English Schools' Football Association

ESFA Newsletter - Monday 2nd October 2006

Message from the Chairman Mr. Nigel Brown

With the new season well under way, may I wish all colleagues running school, district and county teams the very best. The summer holidays now seem a very distant memory but during August the Under 18 Coaching and Development Course took place at Keele University. It was again a great success with 64 County players being put through their paces by Tony Martin, our U18 England Team Manager, and his group of coaches. This year we were joined at Keele by 17 Chinese schoolboy players, their team management and officials. They thoroughly enjoyed the experience and plans are being made for the E.S.F.A. Under 18 Team to visit China in 2007. If this goes ahead it will be the trip of a lifetime for the players.

The International Selection Trials for the Under 18 Team will be held in late October and early November. It is essential that our best county players be nominated for these trials thus ensuring that the team selected is the best. The nomination forms for this have already been sent to County Secretaries.

I am delighted to inform colleagues that the R.A.F., who sponsor the Under 16 Schools` Cup for both boys and girls, will provide a full set of kit for the 8 semi-finalists and another set for the National Finals. The Finals will take place at Manchester City F.C. on Thursday 10^th May 2007.

Plans for the move to our new premises in Stafford are well under way and it is our intention that we will be working from there in January 2007. The premises are brand new and very impressive indeed. After many years of rented accommodation it is really exciting to be moving into our own building. It would be remiss of me if I did not thank the Football Association for their generous grant towards the funding of this venture.

Can I also inform membership that the Centenary International against Northern Ireland is now going to be played on Friday 20^th April 2007 at Blackburn Rovers F.C., K.O. 7p.m. I am confident that this will be a great occasion and I hope that colleagues in the North of England will support Blackburn and Darwen Schools` Football Association, who are organising the event, in their efforts to get a large crowd.

Finally, I sincerely wish all colleagues a most enjoyable season.

Nigel Brown.
Chairman

Chief Executive’s Update

Nigel Wright R.I.P.
I am sorry to have to start this Newsletter with the very sad news of Nigel Wright’s death. I know this will come as a great shock to the many of you who knew him – he had only been unwell fairly recently.

Nigel was a very active supporter of schools football as is his father Albert who is currently the Secretary of East Berkshire Schools FA. Nigel worked at Forest Boys School in Winnersh and was a member of the ESFA Council during Season 1993-1994. During Season 2001-2002 he received the ESFA 25 year award.

He was so proud that after 30 years of ‘failed’ attempts a team of his had actually reached an ESFA Final in 2005. The day was made for him when his team actually won the Under 15 Boys Specialist Schools Cup defeating Blakeston School from Stockton-on-Tees 3-1.

Schools football was very well represented at Nigel’s funeral at Easthampstead Park Crematorium.

Mike Cutbush R.I.P.
It has also only recently come to my notice that Mike Cutbush of the Reading Primary Schools’ F.A. had passed on. He had been unwell for some time. Mike was a regular at the Jersey Festival at Easter where some of you will undoubtedly have met him

Competitions

After much media speculation and coverage we eventually played the last final of the 2005/2006 season at Cirencester Town F.C. on Tuesday 26^th September. Although only a small non-league ground the facilities and playing surface up held the traditions of ESFA and all the girls and staff of Toynbee School, Southampton, Hampshire and Bridgnorth Endowed School, Shropshire enjoyed the spectacle of the first national girls’ under 14 individual schools’ final. The Times newspaper and Sky Sports News gave the event national coverage whilst a whole host of local interest was shown. Although, well on top with possession, the Endowed School lost to Toynbee 1-0 in an exciting game that was a good advert for girls’ and women’s football.

Once again this season we have had a number of late entries for the ‘TROPHY’. Your Council has decided that we cannot cope with late entries anymore due to the overall workload of the Competition’s Department and to be fair to those Districts who can manage to get their entries in on time.

