That also means completing an FA Criminal Records Bureau
(CRB) application on the Officer, which must have been
accepted or in progress at the point of affiliation.
Making an appointment is not a huge job. Once in place, your County FA provides full training and offers ongoing guidance, advice and sharing of best practice.
So don’t risk your league or club losing their affiliation –
if you haven’t started already, start taking steps today to get
a Welfare Officer in place.
What does a Welfare Officer do? He or she has two fundamental roles:
1. Taking the lead in being informed and aware of the
league or club’s responsibilities when running football
activities for children and young people. This involves:
• Ensuring these responsibilities are well-understood
by others
• Developing best-practice processes
2. Helping league and club personnel understand what
their ‘duty of care’ towards children and young
people actually means and entails on a day-to-day
basis. For example:
• Ensuring all relevant people complete The FA’s
‘Safeguarding Children’ training programme
• Helping to make sure trips away are organised properly
• Assisting those with regular contact with children and
young people to complete the FA CRB paperwork