Parent Zone

Our Club Philosophy

• To give the interests of each child equal value irrespective of their football skills
• To promote self-esteem, confidence and the development of social skills including loyalty, unselfishness and consideration for others
• To provide a safe, fun environment for all players

Communicating With You

We will use the following ways to give you updates about our club:

• Our website or our Wrekin Juniors FC Facebook page
• Your manager may send information or links via a private team social media, or we may ask managers to ask you to contact us

We DO NOT ask you for any personal, payment or bank details.

England Football Accreditation helps clubs develop policies and practices making them proud to provide football in a safe environment where competitive football is fun and open to everyone.  This is your reassurance, as a parent, that we do everything we can to keep your child safe.  Each year we complete an annual health check to ensure we maintain this standard.

To achieve England Football Accreditation the club must:

• have a trained Welfare Officer;
• run Criminal Record Checks, for all volunteers and ensure they are current;
• ensure all volunteers are Safeguarding trained and this qualification is in date;
• have emergency aid-trained volunteers attached to each team and this qualification is in date;
• provide a minimum of one FA Level One coach for each youth team;
• have appropriate club administration in place;
• be signed-up to the FA Respect programme.

You can find out more about the FA Accreditation here.

By setting a good example, we’ll help build a supportive environment in which everyone can enjoy themselves

Play your part and support the FA’s Code of Respect:

• Have fun; it’s what we’re here for!
• Celebrate effort and good play from both sides
• Always respect the Referee and coaches, and encourage players to do the same
• Stay behind the touchline and with the Designated Spectators’ Area
• When players make mistakes, offer them encouragements to try again next time
• Never engage in, or tolerate, offensive, insulting or abusive language or behaviour
• I will make myself familiar with safeguarding practices & review guidance on physical contact (5.6) & Acceptable Behaviours When Working With Young People (5.7) documents on the safeguarding section of EnglandFootball.com

I understand that if I do not follow the Code, I may be:

• Issued with a verbal warning or asked to leave
• Required to meet with the club committee, league or CFA Welfare Officer
• Obliged to undertake an FA education course
• Requested not to attend future games, be suspended or have my membership removed
• Required to leave the club along with any dependents and/or issued a fine

Play your part and support the FA’s Code of Respect:

When playing football, I will:

• Always play my best for the benefit of the team
• Play fairly and friendly
• Play by the rules and respect the Referee
• Shake hands with the other team – win or lose
• Listen carefully to what the coach tells me
• Understand that the coach has to do what’s best for the team
• Talk to someone I trust or the Club Welfare Officer if I’m unhappy about anything at my club
• Encourage my teammates
• Respect the facilities, home & away

I understand that if I do not follow the Code, I may:

• Be asked to apologise to whoever I’ve upset
• Receive a formal warning
• Be dropped, substituted or suspended from training or matches

Use your position to set a positive example for the people you are responsible for and lead a better game for everyone.

Play your part and support the FA’s Code of Respect:

On and off the field, I will:

• Always show respect to everyone involved in the game
• Stick to the rules and celebrate the spirit of the game
• Always respect the Referee and encourage players to do the same
• Never enter the field of play without the Referee’s permission
• Never engage in, or tolerate, offensive, insulting or abusive behaviour
• Be aware of the potential impact of bad language on others
• Be gracious in victory and defeat
• Respect the facilities, home and away

When working with players, I will:

• Place the well-being, safety and enjoyment of each player above everything
• Never tolerate any form of bullying
• Ensure all activities are suited for the players’ ability and age
• Work with others (e.g. officials, doctors, welfare officers, physiotherapists) for each player’s best interests
• I will make myself familiar with safeguarding practices & review guidance on physical contact (5.6) & Acceptable Behaviours When Working With Young People (5.7) documents on the safeguarding section of EnglandFootball.com

I understand that if I do not follow the Code, I may be:

• Required to meet with the club committee, league or CFA Welfare Officer
• Suspended by the club from attending matches
• Suspended or fined by the County FA
• Required to leave, lose my position and/or have my licence withdrawn

We take your personal privacy very seriously.  We have to collect some information about you and/or your child for us to be able to administer your membership.  Below is a summary of how we store and use your data but you can view our full Privacy Notice here.

Membership Form

Submitting details on the website membership form is via a secure connection.

Membership forms are held securely on our database and deleted once a player leaves or at the end of the season. Access to the database is password protected and limited to the Club Secretary and Treasurer.

The details are used on the FA’s Club Registration Portal to search for and register players with the FA and leagues.  Each player will have a unique FAN (FA number).

The Club Secretary may hold a list of players names and emergency contact details for club administration only.  This is held securely.  Health information is shared with the CWO and the team manager.

The Club Secretary may share limited details with a league, the FA, the Club Welfare Officer or a team manager.

Leagues may publish the names of registered players on the FA’s Full Time system.

Player Photos

Player photos are uploaded onto the Club Registration Portal.

Team managers will download a squad sheet containing these photos and player names which they must not share.  This sheet must be shown to the referee and opposition manager at a match in accordance with FA rules.

Player Identification

We ask for a form of identification, e.g. a birth certificate or passport, so that a player’s age can be verified when you register with us.  This is an FA rule, and clubs can be disciplined if this procedure is not followed.

