We want all the children and young people that play for Thornbury Falcons to be safe.
These are the ways that we will make sure that you are safe:
- We will have special rules that keep you safe
- We will always keep to those rules
- We will train all the managers to make sure that you are safe
- We will always listen to you and your views and feelings matter to us
These people are the ones that will make sure that this club is child-safe.
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| Pam | Andy |
| 01454 413290 | 01454 880471 |
Please talk with them if you have any questions or worries.
You can also contact these people:
FA Comment
Creating fun, safe football environments is central to safeguarding children.
Most children and young people have a fantastic experience through football – but sadly, some don't.
This might be down to over-competitive parents and coaches shouting and constantly criticising them from the sidelines – the kind of behaviour that the Respect programme is designed to address. Or it might be due to some other kind of abusive behaviour towards them.
Safeguarding Children is everyone's responsibility and having welfare officers in all clubs and leagues with youth teams is crucial to The FA’s simple three part approach to safeguarding. This includes:
• Getting the right people involved – carrying out references and CRB checks
• Creating a safe environment - codes of conduct, education and best practice
• Promoting clear systems - to deal with any concerns - policy and procedures.
Find out more...
Use of photos
In certain situations the club makes use of photographs of the players. These may be provided to newspapers or for the club web site and used for promotional or decorative purposes. Efforts will be made to ensure that the names of individual players cannot be identified or associated with particular pictures; this will especially be the case with the younger age groups. Should parents feel that the club policy leaves them with concerns they must raise these with the committee but may decide that they would prefer that their child discontinues being a member.
Defining Child Abuse
Child abuse is any form of physical, emotional or sexual mistreatment or lack of care that leads to injury or harm. It commonly occurs within a relationship of trust or responsibility and is an abuse of power or a breach of trust. Abuse can happen to a child regardless of their age, gender, race or ability. Abusers can be adults (male or female) and other young people, and are usually known to and trusted by the child and family.
There are four main types of child abuse: physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse and neglect. The abuser may be a family member, or they may be someone the child encounters in residential care or in the community, including during sports and leisure activities. An individual may abuse or neglect a child directly, or may be responsible for abuse because they fail to prevent another person harming that child.
Physical abuse: where adults or other young people physically hurt or injure children, including by hitting, shaking, throwing, poisoning, burning, biting, scalding, suffocating or drowning. This category of abuse can also include when a parent or carer reports non-existent symptoms of illness or deliberately causes ill health in a child they are looking after, as in Munchauser's syndrome by proxy.
Examples of physical abuse in sport may be when a child is forced into training and competition that exceeds the capacity of his or her immature and growing body; or where the child is given drugs to enhance performance or delay puberty.
Sexual abuse: when adults (male or female)or other young people use children to meet their own sexual needs. This could include: full sexual intercourse; masturbation; oral sex, anal intercourse; fondling. Showing children pornography (books, videos, pictures) or talking to them in a sexually explicit manner are also forms of sexual abuse.
In sport, coaching techniques which involve physical contact with children could potentially create situations where sexual abuse may go unnoticed. The power of the coach over young performers, if misused, may also lead to abusive situations developing.
Emotional abuse: the persistent emotional ill treatment of a child, likely to cause severe and lasting adverse effects on the child’s emotional development. It may involve communicating to a child that they are worthless or unloved, inadequate, or valued only in terms of meeting the needs of another person. It may feature expectations of children that are not appropriate to their age or development. It may involve causing children to feel frightened or in danger by being constantly shouted at, threatened or taunted which may make the child very nervous and withdrawn. Ill treatment of children, whatever form it takes, will always features a degree of emotional abuse.
Examples of emotional abuse in sport include subjecting children to constant criticism, name-calling, and sarcasm or bullying. Putting them under consistent pressure to perform to unrealistically high standards is also a form of emotional abuse.
Neglect is when adults fail to meet a child’s basic physical and/or psychological needs, to an extent that is likely to result in serious impairment of the child’s health or development. For example, failing to provide adequate food, shelter and clothing, failing to protect a child from physical harm or danger, or failing to ensure access to appropriate medical care or treatment. Refusal to give children love, affection and attention can also be a form of neglect.
Examples of neglect in sport could include: not ensuring children are safe; exposing them to undue cold or heat, or exposing them to unnecessary risk of injury.
Bullying
Bullying, racism and other types of discrimination are forms of child abuse, even though those responsible are often young people. It is important to recognise the impact and extent of bullying and discrimination in the lives of young people. Sports organisations have a duty of care to safeguard children from harm, including disabled children and others who may be particularly vulnerable.
Racism
Children from black and minority ethnic groups (and their parents) are likely to have experienced harassment, racial discrimination and institutional racism. Although racism causes significant harm it is not, in itself, a category of abuse. All organisations working with children, including those operating where black and minority ethnic communities are numerically small, should address institutional racism, defined in the MacPherson Inquiry Report on Stephen Lawrence as 'the collective failure by an organisation to provide appropriate and professional service to people on account of their race, culture and/or religion'.
What is bullying?
Bullying can be psychological, verbal, or physical in nature. It involves an imbalance of power in which the powerful attack the powerless, and occurs over time rather than being a single act. Examples of bullying behaviour include:
- Being called names, insulted or verbally abused;
- Being deliberately embarrassed and humiliated by other children;
- Being made to feel different or like an outsider;
- Being lied about;
- Being physically assaulted or threatened with violence;
- Being ignored.
