Child Protection Considerations

As it is stated in our Child Protection section we all have a moral and legal responsibility for the safety and protection of sick and healthy children, young people and people with a disability, within football. Therefore under our coaches’ code of conduct we as coaches have to maintain our awareness of child protection concerns. The guidelines are no different when dealing with different groups of players.

The Vulnerability to abuse exists everywhere for everyone

Mistakenly, and for too many years, children and young people with disabilities were not considered to be vulnerable to abuse. While recognising the vast differences in Disabilities and the differences of vulnerability to abuse it is useful to understand the guidelines that we need to be aware of. Resent high profile cases show that these players with disabilities have a much increased risk than previously considered. There are a number of reasons for this:

• Many forms of Disability prevent resistance
• Speech and Language difficulties mean reporting abuse is not straightforward
• Often the young person has always been instructed by adults and may be unable to assert themselves
• They may have a medical condition which masks abuse
• Often there are numerous carers and identification is difficult
• Over dependence on a carer, for toileting, feeding, dressing or transport leaves the young person over reliant and accepting
• The young person does not know they are being abused
• The young person is unable to explain the abuse due to communication difficulties
• Not having a circle of friends or peer group makes them more vulnerable
• Mistakenly carers are often seen as above suspicion. Specific disabilities often require intimate medical treatment and young people often find it difficult to differentiate between what is acceptable and unacceptable.

Coaches who require more information in this area should refer to the Child Protection section elsewhere on this site. Issues surrounding poor practice as well as signs, symptoms and methods of dealing with abuse accusations are all covered in great depth.

Recruitment of personnel to work with groups that may contain players with disabilities or medical conditions is often a problem area for clubs. This too is covered in some detail elsewhere on this site.

Above all coaches have to maintain a safe, enjoyable learning environment where all players are respected and treated fairly in a way that allows them to achieve their full potential as a person and a player.

We have included a poem titled ‘Listen’ for coaches and others to read and reflect on
 

LISTEN

When I ask you to listen to me and you start giving advice you have not done what I asked. 
When I ask you to listen to me and you begin to tell me why I shouldn’t feel that way, you are trampling on my feelings. 
When I ask you to listen to me and you feel you have to do something to solve my problems, you have failed me strange as that may seem. 
Listen. All I asked was that you listen, not talk or do - just hear me. 
Advice is cheap: 35p will get you both Dear Abbey and Billy Graham in the same newspaperand I can do that for myself: I’m not helpless: maybe discouraged and faltering. But not helpless. 
When you do something for me that I can and need to do for myself, you contribute to my fear and weakness. 
But when you accept as a simple fact that I do feel, no matter how irrational, then I can quit trying to convince you, and get on with the business of understanding what’s behind this irrational feeling. 
And when that’s clear, the answers are obvious and I don’t need advice. 
Irrational feelings make sense when we understand what’s behind them. 
So please listen and just hear me. And if you want to talk - wait a minute for your turn and I’ll listen to you.