Hizashikan Aikido is a small dojo with one instructor. This page sets out how children and young people are kept safe here, and who to speak to if something concerns you.
It is written to be accurate rather than reassuring.
Who is responsible for safeguarding here
Two separate roles, held by two different parties.
The British Martial Arts & Boxing Association is the registered Designated Safeguarding Lead for this dojo. BMABA hold the formal DSL function: oversight, and the escalation route for serious concerns. They are independent of Hizashikan.
Aziz Meknassi is the club's local safeguarding contact. Concerns are received here and reported on to BMABA. That is not the same as being the Designated Safeguarding Lead, and this dojo does not hold that role.
We are a registered member of BMABA CIC, who act as our Safeguarding Governing Body. BMABA can be contacted independently for any safeguarding concerns at safeguarding@bmaba.org.uk or via 01798 306546.
Raising a concern about the instructor
Hizashikan has one instructor. A concern about him must not have to go through him.
Contact BMABA directly, at safeguarding@bmaba.org.uk or on 01798 306546.
They are independent of this dojo and hold the Designated Safeguarding Lead function for it. You do not need permission to use either route, you do not need to raise it with the dojo first, and you do not need to prove anything before you do. Preferring not to speak to the instructor is a sufficient reason on its own.
Raising a concern with the dojo
For anything else — the behaviour of a student, a visitor, or anyone else connected with Hizashikan, or a worry about how a session is run:
- Aziz Meknassi, instructor and club safeguarding contact
- Email: info@hizashikan.co.uk
- Telephone: 07552 128860
You do not need to be certain that something has happened before raising it.
If a child is at immediate risk
Contact the emergency services on 999. Do not wait for the dojo or the association to look into it first.
The NSPCC helpline is open to any adult worried about a child, including where you are unsure whether a concern is serious enough: 0808 800 5000.
Training and first aid
The instructor holds two current awards from the British Martial Arts & Boxing Association:
- Child Safeguarding in Martial Arts — completed 26 August 2026, valid until August 2028.
- First Aid for Martial Arts — completed 27 August 2026, valid until August 2029. It covers emergency response, life-threatening conditions, managing serious injury, and the specific ways injuries present in martial arts training.
The instructor also holds an Enhanced DBS check.
Both awards carry expiry dates, and both will be renewed before they lapse. If you want to see either certificate, ask.
Supervision
Children are not dropped off at Hizashikan. A parent or guardian stays for the whole session.
This is a deliberate arrangement rather than an administrative preference. With one instructor, a parent in the room is the most direct safeguard available, and it means no child is ever at the dojo without an adult who is there for them specifically.
Physical contact in training
Aikido is a physical martial art. Training involves controlled contact between partners, and between instructor and student — demonstrating techniques, correcting posture, assisting movement, and teaching students how to fall safely.
For a child, what this involves is set out before they start rather than discovered on the mat. The Child Assumption of Risk and Parental Consent Form describes the partner-based exercises and the close contact that training includes, and is signed by a parent or guardian and witnessed by the instructor.
Contact should always have a clear instructional or safety purpose, and should be appropriate to the student's age and stage. A student who is uncomfortable with a particular contact should say so, and will be listened to without argument.
Online communication
The dojo uses a WhatsApp group for practical matters — session times, changes, and dojo news.
Joining is optional. The invitation is part of the membership form completed on joining, and the instructor, who is the group administrator, adds someone only if they have accepted it there.
The youngest member of the group is 14, and a parent is also in the group. There is no private messaging between the instructor and any member under 18. Anything concerning a young member goes through their parent or guardian.
Photographs and video
Consent for photography and video is section 7 of the Child Assumption of Risk and Parental Consent Form, which a parent or guardian signs before a child starts training. It is optional and opt-in: you answer Yes or No. Answering No does not affect your child's place at the dojo.
Consent can be withdrawn in writing at any time. You do not need to give a reason.
Once it is withdrawn, images are removed wherever that is possible. On this website they are removed. Elsewhere — a social media post, for example — tell the instructor where the image appears, so it can be traced and taken down where that can be done.
Images are not published alongside personal details about a child.
Bullying and inappropriate behaviour
Bullying has no place at Hizashikan. That includes physical bullying, verbal abuse, intimidation, discriminatory behaviour, humiliation, inappropriate behaviour online, and the deliberate misuse of aikido technique.
Report it using either of the routes above.
Confidentiality
A safeguarding concern will be handled carefully and shared only with people who need it in order to protect a child.
Confidentiality cannot be promised. Where a child may be at risk, information will be passed on whether or not the person raising it wants that — this is the one circumstance in which a confidence will be broken, and it is better said in advance than discovered afterwards.
Parents and guardians
Please help by giving accurate contact details, telling the instructor anything relevant to your child's safe participation, staying for sessions, and raising concerns early rather than waiting until you are sure.
Students
Treat your training partners with respect. Follow safety directions on the mat. Use what you learn responsibly. Tell an instructor or your parent if something makes you uncomfortable — you will not be in trouble for saying so.
Review
Safeguarding is an ongoing responsibility rather than a document that sits on a website.
The dojo's underlying safeguarding procedures — the parental consent and assumption-of-risk forms, and the policies held on the club's BMABA policy register — are reviewed periodically, and whenever the arrangements described here change.
This page describes the dojo's arrangements as they actually are on the date above.