Introduction
Well done to those of you have offered
to become and continue to be your Club’s Welfare Officer. You are obviously a
good communicator, listener and educator within your Club but has anyone ever
given you a copy of your roles and responsibilities ?
If not, please take the time to look at
this link
Roles and
Responsibilities of a Club Welfare Officer
The role is very involved and pivotal
for the safe and effective running of your Club
From the 2009/10 football season, it
has become mandatory for all Football clubs to have a designated Club Welfare
Officer who has a undertaken a enhanced FA CRB and attended an FA Safeguarding
Children workshop (formerly known as the Child Protection Workshop).
Following on from this, all Club
Welfare officers will need to have attended the Welfare Officer workshop before the start of the 2010/11 season to be
able to affiliate to the Essex County
FA.
The Safeguarding Children Workshop is
very informative and can be attended by any member of your Club (this includes all parents) in the football
environment who would like to have a greater understanding of what is involved
in ensuring the safety of all children.
Please note that the Welfare Officer
Workshop is available for Welfare officers only to attend and before you can
attend the Welfare Officer workshop, you must attend the Safeguarding Children
Workshop first and have an enhanced FA CRB .
The only dates currently available for
these for these courses which are held
in the evening normally from 7-10pm at a cost of £20 / £25 are as follows:
Essex County
FA
Safeguarding
Children Workshop £25.00
|
Colchester – SC007 – Mon 26th Apr, 7:00-10:00pm Southend - SC010 - Weds 21st Apr, 7:00-10:00pm Collier Row – SC008 – Fri 21st May, 7:00-10:00pm Chelmsford - SC011 - Weds 2nd Jun - 7:00-10:00pm |
Welfare Officer Workshop £20
Chelmsford – WOW007 – Mon 19th Apr, 7:00-10:00pm
Collier Row – WOW008 – Fri 23rd Apr, 7:00-10:00pm
Southend – WOW009 – Tues 4th May, 7:00-10:00pm
Colchester – WOW010 – Mon 18th May, 7:00-10:00pm
Chelmsford – WOW011 – Mon 17th May, 7:00-10:00pm
Collier Row - WOW012 - Weds 26th May, 7:00-10:00pm
Course booking forms can be downloaded from the
Essex County FA website – www.Essexfa.com
Alternatively for further information,
please contact Glenn Moss on 01245-393093
Suffolk
County FA
Safeguarding
Children Workshop
No details
currently available –
Welfare
Officer Workshop
Suffolk County FA IP14 5GZ – 29/4/2010, 12/06/2010
You are able to book these courses online by going to www.Suffolkfa.com
Alternatively, for further information,
please contact Justin Deeny 01449- 776315
Keeping People Informed
Keeping People Informed
Please make sure that your members know
who their Club committee and officers are, especially your Club Welfare
Officer. Provide your Club officers with identity tags, name who your officers
are on your Club publications and also display your Club contact points on
notice boards and in clubhouses. Additionally, why not encourage your club
officials to come along to home fixtures and make themselves known. For Club Welfare officers, it would be very
beneficial to go along and watch training sessions and introduce yourself to
parents. You may be surprised at how pleased, parents are to know who you all
are. This way, should there be any concerns or problems, people will know who
to talk to/ write to and it also gives the chance/ opportunity to find out how
your parents feel about following your Club and the Respect Codes of Conduct.
Code of Conducts and the Respect
programme
During the 2008/9 season, the
Colchester and District Youth league membership agreed to take on board the
Respect programme which included signing up to the Respect Codes of conduct and providing spectators with a designated
spectator area, ideally a minimum of 2 metres from the touchline with
parents/spectators standing on one side of the pitch and managers and subs
standing on the other side. Please make sure that all your parents have signed
up to these Codes of conduct in addition to your own Club Codes of Conduct.
Don’t forget to show that your team captains understand their responsibilities
under the Respect Programme by wearing their Respect armband.
Give the signed copies of the Respect
codes of conduct to your Club Welfare Officer as part of their role is to
communicate the benefits of the Respect Programme to all club members and also
monitor the behaviour of your members. Go along to home matches and check to see
if the spectators are standing behind the designated spectator area. If not,
politely ask them to stand behind the designated spectator area and remind them
that they have signed up to the codes of conduct which this forms part of.
http://www.thefa.com/TheFA/Search.aspx?s=FA
RESPECT PROGRAMME
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 if
someone 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
Volunteer Application Form
Volunteer Reference Form
Recruitment and selection of
Volunteers guidance
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 Team Managers .Each year, when you are registering
players for the new season, remember to ask the parents and player if they 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.
Club Policies
Clubs
should have the following policies in place:
Safeguarding
Children Policy
Equal
Opportunities and Anti-Discrimination Policy
Anti-bullying
Policy
Please
find detailed below links to the FA templates for the Safeguarding children
and
Anti-bullying policies.
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 very wise to draw up a Club health and Safety
Policy and also undertake risk assessments. 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 in place public
liability and civil liability insurance. Other points you need to 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
Check if
there have been changes made adjacent to where your home pitches are located
that may have an effect on providing a safe environment for your players i.e.
is it safe for your players to retrieve footballs from the adjacent field
? If not, why not – what measures can
you put in place to make it
safe ?
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. Make sure you have a whole club check prior to the
beginning of the new season.
CONTACT POINTS
CDYL welfare officer
Helen Clancy tel 01206
233317 email mo12_clance@hotmail.com
Essex County FA Welfare Officer Helen Hever tel
01245-393098 Helen.Hever@essexfa.com
Suffolk County FA Welfare Officer Raffi Coverdale
07899 998756 raffi.coverdale@suffolkfa.com
Emergency Contacts:
N.S.P.C.C. - (0808) 800 5000
Local Safeguarding Children – (Outside Office Hours):
(0845) 606 1212
Childline - (0800) 1111
Police - 999