Here at Tiverton Town Football Club, we know that Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility.

As an England Football accredited club, we acknowledge our responsibility to every child and young person and are committed to offering a safe environment to all. We understand a child is anyone under the age of 18, irrespective of what team they are playing in.

Tiverton Town Football Club has adopted the following key safeguarding principles:

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• The child’s welfare is paramount. It must always be given paramount consideration.

• All children and young people have a right to be protected from abuse, regardless of age, gender, gender fluidity, sexual orientation, race, nationality, ethnic origin, colour, religion or belief, ability or disability pregnancy or maternity.

• All suspicions and allegations of abuse will be taken seriously, heard and responded to in timely manner, appropriately.

• We will work with any other necessary organisations, including children, young people, their parents and carers.

• We acknowledge that every adult at our club must provide a safe environment for the children and young people here to take part in the game of football, and its activities alongside it, in a safe, enjoyable and respectful place.

• Every adult here holds that responsibility, and we will ensure this fact is communicated to every adult, including parents/carers of anyone under the age of 18.

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Our role is to ensure the safety of all children and young people under the age of 18 from all forms of abuse - physical, sexual, emotional, neglect or bullying. This applies to all adults, whether volunteers, coaches, managers, physios, match-day officials and others, in paid or unpaid roles.

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SAFER RECRUITMENT OF STAFF/VOLUNTEERS

As a minimum, we will meet face to face with any prospective volunteer/paid staff, who will come into contact directly with children/young persons.

We will seek to undertake background checks where an individual approaches the club with no known history and or its deemed necessary to carry out those checks.

A DBS will be completed, and no-one will be left alone with a child until that DBS is in place. As a club, wherever possible a single volunteer/paid member be alone with a child/young person. There should be no reason for this to occur, apart from a lost child, perhaps, or one that has failed to be collected by their parents/carers. All reasonable steps will be taken to provide safety for that  child/young person to ensure this does not occur.

We will seek guidance from Devon FA where there are concerns over an individual who is already involved or who approaches us to become involved. This will aim to prevent individuals with a history of relevant offences or significant concerns.

We will explain the role applied for in detail and where necessary request documentation to support that role.

CLUB WELFARE OFFICER

Our club Welfare & Safeguarding Officer is Deb Whiteway, who can be contacted on 07944 010273

In line with the FA, the club has a designated Welfare Officer whose role includes being the first point of contact for any parent/carer/club official who has any concerns regarding the welfare and safety of any child/young person.

The role holder will have undertaken the Safeguarding Children and Welfare Officer Course, which the club will fund.

We will ensure these individual’s contact details will be circulated to volunteers at the club and be made available at the club for all our visitors, displayed in public at the club. The role is a proactive one in increasing awareness of respect, acceptable behaviours, how to deal with low level concerns and how to report any abuse.

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​BULLYING

Bullying is incorporated within our Safeguarding Policy and will be acted upon accordingly. Bullying in any form is not accepted within our club and will not be tolerated. Any incidents reported or witnessed will be dealt with by the club’s Welfare Officer. Where repeated cases or more serious incidents occur, these will be raised with the County FA’s Designated Safeguarding Officer.

ACCEPTABLE BEHAVIOURS

Without exception, everyone who works or volunteers with children or young people are expected to behave properly around and towards them. Every child has the right to be treated with respect and dignity at all times.

We expect the adults within our club to abide by acceptable behaviours and set a positive role-modelling example at all times. Codes of conduct for players, parents/spectators, officials and coaches are displayed at the club and the club will act upon any breaches of these codes.

REPORTING CONCERNS

We all have a duty to safeguard every child. If anyone is concerned about a child, they must report those concerns to the club’s Welfare Officer. Low level concerns will be dealt with by the Welfare  Officer. However, more serious or immediate concerns may need to be referred to the County’s Designated Safeguarding Officer, Police or Social Services. Should a child require immediate medical treatment, we will ensure they are taken to hospital in safe care or call 999 for an ambulance informing them that it is a child protection concern.

The County FA will be kept informed, and records kept on actions taken and by whom. Should the club’s Welfare Officer not be available, the other routes are as follows:

Safeguarding@TheFA.com
Social Services out-of-hours duty team 0345 600 0388
Police 999 or 112
NSPCC - phone 0808 800 5000, text 88858, email help@nspcc.org.uk

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WHISTLE BLOWING

Tiverton Town Football Club encourages any one with concerns over an adult who holds a position of trust to whistle blow by contacting the FA Safeguarding Team (safeguarding@TheFA.com) or informing the Police, Social Services or the NSPCC.

COUNTY LINES, CUCKOOING AND RADICALISATION

We recognise county lines, cuckooing and radicalisation are prevalent in our area. County lines is the use of city drug gangs and their use of teenagers to distribute illegal drugs into rural areas such as ours.
Cuckooing is the term used to refer to take over someone’s home and exploit it to distribute illegal drugs. Often these homes are of vulnerable people who might be lonely and isolated, potentially choosing football to help prevent this.

RADICALISATION

An experience of this occurred in Devon at the Giraffe Restaurant, Exeter, illustrating that we should not ignore any signs/concerns we might witness within our club. It is easy to fall into the trap that these activities do not occur in rural areas such as ours. Football matches could be a place where we see these illegal actions come together. Any of these concerns need to be shared with the club’s Welfare Officer.

OUR COMMITMENT TO THIS POLICY

As an England Football accredited club, our committee understands and accepts the responsibilities as laid out in this document. Safeguarding will be an agenda item at every meeting and we will review this policy annually, as a minimum.

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This policy was reviewed and approved by the Board of Directors on the 24th September 2024.