Moving Forward
Our 2018-21 Grassroots Football Strategy
football for all
“partnerships and collaboration with Local Authorities, our professional club Football in the Community partners, facility providers, schools, colleges and universities will be key to achieving the targets...”
Moving Forward sets out the organisation’s direction through the pillars of Engagement, Corporate Governance, Business and Operations. These are supported by individual department operational strategies which will deliver the FA National Game Strategy for Football Development, Safeguarding & Welfare, Refereeing, Governance and Marketing & Communications.
Our Chief Executive, Brendan Walshe, is excited by the prospect of these targets, explaining: “We are committed to ensuring we create the best inclusive and diverse environment possible for people of all ages and abilities, to experience the game of football in Essex and we are pleased to bring forward the Essex County FA ‘Moving Forward’ Strategy 2018-21.”
“Over these three years, the accumulative population across the Local Authorities the Essex County FA serves is projected to grow by more than 100,000, which will create opportunities for the game in Essex to grow and expand, but the game of football is evolving season-by-season.”
“Individual participation habits are changing in-line with ever-increasing demands on individuals’ time, driven by a fast-moving society. Individuals are choosing to consume the game in different ways based on their individual lifestyles, which includes more recreational and ‘turn-up and play’ formats, as well as the core league and club structure of the game.”
Moving Forward is being built on some existing achievements which include, in one season:
* more than 1,500 participants engaged in two Community Day events
* 1,836 learners across all coach education courses
* 284 candidates on Referee Courses through 15 individual courses
* £1.6m total project cost investment into new facility development in Essex
* 20,242 discipline cases administered
* 82% of all 9v9 and 11v11 games appointed with a qualified match official
* secured more than £91,000 of Football Foundation ‘Grow the Game’ funding into Essex
* safeguarding visits completed with 173 teams
* delivered female Regional Talent Club and Player Development Centre for 113 players
* developed six England female youth internationals
The full 2018-2021: ‘Moving Forward’ Strategy can be downloaded below in 'Related Documents'. You can also find out more on how to get involved in grassroots football as a player, coach, referee, volunteer or club in the menus above. And don't forget to follow @EssexCountyFA on Twitter and search for ‘EssexFootball’ on Facebook.
Notable Strategy Targets
Male: to achieve 81,440 youth and adult male players by 2021
Charter Standard: deliver a bespoke Club Development and FA Charter Standard strategy to empower and enable clubs to operate at their highest level
Coaches: deliver an inspirational and inclusive coach education programme engaging 2,000 students annually including a minimum of 234 Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) and 109 female learners to support achieving 100% of youth teams with a qualified coach by 2021
Education: deliver workshops to league and club officials to support and prepare volunteers for future technology changes in football administration through The FA’s Whole Game System (WGS) and Full-Time portals to achieve a player registration coverage of 80% by 2021
Facilities: deliver a bespoke Facilities Strategy to achieve £5 million total project cost investment into grassroots football facilities and improve 296 grass pitches by 2021
Inclusion: embed the Inclusion Advisory Group (IAG) to support and develop an Inclusion & Disability Strategy and ‘football for all’ philosophy, achieving 839 disability players by 2021
Referees: recruit and retain a diverse and inclusive referee workforce of 1,331 by 2021
Volunteers: deliver a volunteer strategy that recognises, rewards and supports our workforce of volunteers through a variety of programmes
Safeguarding: achieve and implement the FA Safeguarding Operating Standard each season and ensure 100% Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) compliancy across youth grassroots football
Women & Girls: achieve 5,104 female players and 115 SSE Wildcats Centres by 2021