Football Coach Safeguarding Issue

[sutoka]

Flicking through a local magazine and noticed a face from the past, came across an article with photographs of an amateur football team that won the area league. Recognised one of the coaches as someone I went to junior school with 20+ years ago, checked the description and it's the same bloke.

So what's the issue?. Well just over a decade ago this bloke then in his 20's was caught with a 15 year old while teaching a local bible class. He was having a sexual relationship with her when he was supposed to be teaching her. He was arrested and convicted and served 2 years in prison, then another 18 months when it emerged he was still seeing her while under investigation not to mention the found dozens of CAT1 photographs on his phone of this underage girl. He is on the sex offenders register for life.

Now the season has ended and I'm aware the team he coaches are all over the age of 16+ right up to 30+ but they do have a junior team and having won the league and moved up a division they are ground sharing with another team who have all ages playing for them. Surely even in the amateur leagues they do criminal background checks on coaches?

People will say even people with his convictions deserve a second chance but not coaching a football team with teenagers and younger playing around them. Should I tip off the club or contact the police?

Edited by sutoka on Thursday 7th July 08:20

[andburg]

I'd do both.

[Chrisgr31]

It will depend on the actual facts I suspect.

As far as I am aware all coaches of any sporting team require a DBS check, certainly the swimming club my daughter swims in have to DBS the coaches, and those managing the team at Galas etc.

I don’t think it is a Police issue unless you know he has/is committing an offence. I would be contacting the football club or their umbrella body (FA?)

[FatboyKim]

In the first instance I would contact the local police force and ask for your concern to be expressed to the 'MOSOVO' (Management Of Sexual & Violent Offenders) officer who manages <individual's name>. The MOSOVO officer might make contact with you to ask for further info, but if the individual is on the sex offenders register for life, as you say, he will be subject to various restrictions and conditions such as no unsupervised contact with under 16s, notifying his MOSOVO officer whenever he buys a new phone or device, plans to stay overnight at an address other than his own, foreign travel, and various other conditions tailored to that individual.

For example, if the individual joined a gym where under 16s can be members, then he must notify his MOSOVO officer who will then contact the gym and find out their safeguarding policies. If they don't have any in place, then that's a big fat NO to the individual joining that particular gym. Large gym chains will have a safeguarding plan and assigned member of staff, so they are usually okay. A local football or sports club may very well have such safeguarding procedures and a safeguarding contact in place, so I would probably advise against going straight to the sports club to begin with.

Sexual offences, indecent images, rape etc. remain unspent offences for life -- they will always appear on a standard DBS check, so if the sports club conducted a DBS check, his offending would show up, so this is a strange one. It's usual and proper for the MOSOVO officer to make contact with parents within the club to explain that they have this particular individual working or coaching there, that he is a convicted sexual offender, and have it all in the open.

He may well be on the sex offenders register for life, but his conditions might have only lasted 3, 5 or 10 years and he will be perfectly free to do whatever he pleases. They might also last for life, so unless there's a local news article on the individual which mentions his sentencing and conditions, you won't know this.

Edited by FatboyKim on Thursday 7th July 09:59

[Chrisgr31]

I think you need to contact your Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) Here is what the Leeds Council website says https://www.leeds.gov.uk/one-minute-guides/lado

[Steve Campbell]

All grassroots clubs affiliated with the FA should have a safeguarding officer and they should be named on the club website and/or literature.

At grassroots club level, to be a coach the club should have DBS checks completed on all coaches (mine certainly did when I was coaching).

I would approach the club first before escalating to police etc etc with a non-accusatory mail asking if they have completed the appropriate DBS checks for the said individual.

As someone above has noted, it may all be completely above board.

Edited by Steve Campbell on Thursday 7th July 12:06

[eps]

DBS checks should have been completed. There may be a reason why they haven't... and not necessarily a good one.

I would approach local council first and ascertain if there is any cause for concern and then leave it with them, as long as they agree to follow it up if found necessary - and don't just leave it 'open' with them - follow it up to ensure something is being done if needed. Otherwise it could well end up being one of those issues where 'if only' or 'I thought someone else was dealing with it'...

[Ganglandboss]

Chrisgr31 said:

As far as I am aware all coaches of any sporting team require a DBS check, certainly the swimming club my daughter swims in have to DBS the coaches, and those managing the team at Galas etc.

I'm the Branch Diving Officer in a British Sub Aqua Club branch. We recently had an email from BSAC saying they noticed we did not have a nominated Club Welfare Officer. This meant I was responsible for safeguarding, which is a job I did not want.

