Birmingham County FA Welfare Officer, Paul Milne is co-ordinating a series of Safeguarding Children Workshops to help clubs fulfil their duties of getting this essential training for their Welfare Officer.
“We’ll be posting dates of these workshops on birminghamfa.com as and when they are available,” said Paul.
“Every Welfare Officer will need to complete this workshop in order that their club or league can get affiliated in 2009.
“A workshop must be attended – it cannot be completed online,” Paul stressed.
This season, all leagues and clubs with youth teams had to appoint a names Welfare Officer before their affiliation could be processed. Ensuring every officer attends a Safeguarding Children Workshop is the next stage.
In addition, from season 2010-11, all youth league and club Welfare Officers must have completed a Welfare Officer Workshop in addition to having an 'accepted' CRB check via The FA CRB Unit and having completed The FA Safeguarding Children workshop.
“Welfare Officer Workshops will be available at a later date,” said Paul. “Our main focus at the moment is to ensure everyone has completed the Safeguarding Children Workshop as it is one of the requirements for affiliation.”
What is a Welfare Officer?
A person or persons with lead responsibility for promoting the welfare of children within the sport and dealing with any concerns about the protection of children.
What does a Welfare Officer do?
He or she has two fundamental roles:
- 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 and developing best-practice processes
- 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 and assisting those with regular contact with children and young people to complete the FA paperwork
To find out more, please contact Paul Milne via e-mail at paul.milne@birminghamfa.com or by telephoning 0121 357 4278 (option 1).