Professor Celia Brackenridge led the seminar, called Child protection in football: the latest score, at the University of Gloucestershire. Professor Brackenridge, one of the leading experts on child protection, praised The FA for their commitment and courage.

The first year's findings were intended to provide a baseline for awareness of child protection issues and the The FA's educational initiatives. Amongst the findings were the need to improve parental behaviour on the sidelines and the importance of listening directly to children. This theme is being taken up by The FA in this year's child protection in football conference at Pride Park, Derby in October. The conference is to be called Putting children first.

Other findings highlighted the need to support young referees and provide clear guidelines of appropriate behaviour for coaches and players at clubs off the pitch as well as on it.

Amongst the successes, Football Development Officers were praised for their ambassadorial work in championing child protection issues, the number of clubs appointing Designated Persons for child protection matters was also noted as was the fact that over half the clubs surveyed had adopted child protection guidelines.

Details of the findings will be published on TheFA.com soon.

More details of The FA's child protection and best practice workshops can be found here.

Child Protection and Welfare in Football - take part in the online survey here