Child Welfare
Most importantly, please make sure that all your Club members (parents and players alike) are aware of who your Club Welfare Officer is. If you have a Club notice board, it may be a good idea to contact details for them and all Club officers. It would also be a good idea if all your Club officers had identity tags so that at a Club training session, a Club official is easily recognisable should a problem or concern occur.
Too often this season, it has become apparent that some Club members do not know who the Club officers are so please take these ideas on board.
Child Welfare courses
As a league, we would encourage all Club Welfare Officers to attend the Safeguarding Children (previously known as Child Protection workshop) and Welfare Officer Workshops which are run regularly by our local County football Associations in Essex and Suffolk. The dates of courses currently available in both counties are detailed below. We will endeavour to keep the course dates current. We have been in contact with Essex County Fa who has confirmed that more Welfare Officer Workshops will be held in the Colchester area in the near future.
Essex County FA courses
Safeguarding Children workshops cost £25
Hainult – SCW6 Monday 25 February 2008 7-10pm
Colchester – SCW6 Monday 7 April 2008 7-10pm
Harlow – SCW8 Monday 12 May 2008 7-10pm
Welfare Officer Workshops cost £20
Chelmsford - WOW5 Monday 17 March 2008 7-10pm
Southend – WOW6 Monday 21 April 2008 7-10pm
For further information and a booking form, please contact Simon Thomas 01245-393085
Suffolk County FA courses
Safeguarding Children workshops No dates currently available
Club Welfare Officer Workshops cost £20
Stowmarket – CWO1 10 March 2008 6.30-9.30pm
Stowmarket – CWO2 23 June 2008 6.30-9.30pm
Stowmarket- CWO3 1 Sept 2008 6.30-9.30pm
For further information and a booking form, please contact Sharon O’Donnell 01449- 776315
Please note that you will need to attend the Safeguarding Children workshop prior to attending the Welfare Officer Workshop.
Code of Conduct
At the start of every season, please remind all of your Club officers, especially your Team managers/ coaches and other committee members to read through your Club’s Code of Conduct and ensure that your members (players and parents) also reacquaint themselves with it too. If you have a Club notice board, it may be a good opportunity to place one there and also a copy on the internal Clubhouse notice board. Remember to encourage everyone to adhere to your Club’s Code of Conduct and when a team is playing away, if your opposition team have items in their code which are in addition to your own and you are advised of them e.g. no photographs or perhaps standing behind a marked out line a certain distance from the pitch, please encourage your parents to take these on board. Codes of Conduct are there for a reason. The teams are playing football because they enjoy the game; enjoy being part of a team, enjoy learning new skills, enjoy the camaraderie, like to feel they have achieved and contributed and sometimes being on the winning team.
Recruitment and Selection of Volunteers
It can often be difficult to recruit volunteers and it is always a good idea to find out a little bit more about them before they take on a specific role within your Club. Please find below downloadable copies of the FA’s guidance on recruiting volunteers, an example application form and reference form. Please note that these forms can be used for anyone interested in volunteering at your Club from coffee bar helper to team manager and coach. Also remember that ifsomeone is new to a role within your Club, it can be very beneficial to have someone as a mentor. This means that they always have someone to talk to about any problems they may have or ideas that may come to mind to help improve what they and maybe others are doing.
FA Guidelines
Recruitment and selection of volunteers guidance.
In addition, we have a direct link to the FA’s document “Celebrating Football through Photographs and Video.”
FA Celebrating Football through Photographs and Video
There are often concerns raised by parents about people taking photographs at matches. Please read this document carefully and keep a copy available for viewing at your Clubhouse, if applicable, and with your Managers. Also make sure that each year when you are registering players for the new season, you ask if the parents and player are happy to have their picture taken. If they have said “no” for any reason, make sure that the team manager is aware. This may help to prevent any unpleasant incidents.
Health and Safety
Child welfare also encompasses health and safety. If you are lucky enough to have football pitches which your Club uses exclusively, it would be a good idea to draw up a Club health and Safety Policy. For those of you hiring pitches, please ask the local authority for their regulations and best practice for using the facilities. You need to be sure what you are responsible for and what the provider is responsible for. This information should be highlighted when you initially hire the facility. As a club you should also have public liability and civil liability insurance. Other points you needto make sure you have thought about as a Club, and may already have set up, are as follows:
Establish where and how access is gained by emergency services to the pitch/ club house
Sign up and abide by the FA’s Goalpost Safety Guidance (further info from County FA)
Check the pitch before use for obvious dangers e.g. broken glass
Ensure goalposts are erected appropriately and always supervised by adults
Establish where the nearest phone is
Establish those individuals who have a recognised first aid qualification within the Club
Establish emergency procedures within the Club and ensure all coaches/ managers/ committee members are aware of these procedures
Utilise the FA’s guidance for travel and trips (available on your Welfare Officer’s CD rom) when transporting club members to and from football activities and when organising trips away.
Have an incident report form and an accident book for each team within your Club. (Remember to ensure that everyone knows who the incident forms should be returned to).
Make sure each team has a first aid bag, which is regularly checked and resupplied when items have been used.