I began looking at what was required, and DBS checks are mentioned, but when you look at the finer details, they are not compulsory. DBS checks are only required for 'regulated activities'. Regulated activities include things like teaching and driving minibuses, and it is dependent on how regular activities occur.

From BSAC's guidance:

BSAC said:

Criteria definitions
Regulated activity
The definition of regulated activity (i.e. work that a barred person must not do) in relation to children and vulnerable adults comprises, in summary:

(i) unsupervised activities: teach, train, instruct, care for or supervise children, or provide advice/ guidance on well-being, or drive a vehicle only for children;

(ii) work for a limited range of establishments (‘specified places’), with opportunity for contact: e.g. schools, children’s homes, childcare premises. Not work by supervised volunteers.

Regularly
Work under (i) or (ii) is regulated activity only if done regularly: “regularly” is defined as:
Teaching, training or instruction of children and adults at risk, carried out by the same person frequently (once a week or more often), or on 4 or more days in a 30-day period, or overnight.

I have highlighted the key word above - you do not need a DBS check if you are supervised.

When we implemented our club safeguarding policy, we made sure it was clearly stated that instructors, or any club member, does not have any unsupervised contact with a minor, even if they are DBS checked.

I recently began training as an instructor, and at the first event, we had to do a group activity where we were given a scenario involving a dive trip, and giving a presentation on how we would manage various safety and safeguarding matters. Every group got up, and all they said about safeguarding was 'everybody will be DBS checked'.

The people running the event were senior full time staff at BSAC HQ, and I could see them all nodding in agreement. When they asked for comments from the floor, I made the comment, "DBS checks are a great tool for ensuring convicted sex-cases never get to work around children and adults at risk, but other than that, they are useless. The possession of a clean DBS check does not prove you are not a wrongun; it only proves you haven't been caught."

At this point there were gasps around the room, and looks of horror on the faces of the BSAC staff, and they quickly tried to move on, but I carried on, telling them that too many people think that safeguarding stops with the DBS check. The only way of coming close to guaranteeing the safety of the child or adult at risk, and protecting people from false allegations is to ensure you have robust procedures in place,

Regarding the OP's situation, speaking to the police is a good idea, but I would also raise your concerns with the FA. It is probably a good prompt to review your club's procedures, as I was horrified when I looked at ours.

[Getragdogleg]

Which end of his 20s was he in when he committed the offence? 20 is very different to 29, also, if the images were of the girl concerned and there were no others then he's been fking stupid and although what he did was undeniably illegal it does not make him a sexual predator of children in general.

The fact he carried on with the exact girl concerned shows there is more to this than the usual porn on devices and grooming predator behaviour.

Obviously I have no idea if he's a wrong un or was just immature and in love/lust but consider all the circumstances before potentially ruining his life all over again over something he may have done then but never done again.

Or not, grab a pitchfork and crack on...

[FatboyKim]

Ganglandboss said:

...I recently began training as an instructor, and at the first event, we had to do a group activity where we were given a scenario involving a dive trip, and giving a presentation on how we would manage various safety and safeguarding matters. Every group got up, and all they said about safeguarding was 'everybody will be DBS checked'.

The people running the event were senior full time staff at BSAC HQ, and I could see them all nodding in agreement. When they asked for comments from the floor, I made the comment, "DBS checks are a great tool for ensuring convicted sex-cases never get to work around children and adults at risk, but other than that, they are useless. The possession of a clean DBS check does not prove you are not a wrongun; it only proves you haven't been caught."

At this point there were gasps around the room, and looks of horror on the faces of the BSAC staff, and they quickly tried to move on, but I carried on, telling them that too many people think that safeguarding stops with the DBS check. The only way of coming close to guaranteeing the safety of the child or adult at risk, and protecting people from false allegations is to ensure you have robust procedures in place...

Precisely this, there's no way to dodge the fact that a DBS check will only highlight if somebody has been convicted -- there are many more multiples of individuals in all walks of life who haven't been caught/convicted. I personally would still favour the OP first contacting the local police force either in person or by calling 111, so that the local MOSOVO officers can do their thing and check up on the individual and the club concerned, and for them to look into the individual and any safeguarding issues of the club.

The OP is clearly level-headed and won't do this, but doorstepping the club with a baying pitchfork-wielding mob will not be the best course of action -- it could send them into panic mode and prod the wasps nest a bit.