The Ref Stop

Requirement for DBS when Refereeing Youth Football and Turning 16 Mid-Season

R

Ref_Dad

New Member
My son started refereeing in England in summer 2021 as a 14 year old, and re-registered in summer 2022 as a 15-year old.
My and his understanding is that he needs to have a DBS in place in order to continue refereeing mini/youth football* beyond his 16th birthday (which is coming up soon).
However, my understanding from various official (non-football) '.gov.uk' sources is that you can't even apply for a DBS until you have reached the age of 16 (i.e. you can't apply a couple of months beforehand in order to ensure that the DBS is in place by the time you reach 16).
The implication of this would be that my son would have to stop refereeing for a short while between the date of his 16th birthday and the date when he actually receives the DBS confirmation.
Obviously if that is the rule then he will do so and it isn't a big deal, but ideally he'd rather not have a gap, and I suspect that actually something about my understanding of the above is not quite correct.
I have searched, but can't find anything official online about a 'grace period' for the DBS application or anything similar.
However, I think I saw something somewhere online (not on an official FA site, & I unfortunately can't find the link now as it was way back when my son first started refereeing) suggesting that you don't actually need a DBS at all when you reach 16, but instead you need it when you register as a referee if you are aged 16 or over.
That would make sense, and would imply that my son could continue to referee without a DBS for the remainder of this season (even after he turns 16), but will need a DBS in place by the date when he renews his annual referee registration in Summer 2023 (as by then he will be 16).

I would be most grateful if anyone can confirm which of the below is correct, and if possible point me to an official source confirming the same:
  1. A DBS is needed to referee a mini/youth football* match as an FA-registered official if you are aged 16 or over on the date of the match.

  2. A DBS is needed to referee a mini/youth football* match as an FA-registered official if you were aged 16 or over on the date of your FA-registration.

Many thanks.

*I appreciate that whilst I have said mini/youth football above for brevity, the above will also apply to 'open age' football when any of the other participants (players, officials, etc.) are under 18 years old.
 
The Ref Stop
Ref_Dad said:
My son started refereeing in England in summer 2021 as a 14 year old, and re-registered in summer 2022 as a 15-year old.
My and his understanding is that he needs to have a DBS in place in order to continue refereeing mini/youth football* beyond his 16th birthday (which is coming up soon).
However, my understanding from various official (non-football) '.gov.uk' sources is that you can't even apply for a DBS until you have reached the age of 16 (i.e. you can't apply a couple of months beforehand in order to ensure that the DBS is in place by the time you reach 16).
The implication of this would be that my son would have to stop refereeing for a short while between the date of his 16th birthday and the date when he actually receives the DBS confirmation.
Obviously if that is the rule then he will do so and it isn't a big deal, but ideally he'd rather not have a gap, and I suspect that actually something about my understanding of the above is not quite correct.
I have searched, but can't find anything official online about a 'grace period' for the DBS application or anything similar.
However, I think I saw something somewhere online (not on an official FA site, & I unfortunately can't find the link now as it was way back when my son first started refereeing) suggesting that you don't actually need a DBS at all when you reach 16, but instead you need it when you register as a referee if you are aged 16 or over.
That would make sense, and would imply that my son could continue to referee without a DBS for the remainder of this season (even after he turns 16), but will need a DBS in place by the date when he renews his annual referee registration in Summer 2023 (as by then he will be 16).

I would be most grateful if anyone can confirm which of the below is correct, and if possible point me to an official source confirming the same:
  1. A DBS is needed to referee a mini/youth football* match as an FA-registered official if you are aged 16 or over on the date of the match.

  2. A DBS is needed to referee a mini/youth football* match as an FA-registered official if you were aged 16 or over on the date of your FA-registration.

Many thanks.

*I appreciate that whilst I have said mini/youth football above for brevity, the above will also apply to 'open age' football when any of the other participants (players, officials, etc.) are under 18 years old.
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I suggest that as a first step your son should contact the RDO for your county, as he will need confirmation from the County Office as to the procedure in your county and to learn about the local verification procedures.
 
When I turned 16, I was refereeing for 2 months without a DBS whilst my application was in progress. My DBS is with a local club. I was never asked by my county FA to complete a DBS which i found odd. Probably best to contact the RDO
 
ChasObserverRefDeveloper said:
I suggest that as a first step your son should contact the RDO for your county, as he will need confirmation from the County Office as to the procedure in your county and to learn about the local verification procedures.
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Thanks.
The RDO would have been my first port of call, but my son has actually already been in touch with him about the DBS a few weeks ago.
The club he regularly referees for offered to organise the DBS for him, so he contacted his RDO to explain his situation and make sure that this would be okay and suitable for refereeing. The RDO basically said yes, that's fine (no mention of a grace period, a mandatory gap in refereeing while awaiting the DBS, DBS only being required at registration, or anything else). At that point I hadn't really thought about those issues, but now that I have I'm surprised that the RDO didn't clarify it for him in his answer.
I'll give it a few days in case anyone on here can advise, & if not I'll suggest that he contacts his RDO again with that explicit question.
 