Once a date of birth has been verified and checked against the Club Registration Portal, the identification will be deleted from the database, however a league may request to see this at a later date.

Parent Contact

We will keep your contact details so that we can contact you.  These are not shared outside the club.

FA Club Registration Portal (formerly WGS)

The Club Secretary has access to the full details held on the Club Registration Portal.  You may view the Privacy Notice for the FA Club Registration Portal here.

Player Emails

The FA has made it mandatory for an email address to be included on a player’s profile on the Club Registration Portal.  For a player under the age of 16 years, this must be a parent email.

Once a player is registered on the , the parent will receive an email from the FA to register the parent with the FA and establish the link between parent and child (if not already linked).  A further email from the FA will be sent to gain consent to register the player with a league.

Most of our income to run the club comes from the subscriptions we collect from our members.  As a not-for-profit organisation, we set our subscriptions based on what we expect to pay out for the season.  This includes:

1.  Everything the coaches/managers need to run their team:

• All qualifications including DBS checks, Safeguarding training, Emergency First Aid and FA coaching qualifications.
• Basic equipment.
• Safe facilities for all matches and one training session per week.

2.  Fees for each team playing in a league, including:

• Team FA affiliation
• Personal accident insurance
• League and Cup entry
• Player registrations
• Referees

3.  One tournament entry for each team per season.

4.  An end of season trophy for each player.

Your subscription does not pay for:

• Match kits – these are kindly funded by sponsors which helps us keep costs as low as possible
• Our time!  All club officials, managers and coaches are volunteers.

• The total cost for running the club is spread evenly between the number of members we expect to join.  We do this to ensure football is accessible to everyone.
• The club has set subs at £160 per registered player for the season.  This works out at less than £5 per week during the playing season for training and matches.
• We do not ask for the whole amount up front.  This will be split into 8 instalments of £20.
• Subs are paid each month starting in September and ending in April.  You only start paying subs in the month that you join.
• Subs should be paid by bank transfer into the individual team account.  Please do not use cash.
• At the beginning of each month, the manager will transfer your subs into the club bank account.  You must ensure your subs reach the team bank account before the manager pays the club.
• The team manager may set subs slightly higher, or ask for subs to be paid for longer, to fund additional extras for the team.
• Any additional funds raised by the team, e.g. money left over from subs, selling refreshments or sponsorship, can be kept by the team for any additional extras such as Xmas parties, outings, additional equipment etc.
• Some teams may opt to pay subs via the Matchday app using PayPal.

As we do not have our own pitch, we rely on hiring facilities, such as schools, colleges and sports centres.

Your manager will arrange one training session per week and will let you know the day, time and venue.  We try to keep this the same for the season.

Winter training takes place from October to March.  This will either be indoors or on all weather pitches.  The exact date will depend on the venue.

Summer training will typically be on grass pitches.

Any additional training sessions are paid for directly by the team.

It is the manager’s decision when to have holiday breaks.  Most of our managers run some sessions during the school holidays.

The season usually starts in the first weekend of the school term in September and finishes in May.  All teams will play home and away matches set by the leagues and fixtures are published on the FA’s Full Time website and on the FA’s Matchday app.

Our mixed teams play in the Telford Junior Football League.

• Matches are played on Sundays.
• The U7 and U8 teams will play Futsal indoors between January and March.

Our girls only teams play in the Shropshire Girls and Women’s Football League.

• Matches are played on Saturdays.

Managers may organise friendlies with other teams when there are no league matches.

We don’t expect our players to pay for match kits, however we do ask that kits are looked after and returned when a player leaves or if the team outgrow them.

Our managers are responsible for obtaining sponsors to pay for new kits.  This can be a difficult job at times, so if you or you know someone willing to sponsor a kit then please let your manager know.

There are a limited number of kits that can be borrowed if a team does not have a sponsor.

There’s more than one way to support your footballer:

• Become a coach/manager – most of our coaches started out as parents or grandparents watching from the side-lines.
• Become a parent helper or Respect Marshall for your team.
• Raise funds for your team – sell refreshments or do sponsored events.
• Sponsor a kit – your company logo will be printed on the shirts and displayed on our promotional materials and website.
• Help us organise and put on events, such as our club tournament or end of season presentation.

Without our fantastic army of volunteers, we simply could not do what we do for our young people.

Helping is a great way to get to know people and contribute to the Club’s development.

Get involved—you’ll gain more than you give, we promise!  If you can help in any way, do talk to your manager or a member of the committee!

On rare occasions, a parent may not be happy with a manager’s decision.  If this is the case, the parent should try to resolve any issues with the manager first.  If the issue is not resolved, or if communication between the parent and manager breaks down, the parent should contact our Club Welfare Officer in the first instance.  The Welfare Officer will assess whether there has been a breach of the Code of Conduct and take appropriate action.

Please consult our Complaints Policy on our website for more details of the procedure.

Despite our best efforts, the environment we create does not suit each and every player resulting in the player leaving the club.  This might be the decision of the player, the parent, the manager or the club committee.

If you are leaving the club please remember to:

• Tell the manager as you will need permission from us to try out another club whilst the player is still registered with a league.
• Ensure your subs are up to date and any sponsored kit is returned.  A transfer to another club may be delayed if you do not do this.

Note that it is against FA rules for players to be deregistered from a club if the player intends on transferring to a new club in the same season.