WE-RE PLAYING SAFE

Deeping United FC is lending its full support to Play Safe – a national FA-led campaign to raise awareness of the importance of safeguarding in football.

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

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The main element of Play Safe is a series of short films which emphasise the importance of clubs such as ours having safeguarding as an everyday reality. The films also explain to parents/carers and children themselves know what to do if they feel unsafe or worried, because nothing matters more than making sure football is safe for everyone, especially children and young people. You can see these films below Play Safe is being run in partnership with the NSPCC and has the full backing of the Premier League, EFL, Barclays FA Women’s Super League and the FA Women’s Championship. It’s also supported and being run across every other level of the game.

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“As a youth team coach, I will be working with my club to ensure we support the Play Safe messaging,” says FA Chief Executive Mark Bullingham. “I am also pleased that the campaign has the support of the former footballers with lived experience of abuse in football, who are on our Survivor Support and Safeguarding Advisory Group. The Group has collectively said:

“Learning from the past is crucial, so that we can prevent the horrific experiences that happened to us and so many others in football, from happening again".

“As a group of survivors, we fully support the ethos and important messages that Play Safe conveys – whether to club officials, parents/carers and or vitally, children and young people themselves. Equally important is that Play Safe is not a one-off campaign – it will be used at key points in the football calendar to remind everyone in football, that children’s welfare and keeping them safe, should be at the heart of all that we do.”

As the Survivor Group points out, you’ll see Play Safe appearing at various points throughout the season to keep safeguarding front of mind in football. Together, we want to do everything we can so everyone – particularly children and young people – has a consistently positive experience of our great game.

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THANK-YOU

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A big thank-you from Deeping United FC for your generosity following the recent case of vandalism at our club.

With your generous donations we have now replaced the damaged goals and have extra money to provide even more opportunities for the local community.

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We felt, as a club, we should contribute back to the community given your recent phenomenal fund raising efforts, so on Saturday 4th September we organised a litter pick on Jubilee Park and the surrounding area.

As you will see all age groups stepped up to the challenge, so hopefully we have gone some way to say thanks

Deeping United FC - COVID-19 Response

We believe our facility can operate consistently with Government guidance regarding health, social distancing and hygiene and we have updated our guidance for players, coaches, volunteers, officials, parents/carers and spectators. We have also revised and updated our Covid-19 risk assessment and Safeguarding risk assessment. 

The FA guidance is that all participants (i.e. adult and youth) should minimise contact in training where possible, e.g. minimise tackles/any drills or practices that require close contact such as set piece or corner practice where several players are in close proximity for a sustained period. Our interpretation of the FA guidance is that coaching sessions should be mostly non contact with social distancing but some contact is allowed e.g. in a training game at the end of a session. Coaches should exercise common sense and consider parent's/carer's views. 

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Under-18s, disability teams, volunteers, match officials, guardians, elite players and those travelling for work are all exempt from the travel restrictions between different tiers. 

There is significant emphasis on avoiding congestion in the FA guidance. Due to this, only one parent/carer should attend coaching sessions or matches; and, only coaches and club volunteers are permitted to park at the field. Everyone else must use the leisure centre car park. The club must take a hard line on this as non compliance could lead to action against us. We really don’t want to lose our chance to play football! We thank you for your support on this.