Young Farmers’ Clubs (YFCs) provide the opportunity for young people to develop and learn in a fun, safe environment by participating in a diverse and educational club programme, that has been compiled by members. YFCs are open to all young people between the ages of 10 and 28.
NFYFC’s Safeguarding policy can be viewed here.
More information on reporting safeguarding concerns can be found here.
Meetings are organised and run by members, with the help of club leaders. The club officers include the chair, vice chair, secretary, treasurer and leader who are elected annually and have overall responsibility for the club and the activities in which members take part.
At least two of the club officers will be at every club meeting or event and will have responsibility for the under-18s present that day or evening. These officers are DBS checked and have had to provide suitability and character references.
Most clubs have at least one officer responsible for safeguarding who is overseen and supported by the county designated safeguarding officer, who in turn is supported by the national Head of Safeguarding & Behaviour Management.
On joining, YFC members under the age of 18 will be required to complete a membership form and parents must complete an annual consent form. It is vital that the club holds a valid, up-to-date general consent form for each child.
These consent forms are updated on a regular basis and permission slips are used as an updating mechanism for specific trip/event arrangements outside of the regular weekly meetings to ensure that the details on them remain correct and parents remain fully informed and consent to these additional activities.
YFC will communicate with members in a variety of ways to make sure they are aware of the club’s programme. Communication with children and young people must involve the parents. Communication arrangements are made locally between the club officers and the parents.
It is the parents’/guardians’ responsibility to arrange transport for their child to get to and from the meetings/activities. Where YFC arranges transport, for example for trips, they will arrange this with parents in line with the YFC Transporting Young People guidelines.
All members are required to sign up to the YFC Code of Conduct (below) upon joining and are expected to behave appropriately. Inappropriate behaviour that may have an impact on other members isn’t tolerated. Minor incidents will generally be dealt with by the chair at their discretion, which could simply be a talk with the member and a verbal warning. All warnings are recorded to ensure past conduct is considered where there is a repeat or an escalation of poor conduct. Parents will be contacted if more serious incidents occur. Information can be found in the Standards of Behaviour Policy available from the County Federation’s office.
