Safeguarding children is about doing things the right way and allowing children to enjoy the game without abuse of any kind. That means bullying, physical, emotional or sexual abuse and neglect.
Football can have a powerful influence on children but that means that all of us in football have a responsibility to ensure this influence is a positive one.
Fairford and Lechlade YFC is devoted to helping you to safeguard your youngsters and we follow the FA’s three simple steps to ensure our clubs and leagues remain safe, not sorry.
Raising Awareness
The FA’s Safeguarding Children Education Programme provides workshops, online courses and codes of best practice to help ensure we are doing the right things to safeguard children and young people in football. To access them, click here.
The Right People
Most people who get involved in football do so for all of the right reasons; however it’s important that football recognises its responsibility to safeguard and protect children and young people who are involved in football. The FA believes that football should be safe and enjoyable for all children and has introduced Criminal Records Checks (CRC) to help in this process. For further information for CRC applicants and guidance for Club Welfare Officers please click here.
Dealing With Concerns
Every affiliated club and league with youth teams must have in place a Safeguarding Children Policy and Procedure as well as a Welfare Officer who has an FA criminal records check (CRC) and completed the Safeguarding Children Workshop and Welfare Officer Workshop. Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility and to make sure we have appropriate safeguards within our club we ask that everyone makes themselves familiar with our safeguarding children policy and procedures for reporting a concern about the welfare of a child.
If you take part in football you have the right to have fun and stay safe. Your coach/team manager is there to help you learn safely and enjoy football.
This means respecting you as a person as a player/referee and;
- being a good role model — leading by example not speaking to you in a way that makes you feel uncomfortable not bullying you to make you do things
- treating you as an individual
- thinking about you and your team mates and not just about winning or scoring goals making sure the pitch/playing area and equipment are safe for you to use having the right qualifications to coach or referee making football/refereeing fun!
If your coach/team manager or referee mentor needs to have physical contact to correct a technique or your positioning, they need to explain this to you and check you are ok with this.
If you are not comfortable with physical contact you have the right to say no. Everyone involved in football must recognise that the responsibility to safeguard exists both on and off the field of play. Remember enjoy your football — don’t let anyone else spoil it.
Getting help and advice
If you are worried about the way a coach, team manager, referee or anyone else involved in football is behaving towards you there are people you can talk to.
Are you comfortable talking to your parents, coach/team manager, referee mentor or club welfare officer or someone else?
Talk to someone that you trust.
Perhaps you would prefer to use one of the websites that offer advice. Some you can email your concern to and they will email you back with advice specifically for you. It’s easy to get information simply click on the web address and find out more.
| Bullying Online | Kids-in-crisis |
| www.bullying.co.uk | www.get.to/kids-in-crisis |
| ChildLine | NSPCC |
| www.childline.org.uk or
CEOP |
www. There4me.com and www.worriedneed2talk.org.uk (aimed at 12 — 16 year olds) |
| www.thinkuknow.co.uk | Stop it now!
www.stopitnow.org.uk |
| Kidscape | or telephone – 0808 1000 900 |
| www.kidscape.org.uk | Remember you can also call The FA/NSPCC 24 hour |
| Kidszone | Help line on 0808 800 |
www.nspcc.org.uk/kidszone or textphone – 0800 056 0566