Cumberland FA

Club Welfare Officers

A page to share vital information to support Cumberland CWOs with the role

This page will support new and established volunteer Club Welfare Officers and their assistants to fulfil the vital role within Clubs in Cumberland. Any new information will be shared on this page.


Let’s talk about keeping children safe in football

Please encourage all parents/carers involved in your Club to watch this short video provided by The FA.

Pass on this link: https://youtu.be/4rUoMjgy_70

DBS Checks (formally known as CRC)

We cannot over-emphasise the importance of every named coach alongside a Youth team to have an FA accepted and in-date DBS.

Whatever the age of the children and type of activity, a minimum of two FA DBS checked coaches / adults must always be present.  For more information see document 5.5 Ratio of Adults to Children

Visit The FA Downloads

Once their DBS is accepted, please make sure you log into WGS and add them to the team so we know who is coaching for each team. If you can’t add them to the team, it is usually because they are not yet accepted and therefore should not be coaching.  

CWOs may receive emails from Cumberland FA regarding qualifications that need renewals, however, the support from the CWOs in monitoring and renewing coaches’ checks is very important and we urge you to keep track of volunteers within your Club.

IMPORTANT: If there is a coach attached to a team who has a DBS which has expired, on the 22nd day that team will be suspended.

Checks are taking longer to process (due to the volume of checks being carried out across the country) and they may take a while to update from the GBG site onto the Whole Game System. This is often due to administrative delays and can take a couple of weeks to update, but it may be that the applicant certificate isn’t clear and they have been asked to send their certificate in for risk assessment.

Please make sure you treat an application as not accepted until it is showing on WGS (just because it turns green on the GBG site does not been it is accepted, only that it has been posted out)

THE FA HAS PRODUCED GUIDELINES ON CARRYING OUT FACE-TO-FACE DBS CHECKS DURING COVID-19

dbs-and-covid-checksThe guidelines have been produced in line with the Government guidance issued in early June 2020 (guidance has since been updated).

This means that face-to-face ID document verification can take place as long as the verifier and those requiring their ID to be verified observe all Government guidelines. 

If clubs need to, they can identify an alternative ID verifier, who is happy to do this, by contacting Safeguarding@CumberlandFA.com 

New volunteers must not start working with children until their DBS Check is accepted by The FA. 

Take a look at the DBS Checks guidelines by downloading the document below.

DBS CHECKS GUIDELINES

TOP TIPS: NAMES AND DOCUMENTS

Please ensure that when you are completing DBS checks the name on the application matches the name on their passport/birth certificate.

There have been several DBSs rejected by GBG because applications are being made in the name of Matt instead of Matthew or Fred instead of Frederick etc. The check needs to be on their full name as recorded at birth.

CWOs must see the applicant's ORIGINAL documents. It is not acceptable for the applicants to email or text you scanned copies of the documents. As CWO you must electronically sign the end of the application and tick to say you have seen their documents and these must be the originals.

DUPLICATE FAN RECORDS

There have been numerous cases where an individual’s DBS cannot be found on the system because it is attached to another FAN record or sometimes the DBS is attached to one record and The FA Level 1 Coaching Course is attached to another. (Sometimes also there could be typos with name spelling.)

If you come across a coach with 2 records, please email Safeguarding@CumberlandFA.com  so the second record can be removed and the two FANs merged.

 Please ensure contact details are kept up to date.

FA SAFEGUARDING VISITS

The purpose of these visits is to speak to your club members and offer support from the County FA.

It is a National FA policy to carry out these visits. Cumberland FA will be visiting many clubs over the next few months to check that nobody is involved in coaching who is not registered with the club, ensure managers/coaches/players and their parent/carers know what to do if they are worried about a child and know who the CWO is.

SUPPORT TO REFEREES

Please remember many of the referees at youth fixtures are also children.#CumberlandFootball

Some are also newly qualified and will need support from managers and coaches. It is unacceptable for adult coaches and/or parents to shout at referees or comment on their performance.

This type of behaviour will only mean we lose young match officials and will result in disciplinary charges against those involved. They make mistakes but we want referees to learn and develop and enjoy their role so please remind your coaches that if they wish to comment on the performance of a match official, they must do it through the proper channels.

If you see any of our young referees who are struggling, please support them and report to as soon as possible to Referee Development Officer Scott Taylor on Scott.Taylor@CumberlandFA.com

Please refer to the Respect Code of Conducts

 

Poor Practice

Please let us know if you become aware of poor practice incidents which raise a concern. Cumberland FA may not take any immediate disciplinary action but the incident will be recorded.

Please remind your managers and coaches to report all incidents to us through you (or the Club Secretary) to ensure the club is made aware of ongoing issues and we can liaise with a single point of contact.

Cumberland FA are trying to address poor behaviour across youth football and therefore want to know where there are repeat offenders whose behaviour needs to be addressed. The FA has produced new Respect material including Codes of Conduct which you can download below:

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

BOTH THE FA DBS AND SAFEGUARDING TRAINING MUST BE UPDATED EVERY 3 YEARS.

SAFEGUARDING TRAINING

It is FA Best Practice policy that you and all your coaches and assistants have FA Safeguarding training renewed every 3 years.

As you are aware, it is free to update online (using the link below) once they have attended a face to face workshop and this should be monitored alongside DBS compliance.

Click for The FA Online Safeguarding Children Recertification 

Cumberland FA New Coaches / Volunteers

Please visit The FA's Bootroom to access the latest Safeguarding Courses for Volunteers

 

As always, Cumberland FA is here to support you and if there is anything you are unsure about or want to chat through a situation, please contact us.

07704 156780 / Safeguarding@CumberlandFA.com

This page was last updated on:

Tuesday 15 June 2022