We are delighted to inform you that at the FA deadline of midnight on Sunday 15th January, every single team in Lancashire had a coach attached and hence no clubs currently face suspension.

We are now moving on to phase two of this safeguarding compliance operation.

We now require all of those coaches to have an “Accepted” FA/CRC dated within the past three years.

The deadline for compliance with this request is MIDINGHT ON FEBRUARY 28TH 2017.

Any club with even one coach not compliant by that date will have its affiliation CANCELLED.

Clearly it is very important that we start to take action now in order to meet the above deadline.

As such we urge clubs to take the following steps:

1. Secretaries and Club Welfare Officers need to check each coach or manager listed on the Whole Game System (WGS). Should any have no CRC, an expired CRC, or one nearing the three-year expiry, they need to start the application immediately.

2. Each club can register to carry out its own CRC applications, with the club welfare officer as the document verifier. If your club is not currently registered, then your CWO needs to send an email to fachecks@thefa.com requesting access. He or she will be sent a PIN, password, and full instructions.

3. If your club does not currently have a CWO, or he or she is temporarily indisposed, then the county FA can oversee renewals or applications. Simply email Neil Yates at neil.yates@lancashirefa.com for further guidance.

4. We strongly urge clubs to begin the renewal process three months before expiry to allow a small “overlap.” Club welfare officers can easily see which volunteers are nearing this date on WGS via the traffic light system.

Should you need any further assistance in completing this very important process, contact Neil Yates or Chris Doherty in welfare immediately via phone (01772 624000) or via email (neil.yates@lancashirefa.com / chris.doherty@lancashirefa.com).

We are expecting a huge spike in applications and hence turnaround times may be adversely affected. There is no time to lose!

Please see the video below for guidance: