Put child safeguarding into everyday academy practice

Put safeguarding into everyday decisions before the first session: who is allowed to work with children, how adults behave, how children can raise concerns and what happens when someone reports harm. A policy document is only a starting point. Local law and your governing body determine additional duties and reporting routes.

1. Name responsibility and make it reachable

Appoint a suitable safeguarding lead and an alternative contact if the concern involves that person or they are unavailable. Give them time, relevant training and access to the local guidance they need. Tell staff, children and families who those people are and how to reach them.

Make the explanation child-friendly. A young player should not need to interpret a lengthy policy to know they can speak to someone about feeling unsafe. Offer more than one route and consider language, disability and communication needs. Do not assume a parent or coach is always the appropriate person for a child to approach.

Map external reporting routes as well as your internal process. An internal report must not delay a report required by law or urgent help. If someone is in immediate danger, contact the local emergency services. Record the applicable local numbers and authorities in your operational plan.

2. Design safer daily practice

Use safer recruitment, verified role-appropriate checks, references, induction and ongoing supervision. A background check is one safeguard; it does not prove a person will always behave appropriately. Staff need clear expectations and a way to report concerns about colleagues.

Write practical rules for one-to-one interactions, changing areas, physical contact, transport, photography, electronic communication and collection. Adapt them to local requirements and football-body policies. Explain how a coach handles an unexpected situation instead of relying on a broad instruction to “use common sense”.

Keep activities appropriately observable and support children’s dignity. Plan how absences, substitute staff and late collection will be managed. Consider peer-to-peer harm and bullying as well as adult behaviour. Review the arrangements with the people who will actually use them.

3. Respond without conducting your own investigation

If a child raises a concern, listen calmly, take it seriously and explain that information may need to be shared with people who can help. Do not promise secrecy, interrogate the child or attempt to establish the whole case yourself.

Follow the applicable reporting procedure promptly. Record factual information, the child’s words as accurately as possible, the time and actions taken. Separate what you observed from what someone told you. Share through the authorised route and limit access; an academy group chat is not a case-management system.

Your role is to protect and refer appropriately, not to replace police, child-protection authorities or a governing body’s process. Seek qualified local guidance about reporting duties and any immediate protective action. Do not contact an alleged perpetrator in a way that could endanger someone or interfere with the response.

4. Practise and review

Fictional example: Before term, River Academy rehearses a late-collection scenario. The team finds that the listed safeguarding contact is also the only coach on site. It adds a reachable backup, clarifies the escalation route and checks that the arrangement follows local policy. The exercise identifies a gap; it does not certify the academy as safe.

Review a small set of scenarios during induction and when the programme changes. Ask children and families whether they know how to raise a concern. Confirm staff understand the process, rather than collecting signatures without discussion.

Keep safeguarding records separate from ordinary attendance and marketing records, with access and retention set through appropriate advice. Review incidents and near misses without exposing personal details unnecessarily. Update the plan when laws, governing-body requirements, staffing or activities change.

The accompanying worksheet is an action register, not a ready-made safeguarding policy. Use it to name owners, verify local routes and track unresolved actions with qualified support. Never use software, a checklist or this chapter as a declaration that all child-safety obligations have been met.