Setting up as a self-employed football coach

The short version

1. Get your safeguarding and first-aid qualifications in date before enrolling on Introduction to Coaching Football.
2. Work out which DBS level the actual role is eligible for. Paid self-employed people can now apply through a DBS Umbrella Body where the role qualifies.
3. Put a written safeguarding policy and reporting procedure in place, including an external route for concerns or allegations involving you.
4. Sort insurance and written venue permission before taking bookings.
5. Register and keep records correctly with HMRC, handle children's information lawfully, and give customers clear and fair terms before taking money.

January: a route to apply for your own Enhanced check

Before 21 January 2026, a person working entirely on their own account could not apply for their own Enhanced DBS check simply because they were self-employed. A Basic DBS check was available on their own behalf. Where the person worked for, or supplied services to, an eligible organisation, that organisation could still use the existing organisational route.

From 21 January 2026, a paid self-employed person can apply for an Enhanced DBS check, or an Enhanced check with relevant barred-list information, through a DBS Umbrella Body — but only where the role is eligible. The eligibility rules still depend on what the person actually does, not the job title. Read the DBS guidance for self-employed people (opens in a new tab)

If you contract your services to an organisation, that organisation may still arrange the appropriate check in line with its own policies. The new self-employed route did not remove the existing routes.

September: supervision no longer keeps a qualifying role outside regulated activity

From 1 September 2026, the supervision exemption was removed from the definition of regulated activity with children in England and Wales. Before that date, somebody teaching, training, instructing, caring for or supervising children could be outside regulated activity if a person already in regulated activity supervised them sufficiently. That supervision exemption no longer applies.

For teaching, training, instructing, caring for or supervising children, the current period condition is more than three days in any 30-day period, or once overnight between 2am and 6am with the opportunity for face-to-face contact. When the other criteria are met, that work is regulated activity and is eligible for an Enhanced DBS check with Children's Barred List information. DBS uses a supervised coach at a children's sports club as one of its examples. See the current DBS sports guidance (opens in a new tab)

This does not create a new universal legal requirement for every coach or organisation to obtain a DBS check. It changes the legal definition of regulated activity and therefore the level of check that is available where the criteria are met. A role that was previously outside regulated activity solely because of supervision may now be eligible for an Enhanced check with Children's Barred List information. Read the September 2026 change notice (opens in a new tab)

If you assist at a club under a head coach as well as running your own sessions, ask the club to reassess that club role. For your own paid self-employed work, use the DBS eligibility guidance and the Umbrella Body route for the role you actually carry out.

Using the DBS Update Service

The DBS Update Service is optional. If your certificate is eligible, joining it can allow an entitled organisation — or a private individual who is legally entitled to the level of check — to run a status check instead of starting a fresh application in some circumstances. It does not make a certificate automatically portable to every role.

For a status check, the new role must be eligible for the same level and appropriate workforce, any barred-list information must match what the checker is legally entitled to see, the checker must confirm identity and view the original certificate, and they need your consent. DBS Update Service (opens in a new tab)

The qualifications, and what you actually need first

England Football's current course sequence matters because safeguarding and first aid are prerequisites for Introduction to Coaching Football, rather than extras to add afterwards.

One thing to clear up before anything else: there is no single ladder you have to climb in order. What there is, is a first coaching qualification with two prerequisites attached. EE Playmaker is useful, but it is not a prerequisite for Introduction to Coaching Football.

• EE Playmaker (opens in a new tab) by England Football is the free entry course, available from age 14. It prepares you to support a named coach; England Football says a Playmaker cannot lead football sessions themselves. You do not have to complete it before moving to the coaching qualification.
• Safeguarding Children (opens in a new tab) and an in-date FA medical qualification, such as Introduction to First Aid in Football, are prerequisites for Introduction to Coaching Football. The Safeguarding Children qualification is valid for two years and is renewed by retaking the course.
• Introduction to Coaching Football (opens in a new tab) has a minimum age of 16. You must hold the required safeguarding and medical prerequisites in date before enrolling and completing the course.
• UEFA C Diploma is a later step with its own prerequisites, including active coaching in an organised or competitive setting.

