Reporting a Safeguarding Concern
Kent FA seeks to do everything it can to support a safe and enjoyable football environment for all.
Safeguarding is everyone's responsibility. If standards ever fall short of good practice or unacceptable behaviour is apparent, please let us know so we can investigate the issues and how they are being managed. By reporting a concern, you can help us ensure that youth football stays safe and fun for all.
Anyone concerned about the welfare of a child and the behaviour of an adult towards a child or young person under 18 years of age in football must refer the matter to the Kent FA Safeguarding Team. There are two levels of concern: serious safeguarding concerns and poor practice (low-level concerns).
GET IN TOUCH
01622 791850
For guidance related to a safeguarding concern outside of office hours, please email Safeguarding@KentFA.com or call NSPCC 24/7 on 0808 800 5000
If a child is in immediate danger, please contact the police.
Safeguarding Cases
If the concern you wish to raise can be categorised as:
- Sexual Abuse
- Emotional Abuse
- Physical Abuse
- Neglect
- Bullying
You must email Safeguarding@KentFA.com, marking your email URGENT, or contact the office on 01622 791850. This may be a serious safeguarding concern, and action is required urgently.
If your concern involves the possible or actual risk of harm to children, you can call the NSPCC's 24-hour helpline on 0808 800 5000. If it is an emergency because a child or children are at immediate risk, call the police or children's social care.
Poor Practice (Low-level concern)
If your concern does not fall into any of the categories above and does not involve possible or actual risk of harm to children, you can report it by emailing the Safeguarding Team on Safeguarding@KentFA.com or call 01622 791850. We take all concerns seriously, and your report will be handled with care and attention.
When reporting a concern, it is important to gather as much information as possible. This includes the date and Time(s) of Concern, Nature of Concern, Details of the incident, Person of Concern, and Clubs/teams involved. The more detailed the information, the better we can understand and address the issue.
There is some useful information on Managing Complaints and thresholds (Poor practice)—HERE, Shortcut to Managing complaints and Thresholds.
DBS checks and Safer Recruitment
* Eligibility is governed by legislation and government guidance. In brief, this means a DBS Check is required for anyone aged 16 years or over who undertakes any potentially unsupervised roles working directly with children and young people under 18.
These activities include managing, training, coaching, and supervising, as well as giving advice or guidance on wellbeing, caring for children, or driving a vehicle solely for children on behalf of a club or organisation. All coaches and managers working directly with under-18 players must hold a current, FA-accepted DBS Check. This includes Open-Aged football teams with 16-17-year-old participants.
Anyone undertaking these activities in football MUST obtain a DBS Enhanced Criminal Record with Children's Barred List Check.
As part of the safeguarding children strategy, the FA requires those working in eligible* roles with children and young people to pass a DBS Check. This is standard practice, in line with legislation and government guidance.
The FA provides the framework and guidance for DBS Checks in football. The leagues and clubs then have to implement this to ensure that those required to have them have them.
Where the DBS Check highlights relevant information, this is investigated further, and a risk assessment is carried out to establish whether or not the candidate will be accepted to work with children and young people in football.
Grassroots coach, manager, first-aider or any other club-based eligible role (i.e. anyone who has a role with under-18s): Speak to the Club Welfare Officer (CWO).
Club Welfare Officer: Speak to the Designated Safeguarding Officer (DSO) Safeguarding@KentFA.com
Referee, referee mentor, referee coach, referee assessor and referee tutor in under-18 football: Contact your CFA Referee Development Officer (RDO) Referees@KentFA.com
Working in a private soccer school or unaffiliated football: You may not be able to get an FA-enhanced DBS Check. For advice, speak to your line manager, call 0115 969 4618, or email FAChecks@TheFA.com
Common things to check for and be aware of before beginning:
- The Applicant has an email attached to their FAN, which is only attached to the FAN.
- The Applicant can log into their WGS using wholegame.thefa.com.
- The Applicant has only one FAN ID (if they have duplicate FANs, contact Info@KentFA.com).
- The process is completed within the given time frame.
- Always check their junk mail and CWO to check non-activated users.
Click here for more details.