1. Be clear about the club’s/league’s responsibilities when running activities for children and young people

2. Help club/league personnel to recognise that safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility and to actively play their part

To be effective as welfare officer it’s vital that everyone in your club/league knows who you are and how you can be contacted, especially the players, parents and coaches. You should sit on the club/league committee and as a club welfare officer you should know your coaches and manager. If you are part of a large or expanding club/league you may wish to encourage the committee to appoint an additional welfare officer(s) to support the work you are doing. We would recommend clubs with more than 10 teams consider having additional welfare officers.

The club welfare officer safeguarding checklist (click here) will help you to ensure essential safeguards are place within your club.

RESPECT is aimed at helping us all to work together to challenge and change unacceptable behaviour on the sidelines and on the pitch. It's a long-term commitment. As a welfare officer you have the chance to make a significant contribution to creating positive change. RESPECT outlines the standard of behaviour that is expected in football for everyone from league officials, players, parents, club officials, coaches and referees. It is all about creating a fun, safe environment and its core principles work in tandem with safeguarding children. 

To find out more about this, you can visit our discipline section here or contact the discipline team via discipline@nottinghamshirefa.com

View here: Nottinghamshire FA Safeguarding Requirements (2024-25)

View here: Safeguarding requirements for Clubs with Open Age teams

A Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check is a criminal record check. The DBS will check to see if a person has any criminal and/or police records and will include information about criminal convictions and cautions. They will also check to see if the person has been banned from working with children. 

It is a criminal offence for employers or voluntary organisations to knowingly employ a barred person in regulated activity.  

Once a check has been completed, the DBS will provide the person (not the employer) with a certificate called a 'disclosure'.  

The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) Update Service allows: 

• applicants to keep their DBS certificates up to date 

• employers to check a DBS certificate 

If a member of staff or volunteer is changing their role and will be taking on responsibility for children, they will need to have a criminal record check before they take up their new job role.

Please see our SAFER RECRUITMENT AND DBS CHECKS webpage for further details.

If a person volunteers for your Club or for one of your youth teams then players and parents will perceive them as trusted adults and will rightly expect the Club has completed the relevant safer recruitment checks. It is acceptable for Clubs to have a couple of parent helpers  or volunteers that they can call on to help out with teams now and again. However, if they are regularly volunteering they will need to be registered as a Club official which means that they need to obtain an accepted FA DBS and complete the mandatory safeguarding children and first aid course.

Clubs need to register with the First Advantage DBS Online Disclosures service. They will need an organisation PIN and verifiers. Verifiers are responsible for checking and processing ID verification for the purpose of the DBS applications.  Most Clubs have a few verifiers, such as the Welfare Officer and Secretary.  Please complete and submit the below form to faverifiers@fadv.com for processing.

FA DBS New Club/Verifier Form

This same form can be completed to notify First Advantage DBS Online Disclosures service when a verifier is leaving / has left the Club so that their details can be removed and to register their replacement, if relevant.

Clubs are required to conduct safeguarding risk assessment for football activities.

Find out more about your club’s responsibilities, key steps, issues to consider and examples for different scenarios via the below document.

SAFEGUARDING RISK ASSESSMENT GUIDANCE AND TEMPLATE

Risk assessments for tournaments must be completed and submitted 28 days before your event. For further information visit our TOURNAMENT SANCTIONS webpage.