There is no single England Football coaching badge FindMeFootball can point to as a universal legal condition for every form of independent paid coaching. Requirements can also come from a venue, insurer, school, club or other organisation you contract with, as well as from the nature of the work itself.

Insurance

Sort insurance before you take bookings. The important distinction is between insurance required by law and insurance required by a venue, contract or sensible risk management.

1. Employers' Liability insurance is required as soon as you become an employer, subject to the statutory exceptions. Taking on an "assistant" does not by itself answer the question: check whether the person is actually your employee or is genuinely self-employed.
2. If you use a vehicle for business purposes, including a personal vehicle, make sure your motor policy covers the business use you actually make of it.
3. Public liability insurance is not generally a statutory requirement in the same way as Employers' Liability, but it can protect against claims for injury or property damage and venues or contracting organisations may require it.
4. A venue, school, club or contracting organisation can make specified insurance a condition of allowing you to work there.
5. Tell your insurer or broker accurately what you run, the ages involved, where you coach, whether anyone works for you and how sessions are structured. Ask what conditions apply to the cover.

GOV.UK: Employers' Liability insurance (opens in a new tab) • Government business guidance on insurance (opens in a new tab)

Where you coach

A pitch, park, school field or club ground is controlled by somebody. Commercial coaching may be treated differently from casual public use or a club booking.

1. Get written permission or booking terms from the owner or site manager for the coaching you intend to run.
2. Ask what the venue requires from you — for example insurance, qualifications, checks, risk assessments or specific operating rules.
3. Agree what happens if the surface is unsafe or unavailable, who makes that decision and what happens to the booking.
4. If you coach at a club's ground, be clear whether the session is club activity or your own independent business. That affects which policies, procedures and welfare routes apply.

The things a careful parent will ask

Our parent guide to private football coaching tells families what to ask before they book. Be ready to answer the same questions clearly.

1. Which level of DBS check you hold and whether they can see the original certificate.
2. Which safeguarding training you have completed and when it expires.
3. Whether you hold a current first-aid qualification.
4. What insurance you carry and whether you can show evidence of it.
5. Whether you also coach at an affiliated club and, if relevant, which one.
6. Whether another family can provide a reference.
7. Where sessions take place, who else is present and whether the parent can stay.

Having those answers and documents ready makes it easier for a parent, venue or contracting organisation to understand what you have in place. A DBS certificate is only one part of safer recruitment; it does not prove coaching quality or replace safeguarding practice, references or appropriate supervision.

Your own safeguarding policy and reporting procedure

If you are genuinely operating on your own account rather than under another organisation's safeguarding framework, put a written safeguarding policy and a practical reporting procedure in place before you take children into sessions. It does not need to be long, but it must tell people what happens when a concern is raised and where it goes next.

1. What behaviour you expect from yourself and the adults around your sessions.
2. How a parent or child raises a concern, how you record it and how you respond without trying to investigate it yourself.
3. What happens if the concern or allegation is about you.
4. Which external safeguarding routes you use and when.
5. When you review the policy and what would trigger an earlier review.

For allegations about an adult who works with children, Working Together to Safeguard Children (opens in a new tab) says local authorities must have a designated officer or team — commonly called the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) — to manage and oversee allegations. Your procedure should identify the relevant local authority allegations-management/LADO route and say that allegations meeting that threshold are passed there without delay. Local referral arrangements vary, so use the council's current procedure rather than inventing your own.

A safeguarding concern may also need children's social care, the police, a club or league welfare officer, the County FA Designated Safeguarding Officer or The FA safeguarding team, depending on the circumstances. If a child is in immediate danger, call 999. Do not wait for certainty and do not investigate the concern yourself before passing it on.

