Play Safe

Essex Grassroots Football Backs The 'Play Safe' Campaign

Essex FA
Raising Awareness of the Importance of Safeguarding

A national, FA-led campaign, ‘Play Safe’ is raising awareness of the importance of safeguarding in football ahead of National Safeguarding Weekend on 1st and 2nd of October.

The Essex County FA are lending their full support to Play Safe, alongside every other County FA, plus grassroots leagues and clubs. The main element of Play Safe is a series of short films which emphasise the importance of having safeguarding embedded in all we do.

 Run in partnership with the NSPCC, Play Safe has the full backing of the Premier League, EFL, Barclays FA Women’s Super League and the FA Women’s Championship. The films explain to parents/carers and children themselves what to do if they feel unsafe or worried, because nothing matters more than making sure football is safe for everyone, especially children and young people.

FA Chief Executive, Mark Bullingham, notes: “As a youth team coach, I will be working with my club to ensure we support the Play Safe messaging. I am also pleased that the campaign has the support of the former footballers with lived experience of abuse in football, who are on our Survivor Support and Safeguarding Advisory Group. The Group has collectively said:

“Learning from the past is crucial, so that we can prevent the horrific experiences that happened to us and so many others in football, from happening again. As a group of survivors, we fully support the ethos and important messages that Play Safe conveys - whether to club officials, parents/carers and/or, vitally, children and young people themselves.”

“Equally important is that Play Safe is not a one-off campaign - it will be used at key points in the football calendar to remind everyone in football that children’s welfare and keeping them safe should be at the heart of all that we do.”

As the Survivor Group points out, you’ll see Play Safe appearing at various points throughout the season to keep safeguarding front-of-mind in football. Together, we want to do everything we can so everyone, particularly children and young people, has a consistently positive experience of our great game. Read more on The FA’s website at www.thefa.com/playsafe