Referees Child Protection policy

Monday, 23 August 2004.

It is a legal requirement effective from 1st June 2004 that ALL active Referees undertake an FA Child Protection Course (CP) and undergo a Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) Enhanced Screening before their next Registration (in practice, this means by January 1st 2005) as a Referee with their Counties.

This policy also applies to ALL Assessors, Mentors and Instructors and must be completed by January 1^st 2006.

This is a two-part process, instruction on Child Protection (CP) and Criminal Records Bureau screening on behalf of the Football Association. The outcome is a certificate ‘The FA Enhanced CRB Certificate and FA Child Protection and Best Practice Certificate. They are valid for 3 years.

Existing Referees

All existing active Referees will be sent a ‘Distance Learning’ pack from the FA plus either a CD-ROM or video in the next month or so. There are various exercises to complete and these and the learning materials are to be returned to the FA.

This needs to be done by the next Referees re-registration for season 2005-06 and, in practice, this means by 1^st January 2005. The course is free to existing Referees but a charge of £7.50 is made for the CRB check.

New Referees

All referees on courses from 1^st June 2004 will pay for their Child Protection Course and CRB checks. For over 18 year olds, the charge is £15 for CP plus £7.50 for CRB For under 18 year olds, the charge is £10 for CP and CRB checks are not required. On attainment of their 18^th Birthday, CRB checks are required and cost £7.50 The Berks and Bucks FA will organize CP courses across the County on a regular basis.