Safeguarding Awareness for Parents and Carers

Course Overview

Introduction to Coaching Football

Course type:

Online

Free

Minimum age:

16

Duration

1 hour

Price:

Free

Important Update

We’re upgrading to a new learning platform to make your experience even better.

Already Started?

If you’ve already started this course, you can continue the course here. You must complete the course before 2nd January 2026 or your progress will be lost and you’ll have to start again.

Starting today? If you start this course today, please complete it before the 2nd January 2026 or your progress will be lost and you’ll have to start again.

About the course

Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility – but are you clear about the vital role you can play?

Safeguarding is about creating safe environments and preventing children from experiencing harm or abuse. Put simply, safeguarding refers to measures we take to protect our children – and keep them safe and well. Whether that’s your kids, the opposing players or even the ref, every young person has the right to enjoy football.

This short safeguarding for parents course is designed to help you to make an informed choice about the football setting you enrol your child in. It starts by explaining the importance of safeguarding in football and the child-centred approach the game takes.

It will then guide you through questions you should ask to ensure the club or venue where your children play football has the correct safeguarding policies, people and practices in place.

The course also highlights signs that should concern you – and how to report these concerns. Please scroll down if you want to read about the course in more detail.

Ultimately, we want you to make informed choices about where your children enjoy our great game.

The FA is doing everything it can to create safe and positive environments wherever your children play football. This course will enable you play an active role towards achieving that goal. Thank you in advance for taking it.

Expectations and goals

This course will help you:

Know what safeguarding is and that you have a role to play as a parent or carer
Understand that children's football should be centred around the needs and wellbeing of children
Increase awareness of the different forms, signs and indicators of abuse, including ‘grooming’ as well as understanding what constitutes poor practice, and how this links to abuse
Increase your confidence regarding what safeguards should be in place at a child's club or football setting, and how to check this
Increase your awareness of reporting concerns through recognised channels
Increase your awareness of the behaviours that are expected in children’s football environments

Reasonable adjustments

To request a reasonable adjustment on this course, please follow this link.

Download a copy of our Reasonable Adjustments Policy.

Find out more about the course

To take the course...

You first need an FA Number (FAN). If you already have one, login here. If not, select the link and choose 'Sign Up'. This will walk you through the registration process which only takes 30 seconds.

A FAN simply gives you a unique identification number should you want to take any other England Football Learning courses.

Once you have a FAN, you can take the course here.

Upon completion of the course, you'll receive a safeguarding certificate that will appear on your FAN account. You can return to the course to refresh your knowledge at any time.

If you have any problems sign-up or logging-in, please visit our Help Centre for more support.

Course modules

Course introduction (5m)

This module explains the course structure. It also provides the chance to tell us about yourself.

Know your role (5m)

This module examines how you can help prevent children from experiencing harm or abuse.

Type of abuse (7m)

The FA recognises five main types of abuse. This module examines what they are.

Recognise grooming (9m)

This module examines what we mean by grooming and how to spot it.

Make time to listen (6m)

Young people often find it hard to speak out when things feel wrong. This module examines how to talk to children about their experience of football.

Play your part: support best practice (8m)

Learn about what best practice is, what it looks like and how to play your part.

Raise concerns (5m)

Worried about poor practice or abuse? Discover how to report your concern.

Course summary (6m)

This module sums up the course. It reviews your learning objectives and provides the opportunity to give feedback.

It is a credit to The FA that this type of course is available free of charge. It should be undertaken by absolutely everybody involved with children and young person’s football.

Parent