Endorsed by: Skye United FC committee                                           Review date: 15th November 2020

 

COVID-19 COMMITMENT STATEMENT

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As Skye United FC we are fully committed to providing a safe and healthy environment for members of our club (volunteers, players, personnel, families, spectators) and the wider community and are committed to implementing practices in line with guidance available from Sport Australia, Football Federation Australia, Football Victoria, our local council, the Victorian State Government and other relevant authorities applicable to Skye United FC.

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We also acknowledge the directions imposed by the Victorian State Government will be followed as we undertake football activities during the remainder of 2020 and into 2021, and we commit to adhering to the latest advice from Football Victoria and the Victorian State Government in this regard.

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It is important to Skye United FC to lead and promote a strong culture of COVID-19 safety for the health and wellbeing of participants and the broader community.

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1. ENSURE PHYSICAL DISTANCING

You must ensure participants, coaches, club/association personnel, parents, permitted spectators, etc. are 1.5 metres apart as much as possible.

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Examples of how this can be done include:

• Displaying signs to show patron limits at the entrance of enclosed areas where limits apply (e.g. canteen or changeroom)

• Limit the number of participants to the minimum required to play (i.e. limit training to usual age group squad size)

• Zone training areas to limit intermingling between training groups

• Stagger training start times, leaving 15 minutes between training sessions

• Limit use of seats and toilet or changing cubicles at facility to every second seat/cubicle

• Discourage carpooling

• Use floor markings to indicate appropriate physical distancing

• Signpost entry and exit points to limit congregation at the start and end of training

• Conduct meetings or individual fitness sessions from home, where possible

 

To ensure physical distancing, our club/association will:

• Limit training to those required only

• Discourage more than one parent to bring their child to training or games

• Keep all parents away from the designated training/game area

• Display signage where appropriate

• Restrict use of indoor space to access toilet facilities only – players to turn up ready to play/train and bring their own drink

 

Our club/association has the following indoor spaces: Small Pavillion only open for toilet access limited to one female and one male only. The max quotient is 5 people.

 

2. WEAR A FACE MASK

Everyone above the age of 12 years old must wear a face mask when they leave their home, unless they have a lawful reason for not doing so.

Employers must ensure employees wear a face mask while at work, unless an exemption applies.

 

Clubs and associations should consider the following actions to satisfy this principle:

• Ensure a supply of disposable face masks are available for the use of all participants/attendees at all training sessions and matches

• Install screens or barriers for additional protection, where necessary (e.g. to protect canteen workers, or to segment change room areas)

• Provide information to participants around washing reusable masks each day, and changing disposable masks at least once per day

 

To ensure all participants over the age of 12 wear a face mask, our club/association will:

• Not allow access to the facility or training/game session unless an exemption applies

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3. PRACTISE GOOD HYGIENE

Additional hygiene measures are a priority. Clubs/associations and venue and facility operators should maintain good hygiene in their premises, and document hygiene practises in this COVIDSafe Plan.

 

Examples of practising good hygiene as a club/association and/or venue and facility operator include:

• Ensuring that cleaning products and disinfectants are accessible to participants and personnel

• Venue/facility cleaning and disinfecting on a frequent and scheduled basis, ensuring particular frequency for high touch surfaces and bathrooms/change rooms

• Developing a cleaning/disinfecting schedule for high touch surfaces at the venue as well as for equipment

• Ensuring that one or more personnel from your club or association undertakes infection control training (available free online or in person)

• Display a cleaning log (or request the facility owner does so) in shared spaces such as toilets

• Ensuring that hand soap and sanitiser dispensers are regularly refilled and always available for participants and personnel

• Display posters on good hygiene and handwashing practises in prominent places and establish hygiene stations at entrances and throughout the venue/facility to encourage good hand hygiene

 

To ensure that our club/association and all personnel and participants practise good hygiene, our club/association will:

• Provide hand sanitiser at both entry and exits of the pavilion

• Provide hand sanitiser outside the pavilion for general use as required

• Clean all equipment after use

• Minimise the sharing of equipment across groups

• Clean venue before and after every trianing/game session

 

​4. KEEP RECORDS AND ACT QUICKLY IF WORKERS BECOME UNWELL

All venues and clubs/associations must keep records of every person who attends the venue/facility or participates in community sport and recreation, and should have a response plan, as part of this COVIDSafe Plan, ready for the possibility of a person with COVID-19 at their premises.

