Wellington AFC is lending its full support to Play Safe – an ongoing national campaign led by the FA to raise awareness of the importance of safeguarding in football.

Although it runs throughout the year, Play Safe really comes to the fore over football’s National Safeguarding Weekend, held this year on October 1st and 2nd.

The main focus is on parents and carers, with two key messages to convey:

  • Awareness of the vital safeguarding role parents/carers play in football;
  • Encouragement to take a short, new and free online safeguarding course which been created specifically for parents/carers. You can access the course by CLICKING HERE.

Our chairman Mike Hall said: “Wellington AFC is committed to providing a safe and enjoyable environment for all our youth and open age teams to participate in the game we love.

“We will be encouraging all our parents and carers to engage with the Play Safe initiative to help them understand the vital role we can all play in safeguarding.”

FA Chief Executive Mark Bullingham, himself a parent and youth football coach, said: “Ultimately, safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility.

“We all need to ensure that everyone involved in football – particularly children and young people – has a consistently safe and positive experience of our great game.

“Play Safe reminds everyone of that responsibility and keeps safeguarding front of mind, which is exactly where it should be.”

Play Safe is being run in partnership with the NSPCC and has the full backing of the Premier League, EFL, Barclays Women’s Super League and Barclays Women’s Championship. It’s also supported and being run across every other level of the game.

Encouragement to take the new online safeguarding course has come from FASSSAG – the FA’s Survivor Support and Safeguarding Advisory Group.

They say: “It’s vitally important to us that every parent/carer understands they role they need to play in football.

“Taking this course can make a real difference – we are asking every parent/carer to commit to help ensure football is ever-safer.”