CHILD PROTECTION

Every child and young person who plays football should be able to participate in an enjoyable and safe environment and be protected from abuse. This is the responsibility of every adult involved in football. It is important to understand the feelings involved but not to allow them to interfere with your judgement about any action to be taken.

It is everyone's responsibility to safeguard the welfare of all children and young people by protecting them from physical, sexual or emotional harm and from neglect or bullying.

What is Child Abuse?

Child abuse is a term used to describe ways in which children or young people are harmed, usually by adults and increasingly by peers.

Often these are people they know or trust. It refers to the damage done to a child's or young person's physical, mental or emotional health. Children or young people can be abused within or outside their family, at school and within the football environment. Abusive situations arise when adults or peers misuse their power over children or young people.

There are 5 main forms of abuse :-

Physical Abuse

Hitting, shaking, squeezing, biting or burning.

Giving children or young people alcohol, cigarettes, inappropriate drugs or poison.

Attempting to suffocate or drown children or young people.

Using excessive and inappropriate training methods.

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 or young people are consistently left alone and unsupervised.

Failure to ensure children or young people are safe, not exposed to undue extremes of weather or risk of injury e.g. through unsafe equipment.

Sexual Abuse

Where adults/peers use children or young people to meet their own sexual needs through :-

Full sexual intercourse, masturbation, oral sex, fondling or anal intercourse.

Showing them pornographic books, photographs or videos or taking photographs for pornographic purposes.

Emotional Abuse

Persistent lack of love, affection or attention shown to a child or young person.

Overprotecting and preventing them from socialising.

Children or young people being frequently shouted at or taunted.

Bullying

This is not always easy to define and can take many forms and is usually repeated over a period of time. There are 3 main types of bullying :-

Physical

(hitting, kicking or theft)

Verbal

(racist or homophobic remarks, threats and name calling)

Emotional

(isolating an individual from activities)

Indications that a child or young person may be being abused

Unexplained or suspicious injuries particularly if situated on a part of the body not normally prone to such injuries.

Any injury for which the explanation seems inconsistent.

A child or adult expressing concern about the welfare of another child or young person.

Unexplained changes in behaviour e.g. becoming very quiet, withdrawn or displaying sudden outbursts of temper.

Sexual awareness, inappropriate for age.

Being mistrustful of adults, particularly those with whom a close relationship would normally be expected.

Having difficulties in making friends.

Loss of weight for no apparent reason.

Becoming increasingly dirty or un-kept.

The Responsible Football Coach/Manager Code of Conduct

Recommendations For Persons Involved With Treatment of Children and Young People in Football

General Guidelines in the care of Children and Young People

It is possible to reduce situations in which abuse can occur and help protect volunteers by promoting good practice.

Always be public and open when working with children or young people. Avoid situations where a coach/manager and an individual child or young person are completely unobserved.

Always treat players in an open environment or, if treatment is required within a closed area, ensure parents/guardian are aware of this.

Where appropriate, parents/guardian should take on the responsibility for their children or young person in the changing rooms. If groups have to be supervised in the changing rooms, always ensure coaches/managers work in pairs.

Where there are mixed teams away from home, they should always be accompanied by a male and female coach/manager.

When working with children or young players of the opposite sex, coaches/managers must agree with parent/guardian when, or if, it is appropriate to enter the changing area. It may be prudent to set a time, for example 10 minutes before a game, when the coach/manager could enter the room accompanied by parents/guardian, at least one of which must be of the opposite sex.

Everyone should also be aware that as a general rule it does not make sense to :-

Spend excessive amounts of time alone with child/young person.

Take children or young people alone on car journeys, however short.

Take children or young people to your home where they will be alone with you.

If cases arise where these situations are unavoidable, they should only occur with the full knowledge and consent of someone in charge in the organisation and/or the child's/young person's parent or guardian.

Adults should never :-

Allow or engage in rough, physical or sexually provocative games, including horseplay.

Share a bedroom with a child or young person.

Allow or engage in any form of inappropriate touching.

Allow children or young people to use inappropriate language unchallenged.

Make sexually suggestive comments to a child or young person, even in fun.

Allow allegations made by a child or young person to go unchallenged, unrecorded or not acted upon.

Do things of a personal nature for children or young people they can do for themselves.

Invite or allow children or young people to stay with you at your home unsupervised.

It may sometimes be necessary for a manager/coach or volunteer to do things of a personal nature for children or young people, particularly if they are very young or have a disability. These tasks should only be carried out with the full understanding and prior consent of the parents/guardian and the children or young persons involved.

There is a need to be responsive to a child's or young person's reactions - if a child or young person is fully dependant upon you, talk with him/her about what you are doing and give choices where possible. This is particularly so if you are involved in any dressing or undressing of outer clothing, or where there is physical contact or lifting or assisting a child/young person to carry out particular activities.

If you accidentally hurt a child or young person, he/she seems distressed in any manner, appears to be sexually aroused by your actions, or misunderstands or misinterprets something you have done, report any such incident as soon as possible to another colleague and make a brief written note of it. Parents or guardian should be informed of the incident.

Action to take if a child or young person informs you directly that he/she is concerned about someone's behaviour towards them or you become aware through your own observations or through a third party of possible abuse occurring within a football setting

React calmly so as not to frighten them. Tell them they are not to blame and they were right to tell. Take what they tell you seriously.

Ensure their safety. If the child or young person needs immediate medical treatment, take the child to hospital or call an ambulance. Inform doctors of the concerns and ensure that they are aware that this it is a child protection issue.

Avoid leading the child or young person and keep any questions to the absolute minimum necessary to ensure a clear understanding of what has been said.

Reassure the child or young person, but do not make promises of confidentiality or outcome, which might not be feasible in the light of subsequent developments.

Parents and guardians should only be contacted only after advice from social services.

Make a full record of what has been said, heard and/or seen as soon as possible.

Report your concerns to the club child protection officer who will take matters further.

If the child protection officer is not available, inform them when available.

NON-ACTION IS NOT AN OPTION IN CHILD PROTECTION. YOU MUST ACT, DO NOT ASSUME THAT SOMEBODY ELSE WILL.

Any queries relating to these matters should made to Paul Charman Gosport Ladies Child Welfare Officer.

The Football Association/NSPCC Child Protection Helpline number is 0808 800 5000. This number is for anyone (including chidren) to ring for advice in child protection matters, whether football related or not.