CLUB POLICIES

As an England Football Accredited Club, AFC Football Club acknowledges our responsibility to safeguard the welfare of every child and young person and are committed to providing a safe environment for all. We recognise that a child is anyone under the age of 18 and subscribe to The Football Association’s (The FA) Safeguarding Children Policy and Procedures.

Our Football Club endorses and adopts the following key safeguarding principles:

• the child’s welfare is, and must always be, the paramount consideration.

• all children and young people have a right to be protected from abuse regardless of their, age, gender, gender reassignment, sexual orientation, marital status or civil partnership, race, nationality, ethnic origin, colour, religion or belief, ability or disability, pregnancy and maternity.

• all suspicions and allegations of abuse will be taken seriously and responded to swiftly and appropriately; and

• working in partnership with other organisations, children and young people and their parents/carers is essential.

AFC Football Club acknowledges that every child or young person who plays or participates in football must be able to take part in an enjoyable and safe environment and be protected from poor practice, inappropriate behaviour, and abuse. This is the responsibility of every adult involved in our club, including the parents/carers of our players and we will effectively communicate this to our members throughout the season.

AFC Football Club commits to ensuring that children and young people have the right to take part, be heard and have their views and opinions taken into consideration when making club decisions and actions that concern them.

AFC Football Club has a responsibility to safeguard the welfare of all children and young people by protecting them from physical, sexual, or emotional harm and from neglect or bullying. It is noted and accepted that The FA’s Safeguarding Children Regulations (see The FA Handbook) apply to everyone in football whether in a paid or voluntary capacity, including coaches/managers, volunteers, match officials, helpers on club tours, or medical staff or other club officials/helpers.

We endorse and adopt The FA’s Safer Recruitment guidelines and where an individual is going to take on a specific role for the club we will:

• Specify what the role is and what tasks it involves.

• Request identification documents.

• As a minimum meet and chat with the applicant(s) and where possible interview people before appointing them.

• Ask for and follow up with 2 references before appointing someone; and

• Where eligible require an FA-accepted DBS enhanced with barred list Check, in line with The FA’s current Safeguarding Children Policy and Regulations.

Everyone working in eligible roles with children and young people, such as coaches/managers, first aiders and physiotherapists, are required to hold an in-date FA-accepted DBS enhanced with barred list Check as part of safer recruitment practice and we commit to managing this consistently with individuals in current roles and those new to role. If there are concerns regarding the appropriateness of an individual who is already involved or who has approached us to become part of AFC Football Club, guidance will always be sought from the County Football Association (CFA) Designated Safeguarding Officer (DSO).

It is accepted that The FA aims to prevent people with a history of relevant and significant offending from having contact with children or young people and the opportunity to influence policies or practice with children or young people. This is to prevent direct sexual or physical harm to children and to minimise the risk of football being used in the grooming of children.

AFC Football Club has appointed a Club Welfare Officer (Youth Teams) (“CWO”) in line with The FA’s role profile who has completed the Safeguarding Children and Welfare Officer Courses. We commit to supporting the post holder to be involved with ongoing Welfare Officer training provided by The FA and/or CFA.

Our CWO is the first point of contact for all parents/carers and club officials regarding concerns about the welfare of any child or young person. The role of the CWO and their contact information is widely communicated throughout the club. The CWO will liaise directly with the CFA DSO and will be familiar with the procedures for referring any concerns. The CWO will also play a proactive role in increasing awareness of respect, acceptable behaviours, how to deal with low-level concerns and how to report abuse.

We recognise the need for proportionality in appointing individuals to the role of CWO (Youth Teams) and where appropriate Assistant CWO (Youth Teams) to ensure visibility for our membership. Where needed, we will appoint Assistant Club Welfare Officers (Youth Teams) to support the club and CWO to bring this policy to life and to drive safer working practice and a proactive culture as is necessary.

We acknowledge and endorse The FA’s identification of bullying as a category of abuse.

Bullying of any kind is not acceptable at our club. All players and parents/carers will be able to access our anti-bullying policy and know that incidents will be dealt with appropriately. Incidents need to be reported to the CWO and in cases of repeated and/or serious bullying the CFA DSO may be contacted.

Everyone who works or volunteers with children is responsible and accountable for the way in which they behave around and towards them. Every child has a right to be treated with respect and dignity. We always require adults within our club to exhibit acceptable behaviour. We adopt The FA’s ‘Acceptable Behaviours guidance (5.7)’.

Codes of conduct for Players, Parents/Spectators, Officials and Coaches have been implemented by our Club. The club has clear actions it will take regarding breaches of the codes, repeated or serious misconduct at club level and acknowledges the possibility of potential sanctions which may be implemented by the CFA in more serious circumstances.

In this Club, safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility, and we know that inaction is not an option. If anyone is worried about a child, they must report their concerns to our CWO (Youth Teams).

Our CWO will manage low-level concerns and where necessary seek advice from the CFA DSO.

• Our CWO will make referrals about more serious concerns to the CFA DSO, or in an emergency contact the Police or Children’s Social Care. We will ensure that if the child needs immediate medical treatment that we take them to a hospital or call an ambulance and tell them it is a child protection concern.

• Our CWO will keep records of the actions taken and keep the CFA DSO informed.

If at any time our CWO is not available, or the matter is clearly serious, all our members must be aware that they can:

• Contact the CFA DSO directly.

• Contact The FA’s Safeguarding Team via Safeguarding@TheFA.com.

• Contact the Police or Children’s Social Care; and/or

• Call the NSPCC Helpline (Monday to Friday 8am-10pm or 9am-6pm at the weekends) for advice on 0808 800 5000 or text 88858 or email help@nspcc.org.uk.

AFC Football Club supports The FA’s Whistle Blowing policy (as described in this paragraph) which requires any adult or young person with concerns about an adult in a position of trust within football to ‘whistle blow’ by contacting The FA Safeguarding Team by writing to The FA Case Manager at The Football Association, Wembley Stadium, PO Box 1966, London SW1P 9EQ, by emailing Safeguarding@TheFA.com or alternatively by going direct to the Police, Children’s Social Care or the NSPCC. We encourage everyone to know about The FA’s Whistle- Blowing Policy and to use it when necessary.

As an England Football Accredited Club, our committee understands and accepts the collective responsibility to adhere to our safeguarding children policy and procedures and to ensure that safeguarding is always an agenda item at our committee meetings. We commit to proactively sharing our policy, procedures and CWO contact details with our members.