May I take this opportunity to ask all Counties and Districts to pay particular attention to the rules of competitions for 2006/2007, especially the differing rules governing the age ranges of a number of competitions? May I also remind you that the ‘maximum 2 year age band’ is a national Governing Body regulation and MUST be adhered to? In some competitions, both local and national, we have allowed for a single year age group but under no circumstances can you play children from three or more age ranges in one team. Two girls’ teams were bitterly disappointed last season when they were withdrawn from finals at the last minute for the irregular use of players. I hope this is not repeated this season!

Coaching and International Selection

We continue to support the PUMA Coaching initiative, PUMA AFC. Please note that if you have any enquiries you should contact Phil Darren on phildarren@tiscali.co.uk  and not the office.

As mentioned by the Chairman the under 18 Keele University Coaching Course and Young Referee’s Course were once again a huge success. We welcomed the 17 young Chinese players and their staff at Keele and enjoyed their input into our training and coaching programmes. A friendly match between a Course select XI and the Chinese XI was played at Newcastle Town’s ground on the Thursday evening. Our boys acquitted themselves well and held the Chinese boys to a controversial penalty. The Chinese boys had been together since they were 14 and our boys had just an afternoon to prepare!

Last Friday an ESFA Northern Select (also taken from those attending Keele) played host to the visiting New Zealand Schools’ FA at Northwich Victoria’s very well appointed ground. In pouring rain our boys lost to two goals in each half. Again the boys from the north had not played together before but did not let themselves down. Watched by the ESFA International Manager, Tony Martin, a number of the players did well enough for Tony to be quietly encouraged for the international season.

May I also remind everyone that we are still running the Bursary Scheme where we will pay 75% of teachers’ costs in attending FA Coaching / Sports Therapists courses? There is a limited budget so we operate a first come first served policy. All teachers taking advantage of this scheme are placed on a national register and are expected to support schools’ football once they are qualified. This Bursary scheme is for qualified teachers only at the present time.

At the time of writing the following dates had been agreed:

• 28 October 2006
  North trials at QEGS Blackburn
• 29 October 2006
  SE trials at HSBC Beckenham
• 04 November 2006
  Midlands trials at Studley F.C.
• 05 November 2006
  SW trials at Bath University
• 11 November 2006
  N v M at Sheff Utd Training ground
• 12 November 2006
  SE v SW at Uxbridge F.C.
• 8-10 December 2006
  International Final 32 at Lilleshall
• 13 January 2007 am
  ESFA v RAF under 25s
• 13 January 2007 pm
  ESFA v PASE
• 26 January 2007
  International Team Presentation Dinner.
• 28 January
  ESFA v Loughborough University
• 11-15 February 2007
  Training week in Villarreal – Spain
• 27 February
  England v Belgium 7.00pm. Ground to be agreed but in the south of England
• 23 March
  Scotland v England 7.00pm at Stirling Albion FC
• 30 March
  Republic of Ireland v England 7.00pm in Dublin
• 5-16 April
  Tour to China
• 10 April
  China v England 7.00pm Shanghai
• 14 April
  China v England 3.00pm Beijing
• 20 April
  England v Northern Ireland 7.00pm Ewood Park, Blackburn Rovers FC
• 3 May
  England v Wales 7.00pm West Midlands. 100^th Anniversary of 1^st schoolboy international.

Primary

It has now been confirmed by Sainsbury’s that they will no longer be supporting the under 11 national competitions.

Promotion & Development (repeat)

One of the first overwhelming responses from the nationwide series of meetings was that the ESFA do not communicate with the schools within our Association. To try to rectify that we now have our 8 page Kicks magazine which is sent to all 26,000 schools in England. Many thanks to California Raisins and our Award Scheme for financing this project.

We have also recently had articles published in “PE & Sport Today” magazine and in “School Sport” magazine.

Have a look on our web site www.esfa.co.uk and you’ll be surprised at the range of saleable items that are now available. And you can pay on line as well.

