Cranfield Colts Football Club Safeguarding Children Policy

1.CranfieldColts Football Club acknowledges its responsibility to safeguard the welfare of every child and young person who has been entrusted to its care and is committed to working to provide a safe environment for all members. A child or young person is anyone under the age of 18 engaged in any club football activity. We subscribe to The Football Association’s (The FA) Safeguarding Children Policy and Procedures and endorse and adopt the Policy Statement contained in that document.

2.The key principles of The FA Safeguarding Children Policy are that:

  1. The child’s welfare is, and must always be, the paramount consideration
  2. All children and young people have a right to be protected from abuse regardless of

their age, gender, disability, race, sexual orientation, faith or belief.

  1. All suspicions and allegations of abuse will be taken seriously and responded to swiftly and appropriately working in partnership with other organisations, children and young people and their parents/carers is essential.
  2. We acknowledge that every child or young personwho plays or participates in football should be ableto take part in an enjoyable and safe environmentand be protected from poor practice and abuse.Cranfield Colts Football Clubrecognises that this is the responsibility of everyadult involved in our club.

3.Cranfield Colts Football Clubhas a role to play in safeguarding the welfare of allchildren and

  1. young people by protecting them from physical, sexual or emotional harm and from neglector bullying. It is noted and accepted that The FootballAssociation’s Safeguarding Children
  2. Regulations(see The FA Handbook) applies to everyone in footballwhether in a paid or voluntary capacity. This meanswhether you are a volunteer, match official, helper onclub tours, football coach, club official or medical staff.

4.We endorse and adopt The FA’s ResponsibleRecruitment guidelines for recruiting

Volunteersand we will:

  1. Specify what the role is and what tasks it involves
  2. Request identification documents
  3. As a minimum meet and chat with the applicant(s)and where possible interview people beforeappointing them
  4. Ask for and follow up with 2 references beforeappointing someone
  5. Require an FA CRB Unit Enhanced Disclosure whereappropriate in line with FA

guidelines.

  1. All current Cranfield Colts FootballClub members who are regularly caring for, supervising,training or being in sole charge of children and youngpeople will be required to complete a CRB EnhancedDisclosure via The FA CRB Unit1.If there are concerns regarding the appropriateness of anindividual who is already involved or who has approachedus to become part of Cranfield Colts Football Club guidance will be sought from TheFootball Association. It is noted and accepted thatThe FA will consider the relevance and significanceof the information obtained via The FA CRB UnitEnhanced Disclosure and that all decisions will be madein the best interests of children and young people.
  2. It is accepted that The FA aims to prevent people witha history of relevant and significant offending fromhaving contact with children or young people and theopportunity to influence policies or practice withchildren or young people.
  3. This is to prevent direct sexual or physical harm to children and to minimisethe risk

of ‘grooming’ within football.

5.Cranfield ColtsFootball Clubsupports The FA’s Whistle blowing Policy. Any adultor young person with concerns about a colleaguecan ‘whistle blow’ by contacting The FA Safeguarding

Team on 0207 745 4787, by writing to The FA CaseManager at The Football Association, 25 Soho Square,W1D 4FA or alternatively by going direct to thePolice, Children’s Services or the NSPCC.Cranfield ColtsFootball Clubencourages everyone to know about it and utiliseit if necessary.

6.Cranfield Colts Football Clubhas appointed a Club Welfare Officer in line withThe FA’s role

profile and required completionof the Safeguarding Children and Welfare OfficersWorkshop.

The post holder will be involved withWelfare Officer training provided by The FA and/or

CountyFA. The Club Welfare Officer is the first pointof contact for all club members regarding

concernsabout the welfare of any child or young person.

7.The Club Welfare Officer will liaise directly with theCounty FA (CFA) Welfare Officer and will be familiarwith the procedures for referring any concerns. Theywill also play a proactive role in increasing awarenessof Respect, poor practice and abuse amongstclub members.

8.We acknowledge and endorse The FA’s identificationof bullying as a category of abuse. Bullying of anykind is not acceptable at our club. If bullying doesoccur, all players or parents/carers should be ableto tell and know that incidents will be dealt withpromptly. Incidents need to be reported to the ClubWelfare Officer in cases of serious bullying the CFAWelfare Officer may be contacted.

9.Respect codes of conduct for Players, Parents/Spectators, Officials and Coaches have been

implemented by Cranfield Colts Football Club. In order to validate these Respectcodes of

conduct the club has clear actions it will takeregarding repeated or serious misconduct at club

leveland acknowledges the possibility of potential sanctionswhich may be implemented by the

CountyFA in moreserious circumstances.

10.Reporting your concerns about the welfare of a childor young person.Safeguarding is everyone’sresponsibility, if you are worried about a child it isimportant that you report your concerns – no actionis not an option.

If you are worried about a child then you need toreport your concerns to the Club Welfare

Officer.If the issue is one of poor practice the Club WelfareOfficer will either:

  1. deal with the matter themselves or
  2. seek advice from the CFA Welfare Officer

11.If the concern is more serious/possible childabuse, where possible, contact the CFA WelfareOfficer first, then immediately contact the Policeor Children’s Services

12.If the child needs immediate medical treatment takethem to a hospital or call an ambulance and tell themthis is a child protection concern. Let your Club Welfare

  1. Officer know what action you have taken, they in turnwill inform the CFA Welfare Officer.

13.If at any time you are not able to contact your ClubWelfare Officer or the matter is clearly serious thenyou can either:

  1. contact your CFA Welfare Officer directly
  2. contact the Police or Children’s Services
  3. call The FA/NSPCC 24 hour Helpline for adviceon 0808 800 5000 or Deaf users
  4. text phone0800 056 0566

NB – The FA’s Safeguarding Children Policy and Proceduresare available via

Thepolicyoutlines in detail what to do if you are concerned about thewelfare of a child and includes flow diagrams which describethis process. How to make a referral is also covered in theSafeguarding Children workshop. Participants are given theopportunity to discuss how this feels and how best theycan prepare themselves to deal with such a situation.

For more information on this workshop contact yourCounty Welfare Officer.

Further advice on Safeguarding Children matterscan be obtained from:

Cranfield Colts Welfare Officer:

Donna McKellar

Email:

County Football Association’s Welfare Officer

Sarah Dacosta

T: 01582 565111

Email:

The FA

•

• Emailing –

• The FA Safeguarding Children general enquiry

line 0845 210 8080

The policy on CRB Enhanced Disclosures will be subject to change, in lightof the implementation of the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act, 2006due to come into effect in July 2010. Further information will beprovided on this via TheFA.com and via the County FA Welfare Officers.