Clubs must ensure that they maintain an attendance register for every person that attends for a period of more than 15 minutes (including participants, personnel, parents and other permitted spectators). This could be in the form of the Record of Attendance template on the Football Victoria website, or in another suitable format (e.g. QR code).

 

You must keep the attendance register record for at least 28 days.

If a worker participant or volunteer who is a confirmed case of COVID-19 has attended your venue/facility while they are infectious, you must follow your response plan. Consider the DHHS Workplace guidance for managing suspected and confirmed cases, which has minimum requirements for this response plan, including:

1. Undertake a risk assessment

2. Contact DHHS and Worksafe

3. Determine hot spots

4. Clean the premises

 

Our club/association will keep records of all attendees in the following way:

• Keeping record of attendance sheets that ALL visitors must complete at every training/game session

 

If a worker, participant or volunteer who is a confirmed case of COVID-19 attends our venue/facility while they are infectious, our response plan is:

• Undertake a risk assessment

• Contact the authorities for advice

• Postpone all further activities at the site until action determined and advised from the authorities

• Deep clean the pavilion and equipment

• Advise all attendees

 

5. ​AVOID INTERACTIONS IN ENCLOSED SPACES

In Victoria, employers have OHS duties and obligations to do what is reasonably practical to provide a working environment that is safe and without risks to the health of workers or other visitors/participants.

As part of creating a safe working environment that addresses risks associated with potential exposure to coronavirus (COVID-19), venues and facilities should have a plan in place to minimise the amount of interactions conducted in enclosed spaces and maximise ventilation, air quality and use of outdoor spaces.

Where the use of indoor spaces is required (for example entrances and bathrooms) venues/facilities should have a plan to minimise the amount of interactions conducted and maximise ventilation, air quality and use of outdoor spaces.

In the context of football, it is most likely that this will be relevant to the use of toilets, changerooms, storage rooms and canteens.

 

Examples of actions that you could take to satisfy this principle are:

• Where workers and participants are required to be indoors, open windows and outside doors where possible to maximise ventilation

• Limit interactions indoors

• Increase the number of areas for changing, or allow more time for changing, and consider staggering change times where practicable

• Encourage participants to change at home and limit use of toilet facilities

• Restrict and control access to shower facilities

 

To minimise interactions in enclosed spaces, our club/association will:

• Only use the pavilion for toilet access and equipment storage

• All meetings/discussion and events to take place outdoors

 

6. ​CREATE WORKFORCE BUBBLES

‘Workforce bubbles’ can help reduce the risk of infection and support contact tracing initiatives. A ‘workforce bubble’ in the football context is a defined group – coaching staff, necessary health/training staff, participants – who limit their in-person interactions to other members of the group.

This reduces the number of individuals that each person comes into contact with, rather than the number of interactions. This would contain any positive COVID-19 cases to a confined group within your club/association.

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Examples of how bubbles can be achieved in football are:

• Limit training sessions to one squad or team and the minimum staff required for coaching

• Follow rules around limiting spectators to one per participant, and only where parental supervision is required, or where care is required for a participant with additional needs

• Use clearly marked training zones to maintain consistent training groups

• Minimise any player movement between teams or squads

• Stagger training sessions so that different teams arrive at different times to reduce interaction between groups

• Advise participants and personnel not to carpool to training/matches

• Limit shared equipment to one training group

• Clean shared equipment between sessions or if it is to be used/rotated to another training group

 

Our club/association will create a ‘bubble’ by:

• Define group for coaching and support staff to stick to

• Define groups for participants to stick to (usually age driven)

• Minimise sharing of equipment