England Athletics

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England Athletics

• Clubs update
• LONDON
• 16th December 2008

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Restructure

• 10 regional managers replaced by 3 team leaders
• All admin functions centralised
• Including organisation of coach, officials and
  teacher education courses
• Greater efficiency and effectiveness in course
  organisation
• 19 field-based Club Coach Support Officers
  (CCSO) directly support clubs and coaches
• A London-specific senior development role
• Regional councils continue
• Regional office facilities to be closed

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Rationale

• Consistent national strategy, locally delivered
• Funding and support of clubs Athletics Networks
• Development of coaches and athletes
• Competition
• Schools
• Mass participation
• Greater staff focus on direct support of clubs
  and coaches at a local level
• 500,000 savings redeployed to clubs and coach
  development
• Sport England shift away from regional funding
  and demand for more direct investment in outcomes

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What this means for London

• Essential role of regional council
• Bridge between paid staff and the volunteers
• Voice of the clubs in London
• 2 (or more) Club and Coach Support Officers
• PLUS London senior development post
• Part of the South team
• With East and South East regions
• More investment in coach development and clubs

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Where are we up to?
today
Office closures
Last working days
Staff and admin transition
New management structure in effect
Other appointments
Team Leader appointments
Interviews
Employee consultation
Announcement
Dec
Jan
Feb
Mar
Oct
Nov
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Existing structure
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Proposed structure
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Athletics in England

• Presentation to Sport England
• 22nd September 2008
• Confidential

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Stop Press!

• Athletics in England awarded 20.4M Sport England
  funding for 2009-2013
• GROW SUSTAIN EXCEL

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Introduction
World class performance GB teams UK-wide
strategy Rules Anti-doping

Clubs and schools Coaching Competition /
Officials England teams Mass participation
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Coaching
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Coaching key interventions

• A world-leading coach education programme
• A coach mentoring network
• Specific support for emerging talent

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Coach Development a culture shift
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Coaches Survey findings

• 44 believe they have access to coach support to
  improve knowledge
• 51 believe they understand the coach education
  pathway
• 41 believe they are not well supported by their
  regional office
• 69 said they do not currently have a coach
  mentor to support them
• Top barriers to progression are inflexible
  learning methods, lack of technical support, lack
  of mentoring, networking with other coaches, poor
  current course provision

• England Athletics Public Consultation Survey 2008

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Coach mentoring structure
UKA Strategic Head
Technical Event Leads (UK)
x5
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Clubs and Schools
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Clubs - challenges

• Finding skilled volunteers
• Attracting funding to maintain and develop
  facilities
• Managing administration and welfare issues
• Providing a quality experience to young people
• Finding officials for competition
• Attracting more people from diverse backgrounds
• Attracting skilled coaches

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Clubs past and future
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Clubs survey findings

• Ensure funding is channelled into clubs locally
  to help support junior coaching in clubs and
  schools
• Reducing bureaucracy and making things more
  simple for volunteers
• Providing a leadership programme for club leaders
• Initiatives that encourage clubs to work closely
  together to maximise resources and to support
  one another
• Provide incentives for young people to stay in
  the sport between the ages of 17-20
• Providing environments where clubs can form
  composite teams to compete at a higher level

• England Athletics Public Consultation Survey 2008

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Clubs survey findings

• Provide national coaches to clubs to raise
  standards in coaching
• Provide funding to help structure better coaching
  in clubs
• Provide regular support to our club to help us
  wade through plans and systems
• To help us to work with the local authority to
  improve access to funding and improved facilities
• The flying coach programme is a big success
  continue more simple and effective initiatives
  like this!
• A focus club programme will help us to improve
• Put clubs at the heart of your work we will be
  here after you have gone!

• England Athletics Public Consultation Survey 2008

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Athletics Networks

• One per county (average)
• Many different permutations
• Goals Grow, Sustain, Excel
• Supported locally by Club Coach Support Officer
• Pilot programmes (McCains sponsored) to be
  announced on Friday

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Athletics Networks Selection criteria

• Multiple clubs, schools, colleges and
  universities pooling resources
• Engages key local partners in the community
• Supports the 5-hour offer
• Hires and shares professional coaches
• Promotes diversity
• Has a sustainable funding strategy
• Forges links with other sports
• Clubmark

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Athletics Networks - Illustration
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Clubs and schools supporting young people

• A new competition format for all
• Less facility dependent
• Shorter (lt120 mins) More involvement for all
• SportsHall and QuadKids
• Promoting athletics in schools
• Athletics Networks and (YST) Competition Managers
• Taster days, StarTrack
• Consistent welcoming approach between clubs and
  schools (Club curriculum)
• Community sports coaches to increase capacity
• Integrating club and schools elite competition

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Competition
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Competition

• Delivered by independent bodies
• except national level
• England / AAAs Senior Championships relaunched
• New partnership with English Schools
• Next big challenge Transforming the competition
  structure

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Mass participation
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Mass participation

• Run in England - running networks
• parkrun - 5K weekly time trials
• Investment in road running events
• RealBuzzRunBritain.com

Grow participants by 135,000 over 4 years, from
its current baseline of 2,050,000
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Summary

• A radical new approach to transform grassroots
  Athletics
• A reorganisation to cut bureaucracy, eliminate
  overlap and deliver consistency
• Athletics Networks will accelerate culture change
  to improve quality of experience
• A national coach mentoring programme will raise
  standards and help produce the champions of the
  future
• A new approach to athletics in schools will
  re-energise the base of the pyramid
• New road running initiatives will increase
  participation by 135,000

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Thank you