Goalposts (repeat)

Schools in your area are able to get a grant from the Football Foundation for the replacement of illegal or unsafe goalposts. The FA County Football Associations are coordinating this procedure and should be contacted in the first instance. There is no cap on the number of goals that can be replaced, if you need to ‘change them’.

Insurance

We have changed our insurers, but the details of our policies are the same as before. If you have any queries on insurance please contact Malcolm Alexander at Linaker, Sport & Leisure Division on 0117962 5888. In particular they are producing some very competitive rates for Public Liability cover. However, all affiliated associations come under our national policy for third party liability so long as they are acting as part of the ESFA. This includes the hosting of your annual or regular meetings held where public liability is passed onto you. If you require a copy of the Liability Certificate (now being asked for by local Councils / Schools etc) please contact Dawn in the office.

We are discussing player to player insurance cover with Linakers and hopefully will be in a position to rewrite all the insurance advice in my November General Newsletter.

Excellence Programme

This is a reminder to District and County Associations (and schools where appropriate) that if they enter into an agreement to play against Premier League Academy or Football League Centre of Excellence age group teams, both teams require sanction to play non-affiliated football. The ESFA affiliated team needs clearance from here in the office and the Academy/ Excellence team from their respective League HQs. Only Year 6 (under 11) and above are allowed to play 11 a-side football. If you wish to continue with playing under age children you may well find insurance invalid or in the worst case the subject of a court hearing if a parent wishes to take out a litigation case.

Adults other than Teachers (AOTTs)

District and County Secretaries are reminded that ESFA regulations only allow teams to be supervised by a fully qualified teacher working in the Education Sector or someone who is registered with ESFA as an AOTT. AOTT registration is currently only valid for one year; therefore you must re-register your AOTTs on an annual basis. There are new forms, simplified and more user friendly, this year and they are available through the office. The one big change is that so long as all the other criteria are completed AOTTs do not need to be members of FACA.

Community and Education Small Grants & Goalpost Safety Scheme updates

Should you require details on any of the projects, please find below contact details for each of the Small Grants Scheme Project Managers:
Covering London and the South East:Radha Balani
radha.balani@footballfoundation.org.uk
0845 345 4555 ext 4236

Covering Yorkshire, the North East, North West and West Midlands: Sophie Davison
sophie.davison@footballfoundation.org.uk
0845 345 4555 ext 4235

Covering the East, East Midlands and South West: Daniel Gaisford
daniel.gaisford@footballfoundation.org.uk
0845 345 4555 ext 4271

Goalpost Safety Scheme Enquiries should be directed to:

Matt Gajdus
0845 345 4555 ext 4268
matthew.gajdus@footballfoundation.org.uk

2007-2012 national game strategy: consultation process underway

The FA's work on developing a new vision for the National Game, covering every area of football beneath the Football League from 2007 leading up to the 2012 Olympics is entering an exciting stage. The vision will cover football development, facilities, child protection, equality, referees, administration, rules, regulations and competitions.

Currently The FA is undertaking vital consultation to understand the views of those delivering and administrating grassroots football, starting with a workshop at each County Football Association. Your views are vital to this process and thank you for your time invested so far.

Following the County workshops, The FA will host nine regional events to consult with local partners, providers and authorities in an afternoon session then an evening session with clubs, leagues, coaches, referees and volunteers. This will provide the perfect opportunity to test out some of the ideas and themes coming out of the initial strategy process.

The final part of the strategy consultation process will be to engage the views of the wider football family by allowing everyone to have their say. TheFA.com will host 11 questionnaires, aimed at different roles in football such as adult players, coaches, referees, administrators and parents. The survey will go online on Saturday 7 October, with messaging at the England v Macedonia game to drive fans to the website. It is hoped that 10,000 people will visit the website at TheFA.com/YourGameYourSay to share their views.

