The FA and County FAs are here to ensure everyone who is involved in football has a great experience - regardless of gender, sexuality, ethnicity, ability or disability, faith or age. Both The FA and the County FAs are working to ensure everyone has the opportunity to be part of the game.

It’s vital that equality and inclusion are embedded within grassroots football. As an organisation, regularly review and reflect on the progress we’ve made in promoting and supporting work in this area.

The Essex County FA covers a large geographical area, stretching across 19 local authority areas from the London Boroughs of Newham, Barking & Dagenham, Waltham Forest, Redbridge and Havering through to Colchester, Braintree and Tendring, with a population of in excess of three million and with a diverse population of many different local communities.

Our 2024 Moving Forward Strategy sets an overall vision of “creating a united grassroots football environment that delivers football opportunity for all” and, as an organisation, we continue to work hard to achieve that. One of the key commitments to achieve that vision is to work towards achieving the FA Code of Governance for County FAs.

Inherent within the code is to be an inclusive and transparent decision-making body which is reflective of the local communities it serves. As part of that process, Independent Non-Executive Director positions have been created to form a pathway for suitably-skilled independent candidates to support board-level decision-making via an open application process.