What You Need to Coach at Bury Rangers

Before you can take a training session or matchday role at Bury Rangers, you need a few things in place. They aren't optional, they aren't club preferences, every one of them exists because a child's safety depends on it. The process is deliberately stepped and now managed online through the clubs website. You can't skip ahead, and the club can't approve you until each stage is confirmed. 1. Get an FA Account and FAN Start here, because nothing else can happen without it. Your FAN (FA Number) is the unique number attached to every player, coach and referee in English football. It's what your qualifications, your safeguarding certificate and your DBS all attach to, and it's how the club adds you to a team as a coach. If you don't have one, there's nothing for the rest of this list to hang on. Set up an FA Account at myaccount.thefa.com. If you've ever played, coached or refereed, you probably already have a FAN — sign in and find it rather than creating a second one. Duplicate records cause real problems later, usually at the worst moment. While you're in there, complete your profile properly: name, date of birth, address, and a clear head and shoulders photo. Then enter your FAN in the club onboarding form. The club needs it to confirm you on the FA Club Portal and to start your DBS. https://secure.thefa.com/fan/UpdateFANDetails.aspx 2. Get invited by a coach Once you have your FAN an existing bury coach can invite you to join the club via email. They'll send you a personal sign-up link from the club website and vouch that you're joining the coaching community. When you receive the link, use it to register. You'll be asked to verify your email address before your account is created — this is the email the club will use for all correspondence, so make sure it's one you check regularly. If you're already an established coach and the club has invited you directly, you may be on the faster "existing coach" route. The steps below still apply, but some checks will already be on file. Once you register the club adds you to the clubs FA Portal and registers you. This kicks off the DBS process and you can start to book onto the courses below 3. Safeguarding Children Do this next. It's mandatory for anyone working with young people in football, and it's a prerequisite for the coaching course — you cannot enrol on Introduction to Coaching Football without it. It's online, self-paced, and takes roughly 90 minutes to two hours. It currently costs £30. Your certificate appears on your FAN and is valid for two years, after which you renew by retaking it — and the recertification is free. Book it here: https://learn.englandfootball.com/courses/safeguarding/safeguarding-children-course 4. Introduction to First Aid in Football Also mandatory, also a prerequisite for the coaching course. Online, self-paced, and covers what to do for a conscious or unconscious player — from common injuries through to sudden cardiac arrest. It currently costs £30 and the certificate is valid for three years. If you've read our Medical Emergency Action Plans for our pitches, this is the training that makes them useful. Knowing where the nearest A&E is doesn't help much if you don't know what to do in the ten minutes before the ambulance arrives. Book it here: https://learn.englandfootball.com/courses/medical/introduction-to-first-aid-in-football 5. Introduction to Coaching Football This is the coaching qualification itself, and the one you can only start once the two courses above are complete and in date. It's delivered online through a mix of live webinars, e-learning modules and coach developer support, with a short assessment at the end. You must be 16 or over. Expect to pay around £100, though the FA has listed it at different prices — check the booking page before you commit. Funded places exist and are worth applying for. The FA runs a partially funded programme where you pay only £24, and a fully funded programme in partnership with Chase where the cost is covered entirely. Both include the Safeguarding and First Aid courses. Apply through the Funding Eligibility Form on the course page — but apply before you book, because discounts can't be applied after payment. Responses take up to five weeks, so start early. Book it here: https://learn.englandfootball.com/courses/football/introduction-to-coaching-football A note on platforms: the FA is moving its courses to a new system called My Learning. Follow the links from the course page rather than any bookmark you've saved, or you'll end up in the wrong place. 6. The FA DBS check This one is different from the others, and it's where most people get confused. You cannot book a DBS yourself. It has to be initiated by the club. Once the Welfare Officer has confirmed your FA portal account, they start the process through the FA Club Portal. You then receive an email from First Advantage asking you to complete your application, and the Welfare Officer verifies your identity documents. Only then does it go off for processing. What you need is an Enhanced Criminal Record Check with the Children's Barred List, and it must be renewed every three years. Anyone aged 16 or over in a potentially unsupervised role with under-18s must have one — that's every coach and every assistant coach at this club, no exceptions. Renewals: start early, and don't let yours lapse. You can keep coaching while a renewal is in progress only if your existing DBS is still in date. The moment it expires you must stop — no training, no matchdays — even if the renewal has been submitted and is showing as in progress on the Club Portal. A renewal underway is not cover. And this doesn't just affect you: if a coach listed against a team doesn't hold a completed, in-date DBS, the team can be suspended from play. Your whole squad misses football because of a piece of admin. The DBS process can take several weeks. Diarise your expiry date and speak to the Welfare Officer at least two months before it. More on the FA's DBS requirements: https://www.thefa.com/football-rules-governance/safeguarding/section-3-safer-recruitment-and-dbs-checks 7. Tell the club your courses are complete Once the club has confirmed your FA portal account and triggered your DBS, the course checklist in your onboarding page will unlock. Tick each course as you complete it. When every course is marked complete, confirm it. This tells the club you're ready for verification. 8. The club verifies you and adds you to the roster A club admin checks your record against the FA export, then exports your details to the club roster. This step makes sure what the club holds matches what the FA holds. After that, an admin authorises you and assigns you to a team. Only then can you access the Dugout, view your squad, and take sessions. How you get your money back You pay for the courses up front, and the club reimburses you in full once you've successfully completed them. To claim, keep receipts for all courses.