Coach Agreement

This Coach Agreement ("Agreement") applies to coaches using the Cotra mobile application, website and related services (the "Platform").

The Platform is operated by Cotra Limited, Company No. 17285541, 65 Burgoyne Road, Sunbury-On-Thames, England, TW16 7PS ("Cotra", "we", "our" or "us").

By creating a coach account you confirm that you have read, understood and agree to this Agreement, together with the Safeguarding Policy, the Privacy Policy, the Refund and Cancellation Policy and the Complaint and Dispute Resolution Policy.

1. What Cotra is

Cotra provides software that helps a coach manage the athletes they already coach: setting availability, taking booking requests, and messaging the parents and guardians of those athletes.

Cotra is not a marketplace. There is no public directory, no search and no discovery. A parent or guardian can only reach you by redeeming an invitation you sent them. Cotra does not introduce, recommend, rank or match coaches to anyone.

Unless expressly stated otherwise:

• Cotra does not provide coaching services and does not employ coaches.
• The contract for coaching is between you and the parent, guardian or adult athlete who books.
• You are responsible for the coaching you provide.

Some features described in this Agreement — in particular payments (clause 11) — are not yet available and will be introduced in a later release.

2. Coach eligibility

To register as a coach you must:

• Be at least 18 years old.
• Be legally permitted to work and provide coaching services in the United Kingdom.
• Have the knowledge, experience and qualifications necessary for the coaching you provide.
• Not be barred from working with children, and not be subject to any current safeguarding investigation.
• Comply with all applicable laws, regulations and governing-body requirements.

You must tell us promptly if anything changes that could affect your suitability to coach or to use the Platform.

3. Your account

You are responsible for keeping your sign-in secure, for all activity through your account, and for the accuracy of the information you enter. Cotra uses email one-time codes; there is no password.

You must not create an account for another person, impersonate another coach, or allow anyone else to provide coaching through your account.

4. Your profile

Your coach profile currently consists of your name and a free-text bio, together with the sessions you publish.

Everything you enter must be honest and not misleading. In particular you must not claim, in your bio or in messages to guardians, to hold a qualification, accreditation, background check, insurance policy or affiliation that you do not hold.

Cotra does not currently offer profile photographs, document uploads, price lists, qualification fields or verification badges. There is no file upload capability of any kind in the Platform. If these are introduced, this Agreement will be updated before they are.

5. Verification

Cotra does not independently verify your identity, qualifications, DBS status, insurance, training or affiliations.

The existence of a coach account does not mean that Cotra endorses, guarantees, certifies or has checked you. Cotra does not display any verification status, and guardians are told so.

Cotra may introduce verification in future — of identity, right to work, qualifications, DBS or other background checks, safeguarding training, first-aid training, or insurance. Cotra may request evidence at any time, and failure to provide satisfactory evidence may result in restriction, suspension or removal.

6. Background checks, training and insurance

Declaration. When you create a coach account, and whenever we ask, you must confirm that:

1. You hold every DBS check, safeguarding training and governing-body clearance required for the coaching you carry out — whether required by law, by your national governing body, by your club, or by the venue.
2. You are not barred from working with children and are not subject to any current safeguarding investigation.
3. You hold insurance appropriate to your coaching activities. Depending on what you do this may include public liability, professional indemnity, personal accident, equipment cover, or employer's liability where legally required.

We record this declaration with a timestamp. We do not collect or check the underlying certificates. Making a false declaration is a serious breach of this Agreement and will result in removal.

Ongoing duty to notify. You must tell us immediately if:

• Your DBS status changes.
• You become subject to a safeguarding investigation.
• You are suspended or removed by a club, county board or governing body.
• You receive a criminal conviction, caution or allegation that could affect your suitability to coach.
• Your insurance lapses.
• Anything you previously told us stops being accurate.

Cotra recording your declaration does not transfer any safeguarding or insurance responsibility from you to Cotra.

7. Safeguarding

You must comply with the Cotra Safeguarding Policy, which forms part of this Agreement, and with the safeguarding rules of your governing body, club and venue.

You must:

• Place the safety and welfare of children and vulnerable adults first.
• Maintain appropriate professional boundaries.
• Communicate with the parent or guardian, through the Platform, rather than privately with a child.
• Never encourage or accept secret or private contact with a child.
• Obtain appropriate permission before taking any photograph or recording, and never use one for promotion without separate permission.
• Report safeguarding concerns immediately to safety@cotraofficial.co.uk, and to the police or local authority where the situation requires it.
• Never coach while under the influence of alcohol, illegal drugs, or any substance that makes it unsafe to coach.

Children do not hold Cotra accounts. Every account on the Platform belongs to an adult. A parent or guardian makes all bookings and sends all messages on a child's behalf. You must not invite a child to create an account, and you must not communicate with a child through the Platform.

Cotra's Designated Safeguarding Lead is named in the Safeguarding Policy. Cotra may suspend your account immediately while a safeguarding concern is assessed. Suspension is a protective step and is not a finding against you.

8. Delivering sessions

You are responsible for delivering each session safely and professionally, at the agreed time and place, in accordance with the booking description, using suitable equipment and facilities, and with appropriate regard to each athlete's age, ability, medical information and individual needs.

You must carry out an appropriate risk assessment, check that the environment is reasonably safe, follow the venue's health and safety procedures, respond appropriately to injuries and emergencies, keep appropriate incident records, and notify the guardian, venue and relevant authorities where required.

You must not offer coaching you are not qualified or competent to provide, and must not provide medical advice unless qualified to do so.

9. Bookings

A guardian requests a place on a session you have published; the booking is formed when you confirm it. Confirming locks the place.

You must make clear, in the session details or in your messages, the date, time, location, price, and any equipment or attendance requirements, together with any cancellation terms that differ from the Refund and Cancellation Policy.

You must honour confirmed bookings unless cancellation is reasonably necessary, and must not misrepresent your availability or repeatedly cancel confirmed sessions.

10. Communications

Messaging on Cotra is one-to-one between you and a single guardian. There are no group threads, by design. Even the "message everyone" feature delivers into each guardian's private thread.

All communication through the Platform must relate to a legitimate coaching purpose, be appropriate and respectful, and comply with safeguarding requirements.

11. Payments — Stripe Connect Direct Charges

Not yet available. Until in-app payments are released, payment is arranged directly between you and the guardian and Cotra is not involved.

When payments are released, they will work as follows, and you should read this carefully because it differs from how most platforms operate:

• You onboard your own Stripe connected account. The account is yours.
• The guardian pays you. Funds go to your Stripe account. Cotra never holds, receives or transfers your money.
• You are the merchant of record for every session you charge for. That means you are responsible for delivering the session, for issuing refunds, and for handling chargebacks and disputes with the guardian's card issuer.
• Cotra takes a platform fee as a Stripe application fee, deducted at the point of payment. The fee is 0% for founding coaches and any change will be notified in advance.
• Stripe will require identity, banking and tax information from you directly, and Stripe's own terms apply between you and Stripe.
• Cotra does not store card details. They never reach Cotra's systems.

Because Cotra does not hold your funds, Cotra cannot withhold, delay or reverse a payout to you, and cannot issue a refund to a guardian on your behalf.

You must not encourage guardians to move a Cotra booking off the Platform in order to avoid the platform fee.

12. Cancellations and refunds

Cancellations and refunds are governed by the Refund and Cancellation Policy, which forms part of this Agreement and sets out the applicable notice periods and refund amounts. You may publish more generous terms, or agree different terms directly with a guardian before booking; where you do, the terms shown at the time of booking apply.

You issue refunds, from your own Stripe account, because you are the merchant of record. Cotra cannot do it for you. Where a refund is due under the applicable terms you must process it within a reasonable time. If you do not, Cotra may raise it with you under the Complaint and Dispute Resolution Policy and may restrict or suspend your account.

Where a session cannot go ahead because of illness, unsafe weather, venue closure or similar circumstances outside either party's control, you should make reasonable efforts to reschedule rather than cancel.

13. Independent status and taxes

You provide coaching as an independent business or self-employed individual. Nothing in this Agreement creates an employment, worker, partnership, joint venture or agency relationship between you and Cotra.

You are responsible for registering with HMRC where required, reporting your income, paying income tax and National Insurance, maintaining your own records, and obtaining any licences your activities require. You have no authority to bind Cotra or make representations on its behalf.

14. Standards of conduct

You must treat athletes, guardians, other coaches and Cotra with respect. You must not discriminate against, harass, threaten or abuse anyone; engage in sexual, exploitative or inappropriate behaviour; provide unsafe or dishonest services; publish false or misleading information; use the Platform unlawfully; misuse another person's personal information; interfere with the Platform's security or operation; or damage Cotra's reputation through fraudulent or seriously improper conduct.

15. Complaints and investigations

You must cooperate reasonably with complaints, safeguarding enquiries, payment disputes and investigations.

Cotra may request documents or explanations, restrict your account, contact affected users, remove content, and report concerns to a governing body, local authority, the police or a safeguarding authority where appropriate or legally required — including without your consent, and without telling you first where telling you could increase risk to a child.

Cotra's involvement does not make Cotra the provider of the coaching service.

