Inclusive Club Toolkit

County Pilot to be rolled out Nationally

Sport Across Staffordshire & Stoke-on-Trent (SASSOT) have worked with the English Federation of Disability Sport (EFDS) to develop the Inclusive Club Toolkit.

In 2010 EFDS had a document called a Health Check that clubs could complete to see if they were inclusive. This document looked at the club as a whole, however had some major potential flaws. There was no requirement for a club to complete the form, clubs didn't gain anything from completing the form apart from showing how inclusive they were or needed to be. Unfortunately most sports clubs are run by volunteers who are already stretched to complete the tasks required. SASSOT identified this and decided to make a system which followed the Health Check but could give a grading and a possible award at the end of it to motivate clubs. Beofre this was released it was presented to EFDS who were keen to develop the idea as part of their National update of the Health Check.

Since then EFDS and SASSOT have worked to produce the Inclusive Toolkit. This provides clubs with a clear action plan to work towards and will allow the club to show the EFDS Committed to Inclusion badge associated with it on documentation. While this is not the fully graded version this is a move in the right direction with plans to see how it can be incorporated in to the Clubmark accreditation system.

SASSOT are the only County piloting the toolkit and it is currently drawing to an end. Once this is completed a period of reflection and evaluation will take place before any final changes are made prior to it being launched Nationally.

Craig Thomas of The Golf Academy was the first person to complete and submit the Inclusive toolkit. He said "It's a great honour to be the first club in the Country to have completed the EFDS Inclusive Toolkit. I feel it shows the commitment we have to making Golf inclusive within Staffordshire."

SASSOT are very proud to be at the front of this initiative that will make clubs tink about how inclusive they are at all levels and work towards developing more opportunties for all.

We look forward to seeing this rolled out across the Country, with clubs proudly displaying that they are Committed to Inclusion.