The FA is firmly committed to creating a safe and inclusive environment for children to enjoy playing football. Safeguarding children is about putting in place the best-possible practices and procedures.
When clubs or leagues recruit new volunteers or employees all reasonable steps must be taken to ensure unsuitable people are prevented from working with children and young people in youth football and open-age teams (who have players aged under-18). Follow the eight steps set out in The FA’s Guidance 3.1: Safer recruitment of volunteers in grassroots football to ensure fair and safer recruitment across the game.
Some roles in youth and open-aged football require a DBS Check. Eligibility is governed by legislation. In brief, anyone aged 16 years or over who undertakes any potentially unsupervised roles working directly with children and young adults under the age of 18 MUST have a DBS Enhanced Criminal Record with Children’s Barred List Check. This includes all football roles listed in Table 1.
It is the responsibility of leagues and clubs to ensure that all those requiring a DBS Check hold an FA accepted in-date DBS Disclosure issued within the last three years. Clubs must ensure all newly appointed individuals hold a FA Accepted DBS prior to working unsupervised with children and young people. Where individuals are renewing their FA DBS Check they can continue to work with children and young people once their renewal has been submitted to the DBS and is displayed on The FA Club Portal as in progress.
Table 1: Roles in football requiring a DBS Enhanced Criminal Record with Children’s Barred List Check
| Role in football | Action to take |
| Grassroots Coach, Manager, First-aider or other club-based eligible role (i.e. anyone who has a role with under-18s) | Contact your Club Welfare Officer (CWO) |
| Club Welfare Officer | Contact your CFA Designated Safeguarding Officer (DSO) |
| FA Tutor | Contact your line manager within England Football Education |
| Referee, Referee Mentor, Referee Coach, Referee Assessor and Referee Tutor in under-18 football | Contact your CFA Referee Development Officer (RDO) |
| Working in a private soccer school or unaffiliated football | You may not be able to get an FA Enhanced DBS Check, speak to you line manager |
| Working in Premier League Club | Contact the Designated Safeguarding Lead at your club |
| Working in English Football League, BWSL, BWC and Club Community Organisations | Contact the Designated Safeguarding Lead at your club or 0115 969 4618 or FAChecks@TheFA.com |
| NLS (1-4)/FAWNL Coach/Manager (incl. Assistants) First-Aider or other club-based eligible role | Contact your Club Welfare Officer (CWO) |
| Unsure what you should be doing? | Call 0115 969 4618 or email FAChecks@TheFA.com for advice |
View list of County FA contacts
The FA is committed to fair recruitment. All information on a DBS Disclosure is assessed for its relevance to safeguarding children by a specialist FA Safeguarding team. The applicant may be asked for additional information as part of process.
FA DBS Check costs
| You are | Administration fee | Government charge | Total |
| Volunteer | £10 | Nil | £10 |
| Not a Volunteer | £10 | £38 | £48 |
Tracking DBS and Safeguarding training at club level
It is the responsibility of leagues and clubs to ensure that all those requiring a DBS Check* hold an FA accepted in-date DBS Disclosure issued within the last three years. Club Welfare Officers (CWOs), assistant CWOs and club secretaries can track and manage DBS checks and safeguarding training for club members via The FA Club Portal here.
Additionally, CWOs can monitor progress of in-progress DBS applications by using the FA DBS online service.
DBS Check videos
The FA has created a series of videos to assist you and your club with the processing of DBS Checks. Click on the videos below for further guidance.