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Safeguarding

Published in full, with a name on it, before you have to ask.

Every football school has a safeguarding policy. Most of them will send it to you if you ask, and asking feels like an accusation, so almost nobody does.

Ours is on this page instead, in full, before you have met anybody. If you read one thing on this site before bringing your child, read this rather than the timetable.

The designated safeguarding officer

Helena Sá

Designated safeguarding officer

Helena is not a coach and does not run sessions, which is deliberate. She is at Campo Norte on Tuesdays and Thursdays and reachable in writing at any time.

helena@yourname-academy.com

What we do

  • Every adult is record-checked, annuallyCoaches, assistants, and the two volunteers who run the gate. Not once when they joined — every year, and we will show you the date of the most recent one for any named person.
  • Two adults, alwaysNo child is alone with one adult, in a room, a car or a message thread. If a session ends up with one child and one coach waiting for a late parent, they wait outside, in view, and a second adult stays.
  • Coaches do not message childrenAnything a coach needs to say goes to a parent. There is no group chat that a child is in and an adult from this school is also in.
  • Photographs are opt-in and revocableYou choose on the registration form and you can change it in your account afterwards without telling us why. A child without permission is not photographed, which sometimes means we do not take the team photo, and that is fine.
  • Collection is checkedUnder-twelves are released to named adults only. If somebody else is collecting, message us before the session rather than at the gate.
  • Injuries are written down and told to you the same eveningEvery one, including the ones that seemed like nothing. You get the note whether or not you asked.

How to raise a concern

Including — especially — if your concern is about one of our coaches. That route deliberately does not pass through the coaches.

  • Write to Helena directlyhelena@yourname-academy.com. It does not go through me, it does not go through the coach, and no coach is told a concern exists until Helena has decided what happens next.
  • You will get an acknowledgement within 24 hoursFrom Helena, in writing, saying what she is doing with it and when you will hear again.
  • Serious concerns go outside this buildingTo the CPCJ and, where the law requires it, to the police. That is not a threat and it is not discretionary — it is what a designated officer is for, and you should be suspicious of any club that describes it as a last resort.
  • You can raise it anonymouslyIt makes it harder to act on and we would still rather have it.

Documents

Registered and checked

  • FPFRegistered club
  • Criminal record checkEvery coach, renewed annually
  • SafeguardingNamed officer, policy published
  • Insurance€10m public liability
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