The FA's 4 steps to Safeguarding in Football

In response to the ongoing media coverage of historic sexual abuse in football, The FA has launched a personal message from some of its England…
The film, featuring Wayne Rooney, Steph Houghton, Jack Rutter and Nathaniel Chalobah, is centred around how the 8,500 safeguarding officers working across England football take the following four steps:

1. Checked – to ensure adults are suitable to work with youngsters
2. Trained – from coaches to referees, all are given suitable safeguarding training
3. Hear – concerns from both children and adults will be listened to
4. Report – the importance of raising concerns about a child’s welfare

Following these simple but crucial steps means that there is a framework in place to ensure that, if standards ever fall short with poor practice or unacceptable behaviour, they can be addressed.

You can watch the film here:


Anyone who has a concern about the welfare of a child or the behaviour of an adult towards a child or young person under 18 years of age in football, is required to refer it to The FA Safeguarding team. The team is staffed by professionals who are experienced in dealing with these concerns.

Referring a concern can be done by contacting your club or league Welfare Officer or by contacting Sarah DaCosta, Bedfordshire FA’s Inclusion and Safeguarding Officer via Sarah.DaCosta@BedfordshireFA.com or 07960500723.  Alternatively, you can email the FA directly via Safeguarding@TheFA.com

If the matter is urgent and you cannot contact your club or Sarah DaCosta, you can call The NSPCC 24-hour helpline on 0808 800 5000 – or if it is an emergency because a child or children are at immediate risk, then call the police or children’s social care in your area.

If you are concerned that someone may be behaving inappropriately or seeking to groom a child in an online environment, then please use the CEOP reporting button that will take you directly to the team at the National Crime Agency, as well as informing
Sarah DaCosta or The FA via Safeguarding@TheFA.com.

• If you are a victim of historical sexual abuse in football please call 0800 023 2642
• If you are child or parent concerned about safeguarding children in the game today please call 0800 1111

Every club and league in Bedfordshire with youth teams has an FA qualified Welfare Officer in place. Every manager, coach, referee and regular helper within a youth team must, by law and FA policy, have an “accepted” FA Criminal Record Check in place (also known as a DBS or CRB). All these coaches must be registered on our database.

We encourage parents to ask their club if their child’s coach is checked and registered with Beds FA.

Safeguarding Children Workshops are available to anybody who is working in football. It is a pre-requisite for Charter Standard Clubs and all Licensed Coaches must attend these workshops to maintain their status. We also strongly encourage attendance of these workshops every 3 years as best practice for everyone working with youth teams in football.

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