Cranleigh Youth Football Club

Safeguarding Children Policy

and Procedures

1. Cranleigh Youth Football Club acknowledges itsresponsibility to safeguard thewelfare of every child and youngperson who has been entrusted to itscare and is committed to working toprovide a safe environment for allmembers. A child or young person is

anyone under the age of 18 engagedin any Club football activity. Wesubscribe to The FootballAssociation's Safeguarding Children -Policy and Procedures and endorseand adopt the Policy Statementcontained in that document.

2. The key principles of The FASafeguarding Children Policy are that:

● The child's welfare is, and mustalways be, the paramountconsideration

● All children and young people havea right to be protected from abuseregardless of their age, gender,disability, culture, language, racialorigin, religious beliefs or sexualorientation

● All suspicions and allegations ofabuse will be taken seriously andresponded to swiftly andappropriately

●Working in partnership with otherorganisations, children and youngpeople and their parents/carers isessential.We acknowledge that every child oryoung person who plays orparticipates in football should be ableto take part in an enjoyable and safeenvironment and be protected frompoor practice and abuse.

Cranleigh Youth Football Club recognises that this isthe responsibility of every adultinvolved in our club.

3. Cranleigh Youth Football Club has a role to play insafeguarding the welfare of allchildren and young people byprotecting them from physical, sexualor emotional harm and from neglector bullying. It is noted and acceptedthat The Football Association's ChildProtection Regulation (see The FAHandbook) applies to everyone infootball whether in a paid orvoluntary capacity. This meanswhether you are a volunteer,match official, helper on club tours,football coach, club official ormedical staff.

4.We endorse and adopt The FA'sResponsible Recruitment guidelinesfor recruiting volunteers and we will:

● Develop a role profile

● Request identification documents

● As a minimum meet and chat withthe applicant(s) and where possibleconduct interviews beforeappointing

● Request and follow up with tworeferences before appointing

● Require an FA CRB Unit EnhancedDisclosure where appropriate in linewith FA guidelines.

All current Cranleigh Youth Football Club members whoare regularly caring for, supervising,training or being in sole charge ofchildren and young people will berequired to complete a CRBEnhanced Disclosure via The FA CRBUnit[1] . If there are concerns regardingthe appropriateness of an individualwho is already involved or who hasapproached us to become part ofCranleigh Youth Football Club guidance will besought from The FootballAssociation. It is noted and acceptedthat The FA will consider therelevance and significance of theinformation obtained via The FA CRBUnit Enhanced CRB Disclosure andthat all decisions will be made in thebest interests of children and youngpeople.It is accepted that The FA aims toprevent people with a history ofrelevant and significant offendingfrom having contact with children oryoung people and the opportunity toinfluence policies or practice withchildren or young people. This is toprevent direct sexual or physicalharm to children and to minimise therisk of 'grooming' within football.

5. Cranleigh Youth Football Club supports The FA'sWhistle blowing Policy*. Any adult oryoung person with concerns about acolleague can 'whistle blow' bycontacting The FA Child ProtectionTeam on 0207 745 4787, by writingto The FA Case Manager at TheFootball Association, 25 Soho Square,W1D 4FA, or alternatively by goingdirect to the Police, Children'sServices or the NSPCC.Cranleigh Youth Football Club encourages everyoneto know about it and utilise it ifnecessary.

6. Cranleigh Youth Football Club has appointed a ClubWelfare Officer (CWO) in line withThe FA's role profile and requiredcompletion of the SafeguardingChildren and Welfare OfficersWorkshop. The post holder will beinvolved with Welfare Officer trainingprovided by The FA and/or CFA. TheCWO is the first point of contact forall Club committee membersregarding concerns about the welfareof any child or young person. TheCWO will liaise directly with the CFAWelfare Officer and will be familiarwith the procedures for referring anyconcerns.They will also play aproactive role in increasingawareness of Respect, poor practiceand abuse amongst their Clubmembers.

7. We acknowledge and endorse TheFA's identification of bullying as acategory of abuse. Bullying of anykind is not acceptable in our league.If bullying does occur, all players orparents/carers should be able to telland know that incidents will be dealtwith promptly. Incidents need to bereported to the CWO or alternatively,in cases of serious bullying, we maycontact the CFA Welfare Officer.

8. Respect codes of conduct forPlayers, Parents/Spectators, Officialsand Coaches have been implementedby Cranleigh Youth Football Club. In order tovalidate these Respect codes ofconduct the Club has clear actions itwill take regarding repeated orserious misconduct at Club level andacknowledges the possibility ofpotential sanctions which may beimplemented by the CFA in moreserious circumstances. All registeringmembers will be required to adoptthe Respect codes.

9. Reporting your concerns about thewelfare of a child or young person -Safeguarding is everyone'sresponsibility. If you are worriedabout a child it is important that youreport your concerns - no action isnot an option.

● If you are worried about a childthen you need to report yourconcerns to the CWO

● If the issue is one of poor practicethey will either:

-deal with the matter themselves or

-seek advice from the CFA Welfare

Officer

● If the concern is more serious -possible child abuse - they will,where possible, contact the CFAWelfare Officer first, thenimmediately contact the Police orChildren's Services

● If the child needs immediatemedical treatment take them to ahospital or call an ambulance andtell them this is a child protectionconcern. Let your CFA WelfareOfficer know what action you havetaken

● If at any time you are not able tocontact your CWO or the matter isserious then you can either:

- contact your CFA Welfare Officerdirectly or

- call The FA/NSPCC 24-hourHelpline for advice on 0808 800

5000 or

- contact the Police or Children'sServices.

NB - The FA's Safeguarding ChildrenPolicy and Procedures is available via Click onthe 'downloads' under Policy andProcedures, it outlines in detail what todo if you are concerned about thewelfare of a child and includes flowdiagrams to describe this process. Thisis also covered within the SafeguardingChildren workshop, where participantsare given the opportunity to discusshow this feels and how best they canprepare themselves to deal with such asituation.

10.Further advice on SafeguardingChildren matters can be obtainedfrom:

●

● CountyFootball Association's

Welfare Officer

- telephone no:

- email: CountyWO@

● The FA Safeguarding Children

enquiry line 0845 210 8080

● Emailing -

Page 1 of 3 / March 2010

[1]The policy on CRB Enhanced Disclosures will be subject to change, in light of the implementation of the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act, 2006, due to come into effect in October 2009. Further information will be provided on this via TheFA.com and via the County FA WelfareOfficers.