Feedback from all these events will be incorporated into the next stage of the strategy when the first draft will be formulated, before being run by key FA committees such as the National Game Board and ultimately further consultation before the final National Game vision can be presented in spring 2007.

The FA’s Director of Football Development Sir Trevor Brooking explains.

Sir Trevor Brooking

The vision will be the blueprint, by which we hope to encourage all aspects of the game to transform development over the next six years

This is the opportunity to move forward from the successes we have all achieved over the past five years and look to addressing the gaps or concentrating on the major programmes which have most impact. Some of the emerging ideas deal with how we can make the game more accessible provide referees for every match, ensure our 5-11s are getting enough quality coaching to improve their basic skills and ensure our sport is safe.

This is a personal invitation from The FA to help us get it right. The survey is everyone's chance to help us in our quest to develop the vision to shape the future of football up to 2012 and beyond, and to challenge our thinking on what we need to do to keep developing the game.

Portability of CRB disclosures within sport

The issue of portability of CRB disclosures has been a cause of both concern and debate within the sport and recreation sector for some time. It has become accepted practice within this and other sectors not to accept ported disclosures, practice which has developed on the basis of many of the risks associated with the practice identified in this paper.

Not accepting ported disclosures has raised concern within some sports organisations and individual volunteers and negative comments about the costs and frustrations associated with multiple checks for volunteers. The 2005 Cabinet Office report Making a difference relating to sport, recommended that the system for sharing disclosure information within the sector should be simplified and the need to undertake for multiple checks on volunteers removed.

Working as a volunteer for a number of organizations does occur within the sport and recreation sector although precise numbers are unknown. Whilst there is no charge from the CRB for disclosures on volunteers the administration costs for organizations is significant. The burden on volunteers completing multiple disclosures can also be a barrier to implementing best practice.

The risks associated with accepting ported disclosures have been identified and have, in part, led to the removal of the portability service by the CRB. The specific risks include;

• A higher level Disclosure (Standard and Enhanced) is by nature specific to a post applied for. Furthermore the local police force relevancy test is based on the post-applied for with the possibility that the police may have decided not to release information for the original post that could be relevant to the ported post.
• The appropriate identity checks may not have been undertaken by the employing body.
• Relevant list checks may not have been requested for the original Disclosure when they could now be necessary and the applicant may also have been listed between the original issue date and the portability enquiry
• An applicant might commit an offence between the original Disclosure issue date and the Portability enquiry. These new and potentially relevant details would only be made known to the employer on a Disclosure if a fresh application were made.
• The portability of disclosures severely prohibits the ability to identify and investigate potential offences committed under the Criminal Justice and Court Services Act 2000 - to knowingly apply and knowingly employ a person when disqualified.

The effectiveness of the sanctions imposed by the CRB Code of Practice is greatly reduced with a ported Disclosure. The CRB is unable to audit.

• compliance with the Code and therefore cannot ensure the fair use of Disclosure information.
• There is a common misconception that the CRB Portability Service involves checking the previous information for updates. This could lead to an incorrectly advised recruitment decision.
• A ‘ported’ Disclosure is not evidence of identity. Unless the organisation using the ‘ported’ Disclosure adopts robust identity checking procedures there is no assurance that the person presenting the Disclosure is the person to whom the Disclosure was issued.
• There is the potential that the applicant’s copy of the Disclosure could have been amended fraudulently.
• Additional information may have been released with the Disclosure which is not visible on the Disclosure. This must be checked with the issuing body
• Those not familiar with Disclosures may not recognise a genuine Disclosure nor realise that information may be on the reverse of the sheet, run to several sheets or on occasions be in a different format

It is the view of the CPSU that providing these risks can be addressed and that sports bodies work collaboratively, sharing relevant information, disclosures obtained by one body can be accepted by other sports for the purpose of making a new recruitment decision by the new NGB.

