September Safeguarding Club of the Month, external

Manchester FA Safeguarding Club of Month September 2018

AFC Urmston Meadowside become first winner of Manchester FA Safeguarding Club of the Month.

Safeguarding is at the Heart of What we do!

Safeguarding all who participate in the game in Greater Manchester is the number one priority for Manchester FA. Manchester FA have an ambitious plan to provide opportunities for everyone within the game – whether a player, volunteer, coach, referee or administrator. These opportunities will only be realised where Manchester FA ensure safeguarding is at the heart of everything we do.

We are delighted to announce and congratulate the first ever winners of our Safeguarding Club of the Month, AFC Urmston Meadowside.  

The club have illustrated a strong commitment to both safeguarding and welfare and ensure safeguarding compliance within their volunteer membership.  There communication and guidance documents to their parents and players together with the distribution of Manchester FA’s ‘Help Keep Our Game Safe’ leaflets is seen as best practice. Their club infrastructure includes a Safeguarding and Welfare Team headed up by Matt Carr and includes Laura Garraway, Hayley Edginton and Emma Wheatley.  

The FA Charter Standard Community Club has 55 teams, so to develop a Welfare Team to support all the age groups illustrates their commitment to safeguarding. In addition, the panel judging the award noted the following of merit:

• Their Parent and Player forums that they have launched this season are innovative and gives an ideal opportunity for the voice of young people to help develop their club.

• The communications they issue to all parents within the club also reiterate the importance of the Respect Programme and also FA Charter Standard. 

• They provide clear guidance to all parents on the roles of the Welfare Officers within your club.

• Their website includes codes of conducts and policies.

• Their Welfare Officers do regular spot checks at matches with the positive approach to being seen and recognised and accessible to their  members and ultimately to monitor the conduct within the Club and its teams.

• Their Welfare Team has a strong role both in reporting and influencing the Club Management Committee and it was seen as a great strength that the clubs Welfare Team meet on a monthly basis.


Manchester FA’s Designated Safeguarding Officer; Lauren McCorry commented

it’s wonderful to see the volunteers recognised for their contribution in safeguarding children within their club. It’s also a credit to the club in supporting Matt, Laura, Hayley and Emma and ensuring their views are heard at Management Committee level. Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility and this is epitomised by the everyone connected to AFC Urmston Meadowside.  Congratulations on the Club of the month Award, from me and all the team at Manchester FA.

Matt Carr – Head of Safeguarding & Welfare at AFC Urmston Meadowside spoke of his delight of the clubs recognition

I am absolutely delighted that the club have been awarded the inaugural MFA safeguarding club of the month award for September. This is great recognition for the club and is a reward for the extremely hard work the safeguarding team put in throughout the year.  We have recently realigned our safeguarding structure here at Urmston Meadowside ensuring each team within the age groups have a dedicated welfare officer to contact should they need to. I couldn’t be happier with the results of this new structure and this has enabled us to get closer to our coaches parents and players which has placed us in the position to launch our latest initiative with our parent and player forums which will pay dividends as we build the future of the club within the grassroots game It really is an exciting time at the club and this award shows that all the teams efforts are valued and recognised. I am extremely lucky to have such a dedicated group of volunteers within our safeguarding team and I would like to place on record my thanks to them for all their daily effort and commitment to the club I see our team as amateurs carrying our a very professional job.

The clubs commitment to safeguarding is paramount and the support of the executive and management committee along with all our coaches to the safeguarding team is recognised by myself. I believe that Safeguarding within our game should be the number one priority of all stakeholders and by keeping the children at the heart of everything we do it will make the grassroots game a safer and more enjoyable environment to be in.

On behalf of my safeguarding team and everyone at AFC Urmston Meadowside we must thank Manchester FA for this award and the guidance and support that they give around Safeguarding

Could you be our next Safeguarding Club of the Month?

Our Safeguarding Club of the Month will continue throughout the season and nominations are now being considered for the month of October.

 CLICK HERE TO NOMINATE YOUR SAFEGUARDING CLUB OF THE MONTH

 

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