Does this apply even if your club is 18 and over only?
I can't give a specific answer to this question as my club has members under 18. You haven't commented as to why your club is considering appointing a CWO or if the club is affiliated to BC. If the club is affiliated or wishes to become affiliated BC will require the club to appoint a CWO. I think the opening lines of the BC role description for the CWO is useful:
"The Club Welfare Officer is the person with primary responsibility for managing and reporting concerns about children or
adults at risk and for putting in to place safeguarding procedures."
British Cycling CWO Role Description
I highlighted "adults" above because it seems to me there is a common misconception a CWO is only responsible for the "safety" of those under 18. Clearly we are all painfully aware of the types of abuse young people can encounter and it's understandable this is the first thought to enter people's minds. Abuse, and so the role of a CWO, covers far more than safeguarding young people from sexual abuse. Welfare is about bullying, intimidation, poor behaviour towards others, racism, inappropriate or unwelcome attention towards the opposite sex, the list is a long one - each of these can be directed to adults and under 18s equally. When an individual attends a safeguarding course it will become clear many people in different situations can be vulnerable for a variety of reasons.
If your club decides to appoint a CWO to satisfy BC affilitiation requirements BC will wish to carry out their own DBS checks - DBS is what many still think of as CRB, Criminal Records Bureau. BC will not accept a DBS from another organisation, any potential candidate should be aware of this as it can cause difficulties in the sense the potential CWO doesn't want the hassle of going through the checks again. In reality it's much simpler to let BC do it!!
As pointed out above safeguarding is not limited to young people and in my view it is also not limited to vulnerable adults. As one example a woman can find herself the subject of inuendo, inappropriate touching, unwanted sexual attention, etc. A more mature person may feel able to deal with this themselves but it can be this fails and the target then needs the support of a CWO to address the issue. Welfare is a deep and important subject.
One last quick comment. In terms of complaints a club should make it clear to whom a member may complain. It could be one individual is responsible for receiving complaints of any type and then passing this to the relevant individual. In my club members are encouraged to speak to any committee member. On the odd ocassion there is a complaint the member tends to speak to someone he/she knows or rides with this then gets passed to the committee for discussion if needed.