Cosmos Successfully Complete FA Charter Standard Health Check

  Wigan Cosmos Football Club is delighted to announce that it has successfully
  completed it's third Annual FA Charter Standard Health Check.
 
  Passing the annual FA Health Check outlines the clubs continouing ambition to be at
  the forefront of grassroots football, you can view the letter from the FA and certificate
  by clicking on the links on the right of this article.

  The FA Charter Standard Club programme was introduced in 2001 as part of the
  Charter for Excellence in order to raise standards throughout grassroots football and to
  reward and recognise those clubs that did so.

  By July 2010, over 4600 clubs have attained the accreditation with over 67% of all
  mini-soccer and youth football being played in FA Charter Standard Clubs. This equates to over 36,000 teams having a qualified FA coach with an enhanced CRB check and has completed the FA safeguarding and Emergency First Aid courses.

For the help and support of the tens of thousands of volunteers that implement the programme, The Football Association is truly grateful. To keep the FA Charter Standard programme current and in line with the FA’s National Game Strategy criteria changes were introduced in July 2009. It was also agreed that an Annual Health Check for FA Charter Standard Clubs be introduced for season 2010/11. This will replace the existing three year renewal process and will provide the following benefits:

• Annually inform clubs of their current status in relation to meeting the FA Charter Standard criteria
• Support clubs in tracking the validity of their voluntary workforce in relation to coach education and welfare
• Allow clubs to identify their workforce / coach education requirements for the season
• Reduce the number of instances when after three years clubs cannot meet the criteria and have to lose their
  accreditation and re-write a whole new application form
• Provide greater communication and support for clubs from their County FA
• Provide clubs with online tools through Member Services
• Provide consistent benefits annually to each club who completes the Health Check

Understanding

It is recognised that moving to an Annual Health Check is significantly different to the existing process but it
has been designed using examples of best practice that both FA Charter Standard Clubs and County FA’s
have adopted since the introduction of the programme in 2001. It has been designed using consultation
groups of FA Charter Standard Clubs and the County FA workforce.

In its simplest guise it is an annual form that each club has to complete and return to its parent County FA
showing how it adheres to the FA Charter Standard criteria and plans to continue to meet the criteria
during that season. In its more effective form it will allow clubs to align coaches to their teams, show when
their awards expire, identify the volunteer workforce within the club, access the welfare status of individuals
within the club and allow the use of Member Services to assist club officials in administrating their club.

To attain the latter will take clubs differing lengths of time to achieve and this is recognised. Some clubs
may already be doing this, for others it could take a few years. There is an understanding that to complete all
the information in one season may be unrealistic, but with support from your County FA could be achieved
over a number of years.