Here’s the uncomfortable truth about grassroots football right now.
We’re asking volunteer coaches, welfare officers and safeguarding leads to handle increasingly complex neurodiversity, mental health and safeguarding situations with nothing more than a tick-box e-learning course they did once, probably late at night, probably while half-watching TV, and definitely forgot most of by the following Saturday.
And when they hit a real problem? An autistic player who’s struggling with transitions. A teenager showing signs of anxiety. A parent who’s frustrated because their ADHD child isn’t getting the support they need. Where do they turn?
An unmoderated Facebook group. Where anyone can say anything. Where advice is inconsistent, sometimes dangerous, and often based on nothing more than “well, this worked for me once.”
This isn’t good enough.
It’s not good enough for the young people we’re supposed to be supporting. It’s not good enough for the volunteers who are doing their absolute best with no proper backup. And it’s certainly not good enough when we’re facing serious Equality Act obligations that most clubs don’t even know they have until they’re facing a complaint.
Let me be really clear about why the current approach isn’t working.
You sit there, you click through slides, you answer some multiple-choice questions designed so you can’t really fail, you get your certificate – job done.
But can you ask that e-learning module a question? No.
Can you say, “I’ve got a player who does this specific thing, what should I do?” No.
Can you hear how another coach at another club handled a similar situation? Absolutely not.
It’s solitary. It’s isolating. And the moment you need to actually apply that knowledge in a real, messy, complicated situation with a real child or teenager in front of you, you’re on your own.
Grassroots football is trying to solve its biggest problems on Facebook – and that’s not good enough.
I’m not saying everyone in those groups means badly. Many people are trying to help. But you’ve got no way of knowing if the person giving you advice has any actual training, any real understanding of neurodiversity or mental health or safeguarding, or any idea about your legal obligations under the Equality Act.
You’ve got no moderation. No quality control. No accountability. And worse, you’ve got the potential for awful advice to spread, for vulnerable situations to be discussed publicly without proper safeguarding, and for coaches to implement strategies that could actually cause harm.
Coaches at the same club often don’t talk to each other about this stuff. Welfare officers feel like they’re the only person who cares. Safeguarding leads are firefighting on their own. And parents? They’re watching their kids struggle, and they’re not getting the support or the communication they need, so frustration builds and trust breaks down.
Meanwhile, more and more responsibility for safeguarding, mental health and neurodiversity support is coming downstream to clubs. You’re being asked to do more, with less support, and the gap between what’s expected of you and what you’re equipped to handle is growing.
That’s the reality. And if we’re serious about creating inclusive, safe, effective grassroots football environments, we need to fix the system, not just add another one-off, tick-box, solitary course to it.
That’s why we created the FMHA Neurodiversity, Mental Health & Safeguarding Academy.
This is not another course. This is an ongoing support system.
It’s delivered through a platform, a community space combined with training, resources, and expert-led sessions all in one place. You access it on any device, whenever you need it.
But here’s what makes it completely different from anything else out there.
It’s ongoing. Not a one-off workshop you forget about. Continuous professional development. Monthly updates. New resources every month. New expert-led sessions. This keeps pace with the challenges you’re actually facing week to week.
It’s face-to-face. Well, screen-to-screen, but you know what I mean. Real people. Live sessions where you can ask questions, share experiences, hear from experts and from other coaches, welfare officers, and referees who are dealing with exactly the same challenges you are. This is where the learning actually happens, not clicking through slides on your own with Netflix in the background.
It’s moderated and safe. The community forums are fiercely moderated. This isn’t the Wild West of Facebook groups. You can share challenges, ask for advice, discuss specific scenarios in a space that’s professional, confidential and focused on best practice, not just opinions – and if the answers aren’t there, we will find them for you.
It’s practical. We’re not just teaching theory. You’re getting checklists you can use on game day. Communication templates for difficult conversations with parents. Sensory environment guides for matchday. Emotional regulation toolkits for halftime. Strategies for supporting ADHD players during training. Actual tools you can use on a weekend, that are added to every month.
And it’s expert-led. We bring in clinical psychologists, safeguarding and player welfare experts, neurodiversity specialists, mental health practitioners, legal experts who specialise in equality law, experienced coaches from grassroots and the professional game, ex-pros, parent engagement specialists and academic expertise. People who actually know what they’re talking about, not just people with loud opinions.
You’re learning from the best. And you’re learning with your peers.
The Academy provides comprehensive support across multiple areas:
Every member of your club gets unlimited access to our core training:
These are 2-3 hour sessions that run every month, so there’s no pressure. You join when it fits your schedule. And yes, you get CPD certificates for completing them. Proper evidence of your commitment.
Every month, we bring in specialists to cover topics including:
These are 60 minutes, live, and recorded if you can’t make it. You can ask questions. You can bring real scenarios. You get actual answers.
This is the stuff you can actually use:
Practical. Actionable. Football-specific.
This is huge. You’re not working alone anymore.
You’ve got access to moderated forums where you can share challenges, ask questions, swap strategies. You can say, “I’ve got a player who does X, has anyone else experienced this?” and get thoughtful, informed responses from people who’ve been there.
You can learn from coaches at other clubs. Welfare officers can support each other. Safeguarding leads can share approaches. This breaks the isolation that so many volunteers feel.
A game changer.
This is a parallel but completely separate program for the families at your club.
They get their own regular webinars, their own resources, their own peer support community, all focused on supporting their children’s wellbeing in football, school, and life.
Here’s why this matters: when parents understand what you’re trying to do, when they have realistic expectations, when they’ve got their own support system, they become partners, not adversaries. The friction reduces. The trust increases. Everyone wins.
And it’s included. Your club membership gives you access codes to invite every parent/carer/guardian at your club at no additional cost.
We help you understand your Equality Act obligations and, more importantly, how to actually meet them.
You get documentation templates. Evidence tracking tools. Guidance on reasonable adjustments. This isn’t legal advice, but it’s practical support to help you show clear evidence of your commitment to inclusion and reduce your risk of complaints or litigation.
We’re also developing a Player Log App where coaches can record behaviours, track adjustments, and get suggestions for support strategies. Real evidence of your proactive approach.
Let me paint you a picture of why this is so important.
You’ve got a coach, a good person who cares about the players and volunteers every weekend. They’ve done their FA courses, ticked the boxes. But they’ve never had proper training on neurodiversity, or mental health, or managing behaviour.
They’ve got an autistic player on their team who’s struggling with transitions, gets dysregulated when the routine changes, and finds the sensory environment of matchday overwhelming. The coach doesn’t know this. They think the player is “just being difficult” or “not focused” or “disruptive.”
They possibly handle it the way they’d handle any other player: raise their voice a bit, tell them to concentrate, tell them to stop messing about, tell them, “look me in the eye when I’m talking to you”, etc etc.
The player shuts down. Stops coming to training. The parent is furious because the club isn’t making the reasonable adjustments they’re legally required to make under the Equality Act. They complain to the County FA or even The FA.
Now you’ve got an investigation. You’ve got reputational damage. You’ve got a coach who feels awful and might quit. You’ve got a young person who’s been pushed out of football. You’ve got a family that’s lost trust in your club.
And all of it was avoidable.
If that coach had access to proper training. If they’d been able to ask questions in a safe space. If they’d had a checklist to spot the signs. If they’d had peer support to say, “here’s what worked for me.” If they’d had documentation templates to record adjustments. If the parents had been educated through the PCG Academy about how to communicate their child’s needs effectively…
That situation doesn’t happen.
That’s what the Academy does. It prevents the problems before they start.
It equips your volunteers with knowledge, tools, and support. It builds trust with families. It reduces your risk. It makes your club genuinely inclusive, not just in theory, but in practice, on the pitch, every single week.
The Academy is designed for everyone involved in grassroots football.
This is your complete system. Every coach, every assistant coach, every welfare officer, every safeguarding lead, every committee member, every referee, every volunteer can have access. Unlimited seats. No restrictions.
And every parent/carer/guardian.
You can bring your whole club along. That means everyone’s working from the same playbook. Everyone’s got the same understanding. You’re not relying on one person who did a course once to somehow filter that knowledge down to everyone else.
You get consistent approaches across all your age groups. You reduce your safeguarding gaps. You show parents and your league that you’re committed. And you build a stronger, more inclusive club culture.
Maybe you’re a coach who wants to develop your own practice. Maybe you’re a welfare officer who feels isolated. Maybe you’re a referee who wants to better understand the players you’re working with.
You can join as an individual. You get full access to everything: the training, the experts, the resources, the community. You can bring what you learn back to your club. You can network with peers across the country. You can build your own professional development portfolio.
Here’s where this gets really powerful.
If you’re a County FA, you can join the Academy and give access to every single club, every player, every welfare officer, every coach, every volunteer, every parent/carer/guardian in your entire county. Plus every member of your own staff.
You’re supporting thousands of people, potentially tens of thousands, for literally pennies per person.
You’re providing a countywide system that raises standards across every club. You’re showing leadership. You’re reducing risk across your whole county. And you’re giving clubs a resource they desperately need but possibly can’t afford on their own.
And here’s the commitment we’re making: any club that’s already subscribed will get a full refund if their County FA joins. Because we want this to be accessible. We want whole counties raising the bar together.
Here’s feedback from coaches, welfare officers, and volunteers who’ve been through our training:
“At the ripe old age of 62 and been involved in grassroots football for many years, I didn’t think there was much I would learn. How wrong was I! I came away with increased knowledge and an ability now to see and understand neurodiversity. I look at past incidents in a different light and will now use this knowledge to push for all coaches to be equally trained. It is a travesty that this is not mandatory.”
“I served as a police officer for 33 years and have to say few courses I attended have had such an impact.”
“Had this been online training it simply would not have had the impact it did. The ability to see and ask questions live, but also have real life examples, brought home the learning.”
“I am probably best described as old school, so very much a new learning curve for myself. Certainly think that some of it needs to be added into the Core Coaching qualification to help all coaches better understand the needs that some kids may require.”
“This really hit home as I have been down this road in the past suffering from anxiety and depression. Without the right help I would still be like that now.”
“Really great informative evening, with speaker given great insights into the subject matter. Also great to have discussions around personal experience spoken but also comments added into chat. A great way to do both.”
These aren’t just nice words. These are people whose practice has fundamentally changed. Who are seeing players differently. Who are handling situations more effectively. Who are preventing harm and creating opportunity.
That’s what proper, ongoing, peer-supported training does. That’s what the Academy delivers.
No. Absolutely not. FA courses provide essential baseline certification. You still need those. The Academy complements them by providing ongoing, football-specific support for safeguarding, plus comprehensive coverage of neurodiversity and mental health, areas that aren’t deeply covered in standard safeguarding training.
We’re not an alternative. We’re an addition. We’re the ongoing system that helps you actually implement what you learned in those baseline, tick-box online courses.
Core training modules are 2-3 hours and run every month, so you join when it suits you. Monthly expert sessions are 60 minutes, and they’re recorded if you can’t make it live.
You engage at whatever level works for you. Access the resources when you need them. Ask questions in the community when you’ve got five minutes. This is designed to fit around volunteer schedules, not dominate them.
The Academy is an educational platform, not a clinical service. We can’t provide medical advice, mental health treatment, or crisis intervention.
For urgent safeguarding concerns or mental health crises, you always contact appropriate emergency services or follow your club’s safeguarding procedures immediately.
What we do provide is the training and support that helps you recognise situations early, respond appropriately, and prevent crises where possible.
Yes. The Academy is needs-led. Members can request topics through the platform. The community forums seed the content. We’re always addressing current challenges because we’re listening to what you’re actually dealing with.
This isn’t a fixed curriculum where you’re just consuming what we decided to teach. This is responsive. This evolves with your needs. You decide what’s in the Academy.
You don’t have to keep working in silos. You don’t have to rely on tick-box e-learning and unregulated Facebook groups. You don’t have to hope for the best and cross your fingers that nothing goes wrong.
You can have a system. You can have ongoing support. You can have experts, peers, resources, tools, and a community that’s got your back.
The FMHA Neurodiversity, Mental Health & Safeguarding Academy exists because the current approach isn’t good enough.
We can do better. And we are doing better.
Early adopter pricing is available now. Visit our landing page to learn more, explore the full details, and book a quick, no-obligation call to see how the Academy can support your club, your volunteers and the players you serve.
This is about building something better. Not just for the kids and young people we’re supposed to be supporting, but also for the adult players who are often just left to sort it themselves. It’s for the volunteers who are giving their time, their energy and their care to grassroots football and deserve proper support.
Danny Matharu – The Football Mental Health Alliance
The resources and support provided in The Vault are designed to promote mental wellbeing and provide general guidance on mental health related to grassroots football.
However, the content is not intended to serve as specific mental health advice or replace consultation with a trained professional. If you or someone you know requires personalised mental health support, we strongly encourage you to consult with a licensed mental health professional and/or seek appropriate services in your area.