My son has just gone through the process. He turned 16 exactly 2 weeks ago. DBS came through today.

Contact RDO to get prepared. You can't start it until he turns 16. Apparently there is a bit of leeway with refereeing whilst the DBS is in progress, but you need to have it in progress.
 
ellisgreen said:
When I turned 16, I was refereeing for 2 months without a DBS whilst my application was in progress. My DBS is with a local club. I was never asked by my county FA to complete a DBS which i found odd. Probably best to contact the RDO
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Not sure what you mean that your DBS is with a local club. The FA only accept DBS certificates issued through First Advantage, formerly GBG, so you might not be valid. Even the likes of teachers and police officers, who have valid DBS through their jobs, don't get those accepted for refereeing.
 
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RustyRef said:
Not sure what you mean that your DBS is with a local club. The FA only accept DBS certificates issued through First Advantage, formerly GBG, so you might not be valid. Even the likes of teachers and police officers, who have valid DBS through their jobs, don't get those accepted for refereeing.
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I suspect what he means is that the club have offered to complete the FA DBS process for him rather than him having to do it directly with the CFA.

Either way, it will go through the same process/organisations just with the club as the originating PIN/ID rather than the County FA.
 
RustyRef said:
Not sure what you mean that your DBS is with a local club. The FA only accept DBS certificates issued through First Advantage, formerly GBG, so you might not be valid. Even the likes of teachers and police officers, who have valid DBS through their jobs, don't get those accepted for refereeing.
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it was passed through on this seasons registration so i dont know :cry:
 
Thanks all for the replies.

For completeness, and in case it helps anyone else in future, here is the [anonymised] reply from my son's RDO received today:

"With regards the DBS it cannot be applied for until [your son] has turned 16 of which he cannot referee youth football until the DBS is complete, the completion of the DBS can take 24 hours or even over 6 weeks by the company. Appreciate this is frustrating for a short period of time however there is no youth football around Christmas so there won’t be too much an impact upon [your son]’s ability to referee."

So it seems that (at least in our county) every U16 referee must by definition have a break in their refereeing from the date of their 16th birthday (when they can first make a DBS application) until the date when their DBS is in place. I guess it would also make sense for anyone in this situation to close all dates on any leagues with whom they are registered from the date of their 16th birthday until a couple of months after that date, in order to ensure that they aren't appointed to a fixture that they cannot fulfil.
 
What if the newly-turned 16 year old ONLY referee'd Veterans matches in that limbo period?
 
JamesL said:
Carnage!!
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Remember my first Vets game. Left back had the ball, looked up... and off I went expecting it to be pinged upfield. it eventually was, but cleared and booted back the other way and I was 20 yards out of position and missed a 50/50 throw decision. One fella said "Was going to moan that you were behind the play, but we were behind you" :D

Quite like a Vets game tbh. Usually good, wise heads (and thankful you're there).
 
Max2 said:
Remember my first Vets game. Left back had the ball, looked up... and off I went expecting it to be pinged upfield. it eventually was, but cleared and booted back the other way and I was 20 yards out of position and missed a 50/50 throw decision. One fella said "Was going to moan that you were behind the play, but we were behind you" :D

Quite like a Vets game tbh. Usually good, wise heads (and thankful you're there).
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Yes. I did one ... Once!! 😬😬
 
An update to the update!
I received a follow-up email yesterday from my son's RDO. He had obviously taken the query elsewhere after his initial reply to me, and came back with the following good news, with the reply including a direct quote from the RDO's safeguarding lead [see below] (it looks like it is applied at a national level, and seems to be a sensible approach that would fit with Viridis1886's son's recent experience):

"National FA have confirmed that referees must have a DBS in place, not in progress, to be compliant. The exception to this is referees who have reached the age of 16. The Disclosure and Barring Service will not process any applications for individuals under the age of 16. This leaves these young referees in a position where they will become non-compliant overnight, without means to prevent this. National FA have therefore confirmed they will be granted a grace period of 21 days, to enable a DBS application to be added to Online Disclosures and verified."
 
As an aside why do referees who ref players aged 16-18 in mens football NOT need a dbs but refs who do u18s need a dbs?
 
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