FA Announce New Safeguarding Regime
The FA has announced its new safeguarding strategy. The new safeguarding regime is the culmination of ongoing work since November 2016 following revelations of historic cases of abuse in football. Since then, millions have been invested by the FA and clubs to improve safeguarding in the sport.
Over 14 million people play football, equivalent to a quarter of the population in England. This makes having a comprehensive safeguarding strategy vital to protect such a large portion of the public.
Entitled ‘Building an Ever-Safer Culture,’ the new strategy document is largely based on the recommendations from Clive Sheldon QC’s review. It also includes commitments and changes to practice based on feedback from the survivor community.
The strategy document outlines 5 pillars that will support the overarching strategy:
1. Leadership and governance
2. Standards
3. Prevention
4. Education and empowerment
5. Protection
In a statement, the FA Survivor Support and Safeguarding Advisory Group welcomed the new strategy, saying:
“The new safeguarding strategy reflects all the recommendations from the Sheldon report, as well as building on the FA's existing safeguarding framework.”
“Several initiatives are being rolled out across football over the next three years, and we hope that the five key safeguarding principles highlighted in the strategy, will enhance the focus in building an ever-safer environment for children now, and in the future.”
Below we dive into each of the five areas in more detail.
Leadership and governance
“To provide strong leadership of safeguarding across the game and deliver effective governance frameworks.”
This is the FA’s strategic goal for leadership and governance in football. They intend to achieve this by delivering continuous professional development in safeguarding for all involved in leadership and governance. Refresher training will be conducted at least every 3 years.
This training will be combined with continuous partnerships with both Sporting Chance and the FA Survivor Support and Safeguarding Advisory Group (FASSSAG). These partnerships will help ensure safeguarding is being considered from all angles.
All leadership teams will also be required to publish a safeguarding report at the end of each season.
Standards
“To clearly communicate the expected standards, regulations, and policies across the game and to support those in designated safeguarding roles to drive and monitor safeguarding practice and culture.”
To achieve their goal for safeguarding standards, the FA have committed to continuous monitoring and evaluation of all clubs or affiliated activity. Clubs will have to meet the standards outlined in the framework and evolve in line with the NSPCC CPSU Standards.
All clubs and affiliated activity providers will be evaluated against The FA’s bespoke ‘Safeguarding 365’ Standard to ensure compliance. Continuous training of all leaders and staff is a big part of this.
Prevention
“To create ever-safer football environments through robust recruitment processes, driving safer working practice and culture, utilising insight and delivering clear messaging and inspirational campaigns.”
Achieving their strategic goals for prevention revolves around safer recruitment. This largely involves DBS Checks. Appropriately risk-assessing staff based on DBS Checks can help filter out any individuals that may pose a threat.
These tools will be combined with ongoing safeguarding awareness campaigns signposting all stakeholders to relevant safeguarding information. The Play Safe campaign was launched last year and is focused on providing this information to all involved in the sport.
Education and empowerment
“To deliver accessible, impactful safeguarding education programmes, resources and information to help create ever-safer football environments for children and adults at risk.”
To achieve this goal, the FA have committed to overhauling the safeguarding courses they currently provide as well as offering refresher training for all FA staff. A new e-learning course is also to be created to help parents/carers to understand the signs of grooming. On top of this, resources will be created for children themselves.
The FA will continue to work with stakeholders and the NSPCC to ensure any training evolves alongside safeguarding best practice.
Protection
“To make the reporting of concerns as easy as possible, continue to build strong partnerships with statutory agencies, provide guidance on managing low-level concerns and deliver robust case management by The FA.”
The final focus area, Protection, is essentially a culmination of the strategic objectives of the other four focus areas. Improving training and awareness of safeguarding concerns and how to report them will achieve a more protective environment.
The FA have committed to continuously reviewing and improving pathways for reporting safeguarding concerns. They will also use anonymised case data to lead studies and investigations into how more can be done to improve safeguarding in the sport.
To learn more about the updated safeguarding measures in football, you can follow the links below:
http://www.thefa.com/football-rules-governance/safeguarding