Rationale for this view

• The robust processes in place for obtaining disclosures adopted by a number of sports bodies.
  There is evidence, supported by the CRB, that compliance with the Code of Practice is occurring within the sector and that the necessary identity checks are being undertaken.
• There is a consistency in the nature of positions requiring CRB checks.
  It is highly likely that the posts within sport requiring disclosure checks would lead to local police forces to release broadly similar relevant information and checks being made against the same lists (POCA, List 99 etc)
• There is a willingness within the sector to share relevant information relating to disciplinary matters. This will ensure up to date information is available
• There is an increased use within the sector of umbrella body services. Obtaining disclosure on behalf of a number of sports bodies by a single umbrella body facilitates the porting of disclosure across those sports.  

Accepting ported disclosures

The process of obtaining a CRB disclosure is always only one part of the safe recruitment and deployment process. Whether the disclosure is obtained directly from the CRB or ported through another registered body, in isolation, it should never be used as the sole test of an individual’s suitability to work with children.

Accepting ported disclosure will require co operation on the part of sports bodies to respond to requests for references specifying that the Disclosure was acceptable and share relevant information, a process that will inevitably increase demands on those administering the CRB process. A commitment will be required from those sports that are willing to share recruitment information and also those sports willing to accept ported disclosures.

Where a sport is considering accepting a ported disclosure we recommend the following steps be taken

• Always obtain proof of identity. The same documents used as part of the Disclosure application process should be used to confirm the identity of the individual
• Ensure the ported disclosure is of the appropriate level. In sport, with very few exceptions, enhanced disclosure should always be obtained.
• Request a reference from the sports body with specific reference to the fact you are considering a ported disclosure as part of the recruitment process. The referee should be asked specifically if they can confirm a disclosure was obtained as part of their recruitment process. They should also be asked if they have any other relevant or additional information obtained through the CRB process that may be appropriate for the recruitment of the individual. If the relevant information formed part of the disclosure process details of this cannot be shared and to access this new disclosure will need to be obtained.
• Only consider accepting disclosure that are less than 12 months old
• Where there is any concern obtain a new disclosure

Other issues

The most significant issue relates to the costs that will be borne by the NGB that obtained the original Disclosure. We recognize that for portability to work across the NGB sector the majority of sports need to agree to participate in a system for both requesting and sharing information. This will create a degree of additional work for those staff managing the CRB process within governing bodies. It is not possible to identify at this stage the level of work that a portability system across NGBs would create or the degree to which it would genuinely impact positively on individuals who have raised the issue of multiple checks. It is the perception of the Unit that those who currently undergo multiple checks are working in the Local Authority/education sector and not in the NGB sector. It is important to recognize that at this stage we may be unable to influence the practice of local authorities who may not accept or co operate with a system NGBs may choose to adopt.

In addition there may be other information held by the NGB relating to that individual that may have impacted on the recruitment/retention decision. It would be important to ensure that where this is the case systems are in place to share that information.

The CPSU would like to obtain the views of governing bodies on the following;

• Would you consider accepting ported disclosures if the risks associated with this can be addressed?
• Would you be willing to respond to requests from other Governing Bodies for information on CRB checks you have undertaken?
• Would you have the systems in place to provide this information easily to other Governing Bodies?
• Do you believe accepting ported disclosures would provide a benefit for your members?

Discipline

We continue to try to work with the FA’s CAS system for the production of discipline letters and administration, however, Mike Spinks continues with our own system in the interim.

Colleagues are reminded that all cases of indiscipline reported by a referee must be actioned and an administrative charge of £8 be levied on the school / district / county and not the individual player. Players of school age (16 and under) who are ‘red carded’ may be fined in youth football by their respective County FA as the FA rules are quite clear that although a fining system similar to the adult game is strongly recommended Counties may decide not to go down this route and only issue periods of suspension. ESFA Council has agreed to follow this latter path and not to introduce a fining system of school age players.