16. Personal information

You will receive personal information about guardians and athletes in order to coach them. You must use it only for legitimate coaching and booking purposes, keep it secure and confidential, not disclose it without a lawful reason, delete it when no longer needed, comply with UK data protection law, and notify Cotra promptly if it is lost or improperly disclosed.

16.1 Independent controllers. In respect of personal information you receive about guardians and athletes for your own coaching purposes — including anything you are told about a session's participants, and anything you note, discuss or observe while coaching — you and Cotra are independent controllers of that information, not joint controllers, and neither party is the other's processor. You are responsible for your own compliance with UK data protection law for that information, including having your own lawful basis for using it, and Cotra does not instruct you on how to use it.

Separately, Cotra is itself a controller of platform data — including messages, booking records and safety reports — for its own purposes (operating the app, safety and moderation, and its legal obligations), as described in the Privacy Policy. This clause does not create a data-sharing arrangement between two systems; it reflects that the same underlying data can be processed by two independent controllers, for different purposes.

16.2 Requests from guardians and athletes. If a guardian or athlete asks you directly to access, correct or delete their personal information, you must deal with anything only you hold, and tell Cotra promptly if the request also concerns anything on the platform (messages, bookings, or account data), so Cotra can respond to that part directly.

16.3 Breach notification. You must notify Cotra promptly if personal information about a guardian or athlete is lost, disclosed without authorisation, or otherwise compromised — whether that happens on the platform or in how you have separately stored or used it.

Cotra's own handling of personal data is described in the Privacy Policy.

17. Intellectual property

Cotra owns or licenses the Platform, its branding, software, designs and related materials. You may use the Platform only for its intended purpose.

You retain ownership of the text you write — your bio, your session descriptions and your messages. You grant Cotra a non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, store and display that text solely to operate the Platform for you and the guardians in your space. This licence does not extend to marketing or promotional use.

The Platform has no upload capability, so no photographs, videos or files are covered by this clause.

18. Availability

Cotra does not guarantee that the Platform will always be available, uninterrupted or error-free, and may modify, suspend or remove features for maintenance, security, legal or business reasons. During the early launch period features may change as the Platform is developed.

19. Suspension and termination

Cotra may restrict, suspend or terminate your account where you breach this Agreement or another Cotra policy; where information you supplied is false or misleading; where a serious complaint or safeguarding concern is raised; where you create a risk to users or the Platform; where fraudulent or unlawful activity is suspected; where you repeatedly cancel confirmed bookings; or where Cotra is legally or operationally required to act.

In serious safeguarding, fraud or safety cases Cotra may act immediately and without prior notice.

You may close your account at any time. Closing a coach account retires your space rather than deleting it: your personal data is removed, the space becomes permanently read-only, and the guardians who booked with you keep their own booking and message history. Your space name is retained, because a guardian's booking history is meaningless without it. Guardians in your space are told the space has closed.

Safeguarding records survive account closure with personal identifiers removed.

20. Liability

20.1 Nothing in this Agreement excludes or limits liability where it would be unlawful to do so, including for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or for any other liability that cannot legally be excluded.

20.2 You are responsible for your own acts, omissions and coaching services.

20.3 To the fullest extent permitted by law, Cotra is not responsible for:

• the quality or outcome of coaching;
• injuries or losses caused by your acts or omissions;
• disputes between you and a guardian;
• unsafe or unsuitable venues;
• losses caused by inaccurate information supplied by a user;
• indirect or consequential losses; or
• events outside Cotra's reasonable control.

20.4 To the fullest extent permitted by law, Cotra's total liability arising out of or in connection with this Agreement is limited to the greater of (a) £5,000 and (b) the total platform fees paid by you to Cotra in the 12 months preceding the event giving rise to the claim.

21. Indemnity

To the extent permitted by law, you agree to reimburse Cotra for reasonable losses, liabilities, claims and costs arising from your coaching services, your breach of this Agreement, your negligence or misconduct, your infringement of another person's rights, or your failure to comply with tax, safeguarding, employment or insurance obligations.

This does not require you to compensate Cotra for losses caused by Cotra's own negligence or unlawful conduct.

22. Changes to this Agreement

Cotra may update this Agreement to reflect changes to the Platform, fees, law or business operations. Material changes will be notified through the Platform or by email, and will apply from the stated effective date. Where required you will be asked to accept the updated version before continuing.

Your acceptance of each version is recorded with its version number and the date.

23. Governing law

This Agreement is governed by the laws of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales have jurisdiction, subject to any mandatory rights under applicable law.

24. Contact

Cotra Limited, Company No. 17285541 65 Burgoyne Road, Sunbury-On-Thames, England, TW16 7PS

If a child is in immediate danger, call 999. Do not report it through the app first.