Child Protection

Overview
Coventry City Ladies Football Club adheres to both the Football Association’s Child Protection Policies and Procedures and its Anti-Discrimination Policy. The Club is committed to ensuring its junior members can train for and play Association Football in a caring and safe environment. The role of the Club’s Child Protection Officer is to ensure that all members of the Club adopt a culture in which the junior members can have fun while taking part in both its football and social related activities. The bedrock of this culture is documented in the ‘Code of Conduct for Coaches and Junior Team Managers, with which all Club officials working with the junior section must be fully conversant. This document contains a list of required standards and other good practices to adopt. Additionally, the Club’s policy is that for all junior section players, the Club’s ‘Form of Agreement with Players’ Parents’ is read, understood and acknowledged in writing. The Child Protection Office is the Club’s conscience to ensure that the spirit of the two documents referred to above is practiced at all times.

Main Examples of Child Abuse
Neglect - this takes place if an adult fails to meet a child’s basic physical needs.
Physical Abuse - this occurs where a child is physically hit or injured in some way, or there is a failure to prevent such injuries from happening.
Sexual Abuse - this occurs where a child is used to meet another person’s sexual needs.
Emotional Abuse - this tends to be frequent threatening, taunting or sarcastic behaviour and often occurs with other forms of abuse. Where combined, this is known as bullying.

Scope of the Club’s Responsibility to Child Protection
Whilst this covers all of the Club’s activities, it is not limited to them alone. Even if the abuse is happening elsewhere, if suspected or spotted by a Club member, it is his or her duty to raise their concern via the proper channel.

What to do if you suspect a case of Child Abuse
A list of behaviours and warning signs associated with child abuse is listed below. If you are worried, however, it is not your responsibility to decide if it is child abuse, but it is your responsibility to act on your concerns and do something about it. Any concern should be raised with the Club’s Child Protection Officer in the first instance. If the Child Protection Officer is not immediately available for contact the concern should be referred to another member of the Club’s Executive Committee. If there is some uncertainty as to whether a suspicion constitutes child abuse, you can contact the Football Association/NSPCC Helpline (manned 24 hours a day) on 0808 800 5000.

Child Protection Officer’s Contact details

Each of the seperate club's have their own child protection officer.

Both Sonia and Juliue are members of their own club's Executive Committee. If you need to speak Sonia or Julie on the phone please ask your Team Manager or any other Club Official for their contact number. Sonia and Julie regularly attend club training sessions if you need to speak to them in person.

Child Abuse - Examples of What to Look For
• Stomach pains
• Discomfort when walking
• Unexplained sources of money
• Inappropriate sexual drawings / language / behaviour
• Aggressive, withdrawn or fear of one person
• Unexplained or untreated injuries
• Injuries on unlikely or unusual parts of the body
• Cigarette burns, bite or belt marks, scalds
• Fear of parents being contacted, going home or receiving medical advice
• Flinching when touched
• Refusal to discuss injury
• Covering arms or legs
• Poor personal hygiene
• Constantly hungry
• Inappropriate clothing or dress
• Constantly tired
• Lonely with no friends
• Underweight
• No parental support or interest
• Dishevelled appearance
• Overreaction to mistakes
• Sudden speech disorders
• Extremes of emotions
• Self mutilation