The NSPCC Child Protection in Sport Unit publishes safeguarding-policy and reporting resources for sports providers, including material for organisations of different sizes. CPSU safeguarding resources (opens in a new tab)

How you work with children and families

These are FindMeFootball recommendations for safer working practice, not a claim that each point is an FA rule. If you deliver in a school, at a club, under a contractor or subject to venue conditions, that organisation's policies may also apply.

1. Use a professional business contact route in your advertising.
2. Arrange sessions with the parent or carer rather than directly with the child.
3. Coach in an appropriately open or observable setting.
4. Welcome parents staying and make that clear before they ask.
5. Do not offer lifts as part of your normal coaching arrangement.
6. Keep routine direct messaging with under-18s out of your practice and route communication through the parent or carer.
7. For public use of player photographs or footage, follow the FA publication approach: obtain written parental consent and do not reuse an image for a different purpose from the one agreed.

FA guidance on photographing and filming children (opens in a new tab)

Registering as self-employed

If your gross trading income from self-employment is more than £1,000 in a tax year, GOV.UK says you must register for Self Assessment as a sole trader. There are also situations where you may need or choose to register for other reasons, so use the GOV.UK guidance for your circumstances. Register as a sole trader (opens in a new tab)

1. Keep business records from the beginning rather than reconstructing them later.
2. Record what customers pay you and the business costs you incur.
3. A separate business bank account is not automatically a legal requirement for a sole trader, but keeping business transactions easy to identify can make record-keeping much simpler.

This guide does not give personalised tax advice. Use GOV.UK for the current rules and an accountant where your position is more complicated than a straightforward sole trade.

The information you hold about children

An independent coach may hold parent contact details, players' names and ages, emergency contacts, attendance records, permissions, photographs and medical information. That is personal data used for business purposes, and medical information is special-category data that needs additional protection.

1. Use the ICO fee checker to see whether you need to pay the data protection fee. Sole traders are within the regime unless an exemption applies.
2. Identify an appropriate lawful basis for each way you use personal information, and an additional condition where you process special-category data such as health information.
3. Tell families, in clear privacy information, what you collect, why you need it, how long you keep it and who you may share it with.
4. Keep information secure and do not collect or retain more than you need.
5. When information needs to be shared, use an appropriate lawful basis and share only what is necessary. Do not treat parental consent as the only possible lawful basis: the ICO is explicit that consent is not required to share a child's information for a legitimate safeguarding purpose.

ICO data protection fee checker (opens in a new tab) • ICO guidance on sharing data to safeguard children (opens in a new tab)

The business side

We do not publish coaching rates because prices vary by area, session type and experience, and a national figure would quickly become misleading.

1. Work out what a session costs you to deliver before deciding what to charge.
2. Put cancellation, weather, block-booking and refund terms in writing before taking money. Keep them clear and fair. A term is not enforceable merely because it says "non-refundable"; cancellation charges and retained prepayments should reflect the loss the cancellation actually causes and reasonable steps you can take to reduce that loss.
3. Decide whether you take payment per session or in blocks, and explain what happens to unused sessions.
4. Keep your customer and business records in an organised form from the start.
5. Keep certificates, insurance evidence, venue permissions and relevant consents together so you can produce them when a venue or customer reasonably asks.

GOV.UK guidance on fair consumer contracts (opens in a new tab)

Elsewhere in the UK

Criminal-record checks and football-association requirements are organised separately across the UK. DBS covers England and Wales; Scotland uses the Protecting Vulnerable Groups (PVG) scheme through Disclosure Scotland, and Northern Ireland uses AccessNI. Start with the national association and disclosure system that applies where you work.

• England — The Football Association
• Scotland — Scottish FA
• Wales — Football Association of Wales
• Northern Ireland — Irish Football Association

List your coaching

Once you are set up, you can create a coaching listing on FindMeFootball so parents can discover what you offer and contact you. Coach listings are currently free.

A listing is you telling parents what you offer. It is not FindMeFootball approving your coaching, checking your safeguarding arrangements or verifying your qualifications, insurance or criminal-record check unless a specific field is explicitly shown as verified. Self-declared information remains the coach's own statement.