West Riding FA is lending its full support to Play Safe – a national FA-led campaign to raise awareness of the importance of safeguarding in football.

Play Safe is being run in partnership with the NSPCC and has the full backing of the Premier League, EFL, Barclays FA Women’s Super League and the FA Women’s Championship. It’s also supported by every County FA and is being run across all 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. The films also explain to parents/carers and children themselves know 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. You can see these films below.

For Clubs And Officials

For Parents And Carers

For Children

Designated Safeguarding Officer at West Riding FA Paul Ratcliffe welcomes the national campaign to highlight the importance of safeguarding. 

Paul said: "Here at West Riding FA we take our safeguarding responsibilities extremely seriously and we are proud to be working alongside The FA to promote the Play Safe campaign across this weekend and for the whole season. 

The FA’s Play Safe campaign is here to showcase the importance of safeguarding within the game we love. Here at West Riding FA, we are proud to have such a committed and dedicated volunteer workforce that strive to ensure West Riding is a safe place for all participants of grassroots football.

Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility – if you see or hear something that you feel is not right, please report it to your Club’s Welfare Officer or to The FA."

“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.

You can read more about Play Safe on The FA’s website here.