The role of Ref Support is to support educate and develop referees at all levels with an emphasis on the individual needs of each and every referee. The concept is easy, currently The FA and County FA’s deliver some excellent initiatives so to complement these, we have developed a membership scheme which is solely about development and supporting referees.
As the conduit to deliver support to referees we have set up Ref Support Education Hubs. These are based mainly at football clubs, are regional and are designed to host the delivery of theoretical and practical training. Also through these hubs we supply a host of other support mechanisms, such as mentoring, coaching, networking, sharing experiences and good practice. Alongside the face to face training, in partnership with Sports Officials Learning and Development we offer all our members access to an e-learning portal which hosts a myriad of football specific and generic learning modules to cater for the needs of referees on and off the field, to hone their current skills and to teach them further in-depth managements skills.
Also on the e-learning portal individuals will have their own digital portfolio where videos and pod casts can be uploaded, comments made and decisions given. We can assess all learning undertaken and create a talent ID where County FA’s and leagues can have an evidence based approach to appointing dependent on performance. This information along with assessor, coach and mentor reports will create a bespoke targeted development plan.
As part of the process of Ref Support we also welcome input from clubs and managers as to what they want and expect from match officials and hopefully we can work towards managing those expectations and therefore create better and stronger relationships between referees, clubs and leagues. We have already started work on these relationships with Ref Support Education Hubs hosting several very successful and well attended evenings where we invited representatives from clubs, referees and guest speakers video clips, key questions and situations were discussed and debated from both sides and has already served to create a better understanding between clubs, managers and referees.
For your nearest Ref Support Education Hub email education@refsupport.co.uk
