SAFEGUARDING IN OPEN AGED FOOTBALL
It is important that open-age adult clubs who have teams that contain 16 & 17-year-olds understand their responsibilities to safeguard those players.
This means that every open-age adult club with active players aged 16 or 17 should know that they are not exposed to a coach or manager who is ‘barred from working with children’.
To ensure this is the case we strongly recommend that our clubs check that those people in eligible roles within their club hold an in-date FA accepted Enhanced DBS Check with a check of the Children’s Barred list.
If a club has or is likely to have any 16 or 17-year-olds involved in open-aged football (e.g adult clubs with a youth section). We would suggest that they follow the best practice of ensuring that they have at least 1 member of the coaching staff working with their teams who holds a valid FA DBS Check.
If clubs with Open Age teams do not have a welfare officer and have or are likely to have 16/17 year olds then we strongly suggest that you train a Club Welfare Officer and adopt safeguarding policies and procedures to safeguard those young people who are under 18.
Please see attached documents that can help with the process. If you do need any help or advise please don't hesitate to contact the safeguarding team via email safeguarding@manchesterfa.com or 0161 2251966.
Manchester FA key safeguarding personnel