The FA seeks to build a safe, fun and inclusive environment for all children and young people, whether they are players, young referees or qualified coaches.

To help guide those working with children and young people, The FA provides various courses in safeguarding children. Sometimes these are required as part of a qualification (e.g. for coaches and referee), and sometimes for a role, (e.g. the Club Welfare Officer). However, there are courses suitable for everyone, whatever their role in youth football.

All FA safeguarding courses are football-focused and child-centred. They are relevant, engaging and designed to help learners act appropriately and with confidence.

Over 750,000 people have now attended our courses – that’s a lot of people who are more safeguarding-aware and helping make football safe, fun and inclusive.

Update as at November 2020

Online courses: Please note all FA safeguarding online courses are free, available 24/7 and can be taken on most internet enabled devices. They can all be found here.

Learners simply need their FA-registered email address and associated password to access a course. FA Numbers (FANs) are automatically updated when the course is completed – please allow 72 hours for this to happen.

Safeguarding For All: This new course is an introduction to safeguarding and is suitable for anyone over the age of 14.

While the Safeguarding Children Workshop is paused due to Covid-19, this course should be taken by referees, coaches and anyone else working with children who has not yet completed the Safeguarding Children Workshop. Parents and carers and anyone else volunteering or working in football are also encouraged to take this.

The course can be accessed here.

Please note: There is also a course entitled ‘The FA Playmaker, supported by BT’. This is an introduction to working in football and is for anyone who wants to help on a football activity/project or in a club (e.g. assistant coaches). This course includes the topic ‘Safeguarding for All’. If a person completes this as part of The FA Playmaker course, they do not need to complete Safeguarding for All as well.

Safeguarding Children Workshop: Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Safeguarding Children Workshop is paused and is being re-written as an online course. This will be launched in spring 2021. County FA websites and the website you are reading will be updated when the course is launched.

Online Safeguarding Children Re-certification course: The FA recommends that everyone working with under-18s renews their safeguarding education every three years. Qualified coaches working in under-18s’ teams in FA Charter Standard clubs are required to do this. Referees must update their training to register for the 2021/22 season.

Re-certification must be done by completing this course and is available to anyone who has an existing Safeguarding Children Workshop (SCW) qualification or re-certification that is more than two-and-a-half years old.

Welfare Officer Workshop: This course is a requirement for everyone volunteering to be a Club Welfare Officer. The course explores the skills, attributes, roles and responsibilities of the welfare officer and the toolkit available to support the role. It focuses on the importance of safe recruitment, building blocks that help make a safer club, addressing concerns, as well as building the welfare officer’s confidence regarding how and when to seek help and advice.

This course is now being delivered as a virtual classroom.

Before enrolling on this course, learners must have completed the Safeguarding Children Workshop or the safeguarding element of the Level 1 for coaches. For the period November to spring 2021, any new Club Welfare Officer who does not have one of these qualifications must take the re-certification online course as an interim measure. To gain access to this please email education@TheFA.com to explain you are taking up this role; make sure to include your name and FAN and use the subject line ‘Welfare Officer safeguarding access’.

Please note anyone attending this course is expected to have an accepted FA DBS Check fewer than three years old. Before appointment the Club Welfare Officer must also complete the ‘Safeguarding for Committee members’ course.

Safeguarding for Committee Members: This free online course is written for Secretaries, Chairpersons, Treasurers and Club Welfare Officers in clubs with under-18 teams.

The course explores the key safeguarding building blocks in clubs such as:

• Effective committees;
• Safer recruitment;
• Building safe environments;
• Recognising and reporting concerns;
• Whistle-blowing

The course also stresses how important the committee is in supporting the Club Welfare Officer to embed safeguarding.

Secretaries, Chairpersons, Club Welfare Officers and Treasurers must complete this course to enable clubs with under-18 teams to affiliate.

As with the other online courses, Safeguarding for Committee Members can be accessed here.

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