Yearly review of FA safeguarding strategy, Building an Ever-Safer Culture, published

Having completed the second year of our three-year safeguarding strategy Building an Ever-Safer Culture, the strategy’s Year 2 review details progress made in the last 12 months.

The review records actions taken against the strategy’s five focus areas and strategic goals set out below. It also charts the steps taken to meet the recommendations from Clive Sheldon QC’s March 2021 independent report into allegations of non-recent child sexual abuse in football.

1. LEADERSHIP & GOVERNANCE

 To provide strong leadership of safeguarding across the game and deliver effective governance frameworks.

2. STANDARDS

 To clearly communicate the expected standards, regulations, and policies across the game and to support those in designated safeguarding roles to drive and monitor safeguarding practice and culture.

3. PREVENTION

 To create ever-safer football environments through robust recruitment processes, driving safer working practice and culture, utilising insight and delivering clear messaging and inspirational campaigns.

4. EDUCATION & EMPOWERMENT

 To deliver accessible, impactful safeguarding education programmes, resources and information to help create ever-safer football environments for children and adults at risk.

5. PROTECTION

 To make the reporting of concerns as easy as possible, continue to build strong partnerships with statutory agencies in managing abuse cases, provide guidance on managing low-level concerns and deliver robust case management by the FA.

Across all the focus areas of Building an Ever-Safer Culture, we’re making good progress and safeguarding remains a constant FA Board agenda item. Key areas of progress highlighted in the Year 2 review include:

• Continuing to drive up standards across the game with feedback from the relevant independent assessors demonstrating the positive strides taken across the men’s professional game and County FAs. In the women’s professional game, we’ve moved to full-time designated safeguarding officers in all 24 clubs. Alongside Board Leads, these safeguarding officers continue to raise the standards of safeguarding and player welfare.

• Under the Play Safe banner, the annual national safeguarding weekend last year saw huge engagement levels across the game, reaching 1m people via social channels. Crucially, the weekend maintains awareness of safeguarding and the ways in which concerns can be reported.

• We made significant progress towards our goal of ensuring 100 per cent of under-18 team coaches are up to date with all the latest safeguarding training we offer. We’re at 90 per cent now, and in 2023-24 this is an affiliation requirement, so 100 per cent will be compliant. We can monitor this 24/7, alongside our continuous checking of Disclosure and Barring Service Checks.

“We will continue to produce an annual review to chart our progress against our strategic objectives,” says Sue Ravenlaw, FA Head of Safeguarding. “We will also continue taking a leadership role in promoting and prioritising safeguarding at every level of the game.”

For further information on safeguarding and how to report concerns, please CLICK HERE.

Download Building an Ever-Safer Culture – Annual Report and Review, Year 2