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Coaches helper

Help at training. No badge, no team to run, no Saturdays unless you want them.

About an hour a week, at training

How many hours
An hour a week at training. Nothing else, unless you want it.
Where it sits
Your team. No committee involvement at all.
Is there a budget
No budget attached to this role.

What you would do

  • Set up and pack away, and help run the drills the coach has planned
  • Work with a small group while the coach takes the rest
  • Keep an eye on the children who need it, which is most of the job

What the club gives you

  • Your DBS and safeguarding course, both free
  • A coach alongside you every session, so you are never working it out alone
  • Club kit

What is required

DBS check

An enhanced criminal records check, free to you and arranged by our Welfare Officers. Every adult in regular contact with children at the club has one, without exception.

Takes two to four weeks, so we start it the day you say yes.

Safeguarding Children in Football

The FA's online course. Free, done at home, and it needs renewing every three years.

Takes about three hours, at your own pace.

What is not required

  • No first aid qualification
  • No coaching badge
  • No experience of playing football

Being straight with you

Worth knowing before you say yes rather than three weeks in.

  • You assist, you do not lead. Someone else plans the session.
  • You are never the only adult with the children. That is how the FA requires every club to work, and it protects you as much as them.
  • Until your DBS comes back you are welcome to come along, but always alongside a cleared official.
  • If you only want to carry goals and hand out water occasionally, you need none of this. Just turn up.

Where it can lead

If you decide you want to coach, it is two more free courses and no new application. You will know the team by then, which is the hard part.

What happens after you click

  1. 1You tell us you are interested. Four questions, about a minute.
  2. 2Our Volunteer Coordinator gets in touch, usually within a couple of days.
  3. 3We start your DBS straight away, because it is the slow part.
  4. 4You do the safeguarding course at home, in your own time.
  5. 5You start. Alongside someone experienced until you would rather not be.
I am interested

Not a commitment. It starts a conversation.