Coacha has been built around NSPCC Child Protection in Sport best practice. This means that there are complex rules built into our software that stop children (or vulnerable adults) getting contacted to protect them.
Because these safeguarding rules are so specific, it’s super important to make sure that when members are signing up to Coacha, they do so correctly. If they sign up incorrectly, it may prevent them being able to log in, make payments or receive emails later down the line.
Members/parents may come to you and say, ‘I can’t log into Coacha’ and you may automatically assume that this is something to do with the system working incorrectly. However, 99.9% of the time, the issue is regarding the way the member’s profile has been set up.
Here are a few things to check if your members/parents are having login issues.
Parents not able to log in/receive emails
1. Is the email address in the right field?
As mentioned above, we built Coacha around NSPCC best practice. This means that if a member is underage, the system recognises this and refuses to send communications out to the email address in the member field. Alternatively, it will send the communications to the email address in the NOK field.
Many parents will automatically try and complete the member email field with their own email address. We’ve put a lot of measures in place to try and deter parents away from this (including greying out the field if the member is a child and specifically stating not to insert their personal email address here), but it still happens.
If a member is having issues, head to the profile and immediately check to see if the email address is where it should be, in the NOK field. If it’s in the member field, this means the system has been treating the email address as though it belongs to the child and preventing them from logging in, receiving emails and so on.
The member’s email address can be left blank. Simply remove the email address from the member field and place it into the NOK field and hopefully this will resolve your problem.
2. Is the email address in both fields?
Similar to the above, the parent’s email could be in the NOK field correctly, but if it’s in the member field as well, to err on the side of caution, the system will still recognise the member as a child and refuse access/prevent emails.
Simply remove the email address from the member’s field and leave the NOK field as it is. This should resolve your issue.
3. Is the member under 18, but managing their own account?
If a member is, for example, 17 but managing their own account, although you may see them as an adult, the system will still class them as a child.
In this circumstance, you’ll need to take a look at Coacha’s ‘Consent Settings for under 18s’. You will need to select both options which require you to inform the parent of your intention to email them and gain written permission as safeguarding best practice. When this has been actioned, they should be able to receive your emails and log in as a normal member.
Adult members not able to log in/receive emails
4. Is the “Primary contact” field ticked?
If adult members report that they aren’t receiving emails, you should head into their profile and check that the ‘primary contact’ field isn’t ticked in the NOK section.
When this is ticked, it redirects all communications to the email address stated in the NOK email field. If you untick this option and save it, they should be able to receive emails & log in again.
5. Has the member recently turned 18?
When signing their children up for your club, many parents will automatically tick the ‘Primary contact’ field, so any communications will go directly to them.
This doesn’t actually need to be ticked because the system actually automatically recognises children and applies rules to the profiles.
If the ‘Primary contact’ field has been ticked when the member was a child, but now the member is over 18 and responsible for their own profile, ‘Primary contact’ will need to be unticked so that they can receive emails again.

How can I prevent this happening going forward?
As the saying goes, practice makes perfect. Getting members to fully read all of the options on the signup form should help prevent most issues.
In conclusion:
• If a member is a child without their own email address, the ‘member email’ field should be left blank. The parent’s email should be placed in the NOK email field.
• The parent’s email should be in the NOK field only, not both.
• Parents don’t need to tick to be the ‘Primary contact’ for their children as Coacha will automatically assign them this privilege. However, if the primary contact is ticked, when a member turns 18, they won’t be able to manage their account until this is unticked.
• ‘Primary contact’ should only be ticked for adults who need their communications to go to their NOK. This feature is intended for vulnerable adults.
• If ‘Primary contact’ is selected on accident, it will prevent communications being sent to the member until unticked.
We hope this makes sense and helps if you have any issues with your member logins. If you have any further questions, you know where to find us!
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