury and South Otago, was part of a New Zealand Rugby Union trial to carry out checks on those involved in rugby at the Small Blacks level.

The checks were intended to protect children from paedophiles and people with violent histories, but the NZRU canned the trial saying it was too time-consuming.

Mr Keegan, who runs the administration for the club's six children's teams, believed the vetting checks were "definitely necessary".

"As a club you can't know those details and if you were aware of them you certainly wouldn't let these people anywhere near your children," he said. "If I'm going to entrust my children to someone for just a few hours a week I'd feel a bit better knowing that they weren't convicted of any heinous crimes."

Frankton Rugby junior captain Greg Schmidt agreed, but hoped the moves would not stop parents with minor convictions getting involved with the game.

"The safety of the kids comes first so I haven't got a problem with that but it is very difficult to get quality coaches at those levels.

"I think people accept this - if you go to a school camp you have to get police vetted ... that's certainly not a bad thing."

The NZRU's general manager of provincial union relationships, Brent Anderson, said the vetting trial ended because of the time it took to process the applications.

"The season was almost half gone by the time that whole process went through and we felt we couldn't then go back and pull a coach out of a side unless it was very serious."

The NZRU was working with police to streamline things so vetting information can be processed within two weeks.

"We wanted to be pro-active about it and we want to assure kids, their parents and caregivers that best practice is being used," said Mr Anderson.

Police spokesman Jon Neilson said the turnaround for a vetting check was about 70 days, although applications deemed urgent were dealt with "much sooner".

Asked if this was fast enough, Mr Neilson said police "recognised the delays" and were trying to implement an IT-based solution.

Nearly a quarter of vetting was processed electronically and more improvements would be made next year.

He would not reveal if vetting checks had revealed any unsavoury characters, saying the information was subject to privacy and confidentiality legal requirements.

According to police, about 500,000 people are vetted each year.

As well as looking at convictions, the checks search for information that might suggest behaviour of a sexual or violent nature.