Welfare

NSPCC Safeguarding Hotline – 0800 023 2642

St Joseph’s Youth ‘88 FC acknowledges its responsibility to safeguard the welfare of every child and young person, who has been entrusted to its care, and is committed to working to provide a safe environment for all members. A child or young person is anyone under the age of 18 engaged in any club football activity. We subscribe to The Football Association’s child protection and best practice policy and procedures, and endorse and adopt the policy statement.

The key principles of The FA child protection policy are that:

  • 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, disability, culture, language, racial origin, religious beliefs or sexual orientation
  • All suspicions of abuse will be taken seriously and responded to swiftly
  • Working in partnership with other organisations, children and young people and their parents or carers is essential

We acknowledge that every child or young person who plays or participates in football, should be able to take part in an enjoyable and safe environment and be protected from poor practice and abuse.

St Joseph’s Youth ‘88 FC acknowledges that this is the responsibility of every adult involved in our club.

St Joseph’s Youth ‘88 FC supports The FA’s whistle blowing policy. Any adult or young persons with concerns about a colleague can “whistle blow” by contacting The Middlesex FA Child Protection manager Sharon Porter on 0208 515 6909  or Email: Safeguarding@middlesexfa.com or by going direct to the police, social services or the NSPCC

St Joseph’s Youth ‘88 FC has appointed a Club Welfare Officer (CWO) who has completed the required child protection and best practice workshop. The CWO is the first point of contact for all club members and parents/guardians regarding concerns for the welfare of any child or young person. They will liaise directly with the Middlesex County FA CWO and will be familiar with the procedures for referring any concerns. They will also play a proactive role in increasing an awareness of poor practice and abuse amongst club members. As a club we fully acknowledge and endorse that bullying of any kind is not acceptable. If bullying does occur, all players, parents and officials can be assured that incidents will be dealt with promptly. Anyone with any concerns should not hesitate to contact a CWO, member of the committee, or in cases of serious bullying contact the Middlesex FA CWO. Our Club Code Of Conducts must be adhered to at all times, and failure to do so could result in further action.

 

Using club webpage’s, social networks, email and texts.

Mobile technology is a key part of everyday life including how and where you can find information about football. Whether it’s about professional teams you follow or your own team or club it’s a great way to get and share information.

Within football we want you to use social networks, the internet, texts and email safely to get the information you need. We have produced the guidance below to keep us all safe and to ensure that we respect each other:

  • Tell an adult you trust about any communications that make you feel uncomfortable or that asks you not to tell your parent/carer
  • Know who from your club should be contacting you and how they should be contacting you
  • You can talk to your club’s welfare officer if you are unhappy about anything sent to you or said about you over the internet, social networking sites, text messages or via email
  • Don’t post, host, text or email things that are hurtful, insulting,offensive, abusive, threatening, or racist as this would go against football rules and could also be against the law
  • Don’t give out personal details including mobile numbers, email addresses or social networking account access to people you don’t know well offline
  • Facebook has different ‘set up’ guidelines for U18s to help to keep you safe – use them
  • Even if you get on with your coach, manager, club officials, adult referees or mentors, don’t invite them to become your friends online, they have been asked not to accept such invitations
  • Tell an adult you trust if an adult involved at your club or within refereeing asks you to become their friend online and inform your club welfare officer

• If you receive an image or message which you find offensive,threatening or upsetting tell an adult you trust. Make sure you copy and save the iamge/message elsewhere or print it off before you remove and destroy it because this may be needed as evidence

• You can also report concerns directly to the police by clicking on this Button below

ceop-button

We also have an Anti-bullying policy in place which will help everyone understand what is and is not acceptable within our club. This can be found on the link below:

FA Club Anti-Bullying Policy

We are also committed to working towards the elimination of discrimination whether by reason of gender, sexual orientation, race, nationality, ethnic origin, colour, religion, ability or disability and to encourage equal opportunities. Our anti-discrimination and equal opportunities policies can be found on the link below

FA Equality Policy

Document Downloads

Head Injury Pocket Guide Form

Head Injury Form

Incident Form

Nathan Dinham
Child Welfare Officer – 07808 158284

Sharon Porter

Middlesex FA Child Protection manager