Child Welfare Officer - John Watson, Tel: 01765 605255, Mobile: 07739 321478
Ripon City Panthers JFC Welfare Guidance
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Every manager and assistant at Ripon City Panthers has a duty of care to those children in his/her charge whilst at training, match-days or on official club outings. With this in mind it is expected that the manager and assistants ensure that ‘Best Practice’ is always adhered to.
Many children and young people will lack the skills or confidence to complain, especially to their Manager or a member of the coaching staff for fear of losing their place in the team or being labelled as a trouble maker/nuisance. It is therefore important that adults in the club as well as parents advocate for the children and young people. Advocating for children/young people who find it hard to speak out should be recognised by all involved as a means of creating a safer culture for the children and should not be seen as interference by adults from outside the Manager/Assistant circle.
We as managers/assistants can sometimes be blinded by our own enthusiasm for the game and pressured by the league authority to fulfil fixtures especially when there has been a spell of bad weather during the winter, but we must remember during such times that this is when the children and young people are most likely to experience ‘Neglect’ in the form of exposure to ‘undue extremes of weather’ by either inexperienced or over enthusiastic managers and coaching staff.
The FA Child Protection Procedures and Practices definition of Neglect includes situations in which:
• A child’s or young person’s basic physical needs (e.g. for food, warm clothing) are not met.
• Children’s or young people are consistently left alone and unsupervised.
• In the football environment, neglect might also occur if a coach or manager fails to ensure children or young people are safe, or exposes them to undue extremes of weather or risk of injury, e.g. through unsafe equipment.
Football Coach Code of Conduct: ‘Coaches must place the well-being and safety of each player above all other considerations’.
So what must we do to avoid instances of ‘Neglect’ occurring at the club? Here are a few guidelines.
1. What are the weather conditions like, has there been or is there bad weather forecast for your area, have you went up to inspect the pitch on match-day dressed in multiple layers of clothing (e.g. t-shirt, sweatshirt, padded sports jacket, hat and gloves)? How are the players going to cope playing in those conditions wearing only a football strip as protection against the elements? A child or young person will soon lose their appetite for playing the game in poor conditions and most definitely in extreme weather conditions (Heavy persistent rain and strong winds, heavy saturated pitch, frosty conditions). Put yourself in their shoes be a good responsible adult and make the right call, no matter how late. If in doubt call the training session or the match off.
2. If you start a game and realise quickly that you have made an error of judgment and there are signs that the players are not happy or worse showing signs of distress due to the weather conditions (which can happen very quickly with the younger age-groups). At the first break in play call the referee/s over and ask them to postpone the game on welfare grounds due to the deteriorating weather conditions and the players inability to cope with those conditions, make sure all the children are sent immediately to the cover and warmth of the clubhouse, it’s never too late to stop a game where a child’s welfare is at stake. It is necessary once the children are extracted from the weather elements to take time to talk to parents/supporters and explain your reasons for your decision, if that decision was based on the welfare of the children, there can be no argument.
It is also worth noting that in cases where it is cold and wet conditions on match-days and you clearly intend to fulfil your fixture, children/young people should not be exposed to poor weather conditions excessively for warm up prior to the kick-off (e.g. 30-40 before kick-off), as this could also constitute ‘Neglect’ 5-10 minutes would be more than enough in such conditions.
3. Having dealt with the issue of the Child/Youths welfare and the danger of exposing them to the undue extremes of weather, I should now remind everyone of our responsibility to look after our pitches which are already being used extensively. At present there seems to be a trust between ourselves and Harrogate Borough Council with regards to the decision to use Hell Wath or not during bad weather conditions, we must not abuse this trust. With this in mind the club has recently took the step of nominating a person/s (Mark Hillary & Ken Rowe) to inspect our pitches on a Friday night / Saturday mornings when there has been periods of heavy rain, snow or frost to safeguard against instances of poor practice, where matches are played in unacceptable conditions to the detriment of the players involved. If in doubt don’t hesitate to contact either myself or Mark and Ken on the following telephone numbers.
John Watson (Mobile): 07739 321478
Mark Hillary: 01765 698582
Ken Rowe: 01765 604895
The FA Respect Campaign
The FA has introduced the ‘Respect’ campaign, basically a national code of conduct primarily to protect match officials and restore order at all levels of the game youth and adult. The ‘Respect’ campaign, includes codes of conduct for players, managers and assistants, referees, team captains and players and supporters. The FA documents can be read below: