The Junior Blades are committed to ensuring the safety and well-being of all of our players, coaches, parents and their family members. Like everyone, we are keen to restart the season as soon as possible but we will not rush the process and put anybody involved with the Club at any unneccesary risk.

The Club is committed to putting a structured, controlled and organised – “Return to Play”policy in place.

We have drawn up a guidance document for everybody to read and follow.

We are liaising with St Georges Graves, our home ground, regarding when the facility will re-open. Once we have a re-opening date we will be working together to create Phase 2 of the Return to Play policy which will incorporate Junior Blades returning to football in a controlled and managed manner at our home ground once more.

The Club will be providing all of our managers with COVID 19 kits later this week which will include latex gloves, sanitising sprays, hand sanitisers and facemasks to ensure that when we do return to football the risks to our players and our staff is kept to an absolute minimal.

As well as the guidance and the COVID kits we have also sent out a self-certification to all of our parents. This form has to be completed before players can return to any form of training and on the form are a number of statements which players must agree to before they can complete the form.

These statements include –

• Confirmation that the Return to Play Guidance has been seen and understood
• Players do not have any underlying health conditions
• The player or immediate family has not been in contact with anybody with COVID 19 or somebody displaying symptoms in the last 14 days. If they have then the player must self-isolate for 14 days before returning to training.
• If a player or immediate family member is currently shielding then the player should nor return to training in Phase 1
• If a player has not been social distancing for whatever reason then they should maintain the correct social-distancing for 14 days before attending a training session.

Only when the player can answer YES to all of the questions above can they return to any Junior Blades sessions.

Football will return and it is important that when it does return all of our players and families are able to enjoy it. There is no need to rush back to training. There is no need to put yourselves or others in unnecessary danger or risk. There is no pressure from the Club, managers, coaches, other players or parents to return too quickly. Please only return when you are comfortable with the guidance and processes in place and you also meet all of the “rules” described above.Not attending sessions in the First Phase will not affect your child’s place in the Club. It will not impact on their future next season. Catching the virus will however so prioritise your child’s safety over everything else. Ensure that if you do return to training that you follow the guidance given. Police the guidance as well and ensure others are following the guidance. If everybody follows the same rules and principles the risks to everyone will be as minimal as possible. The quicker we all do this then the quicker we return but taking the necessary precautions the sooner normality will return and the sooner competitive football will begin.Safety is the number one priority !! Protect yourself and others first then consider returning to the sessions.

If you have any queries, worries, concerns at all please contact the Club. Nathan our Welfare Officer or myself will gladly answer anything you would like to discuss. Please email info@juniorblades.co.uk with your contact details and we will get back to you as soon as we can

Chris Slack
Club Chairman on behalf of the Junior Blades Managers, Coaches and Committee