County Sports Partnership Update

£1.8m National Coaching Bursary Scheme

The National Skills Academy in partnership with Sport England, SportsCoachUK and SkillsActive has a bursary scheme available for coaching qualifications.

The bursary offers a contribution of up to 66% towards coaching qualifications for all active coaches. To qualify you must have either started or completed a course between 01 Jan 09 and 31 Mar 09.

Bursaries are not unlimited therefore applications will be accepted on a first come first serve basis. In additional, each sport has been allocated an amount of money to spend.

In return for funding you must be able to deliver a minimum of 20 hours coaching upon completion of your coaching qualification.

Coaching

To apply for a rebate for any courses you have either started or completed between the required dates simply click on the following link and fill in the simple application form:

http://www.skillsactive.com/sport/projects/325_bursaries_and_funding

For more information contact:

Andy King
Workforce Development Officer
T: 01785 619317
E: aking@staffordbc.gov.uk

More success for SASSOT's Olympian Archer

Alison Williamson, SASSOT's Physical Activity Development Manager, was one of GB's archers who recently shone in Santo Domingo.

Just beaten by five points in the final by former world champion, Italy's Natalie Valeeva, in the first World Cup event of the season in the Dominican Republic, Alison a brought home a silver trophy from the individual archers' competition.

The tournament that took place on 6 April was the first of four where performance counts towards qualification for the fourth Grand Final, which this year takes place in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Alison then went on to win a bronze medal in the women's trio team event when she and team mates Charlotte Burgess and Amy Oliver beat Colombia in the third place shoot-off.

Alison who achieved an Olympic bronze medal in 2004, has been competing at the highest level for nearly 20 years now which says so much about her attitude and determination that she still has the hunger for success.

Alison Williamson picture with her silver trophy and bronze medal

Alison's day job as Physical Activity Development Manager sees her supporting SASSOT partners and people within their local communities to become more energized, active and healthier through sport and physical activity.

Alison Williamson
T: 01785 619695
E: awilliamson@staffordbc.gov.uk

Rural Communities – Sport England’s Themed Funding Round

Sport England have opened the Rural Communities Themed Round which aims both to address barriers and create new opportunities for participation in sport in rural communities.

The overall aim of this investment programme is to develop projects that encourage people living in rural communities to participate and / or sustain their participation in sport, and help those with talent fulfil their potential.

Successful projects and bids will be directly linked to at least one of Sport England’s strategic aims of:

Grow: getting one million people doing more sport and working with the Youth Sport Trust to enable young people to access at least five hours of sport a week
Sustain: increasing participants’ satisfaction with their sporting experience, and reducing the number of young people aged 16-18 who drop out of sport
Excel: improving talent development.

Who can apply?

The programme is open to applicants from sports clubs, voluntary or community organisations, local authorities and educational establishments (such as schools, colleges and universities) which provide participation opportunities in community sport.

Private sector organisations are also eligible to receive funding, provided they can demonstrate that the project is for the public good or a charitable purpose and that neither the company nor its shareholders will receive any financial gain.

Applications from an individual, sole trader, or partnership are not eligible for funding.

Projects must:

Benefit people living in rural communities as defined in the relevant section below
Relate to a recognised sporting activity.
Include an element of partnership funding in cash or in kind
Not yet have started

Sport England will only consider projects which benefit people who live in areas classified as Significant Rural, Rural-50 or Rural-80 for the Rural Communities Themed Round.

The Local Authortity areas within Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent that are eligible for this funding are therefore:

Cannock Chase
East Staffordshire
Lichfield
South Staffordshire
Stafford
Staffordshire Moorlands

What types of projects can be funded?

Applicants are able to apply for either a capital or a revenue project, or a combination of both.

What are considered to be eligible revenue costs?

Revenue costs associated with the delivery of the project once a facility is in operation, from up to six months prior to its opening through to three years after opening
Education and training opportunities. This could involve providing groups with the opportunity to increase skills and become more self-sufficient in providing sporting opportunities. Localised mentoring schemes could be appropriate, as could access to accredited training opportunities
Salary and on-costs
Start-up costs; Advertising costs
Recruitment and interview costs
Travel and subsistence costs for project workers, coaches, volunteers, etc
Development costs including marketing, eg promotional leaflets, flyers, banners, costs of establishing a website etc
Training and capacity building eg costs for training staff / volunteers, course fees, the costs of bringing in trainers
Partnerships and activity development. This might involve costs for running activities and coaching courses eg transport, equipment hire / purchase, staff costs etc
Extensions in size of existing revenue projects.

What are considered eligible facility projects or costs?

Examples of they type of facilities that can obtain funding from Sport England are as follows:

Facilities. changing associated their and halls ancillary halls, sports pools, swimming as such facilities indoor extended or;
New, upgraded or extended outdoor sports facilities, such as pitches, courts, floodlighting and associated changing facilities
New, upgraded or extended specialist facilities, such as climbing walls, ski slopes, gymnastics pits and launching slipways
Essential support facilities eg changing rooms, showers, toilets for participants and officials, equipment stores, improvements to make facilities accessible to people with disabilities and social / activity areas (where integral to a project but not the dominant element).
Purchase of the freehold and long leasehold (ie 99 years) of land and sporting rights
Purchase of sports equipment (eg safety equipment, rescue vehicles, safety boats, club boats, gliders, gymnastics apparatus, rollers, etc)
Rescue vehicles or those specially adapted for use by disabled people might be eligible in exceptional circumstances.

Assessment criteria
Once the eligibility of the application is established, applications will be assessed against the following criteria, which are listed in priority order.

Impact
Value for money
Evidence
Deliverability
Innovation
Sustainability
Local relevance

Application process
The application process for all of our Themed Rounds of funding will be two-stage.

Stage One
From 24 April 2009, we welcome initial applications from organisations looking to receive funding from our Rural Communities Themed Round. This first stage of application will close at 5pm on 30 June 2009.

Organisations wishing to apply will need to complete Sport England’s standard application form, and answer a number of additional questions specific to this themed round.

Stage Two
Final bids must be received by Sport England by 5pm on 31 October 2009. Bids received after this deadline will not be assessed.

How to apply?

Review the Rural Community Themed Round's purpose, eligibility and assessment criteria,and frequently asked questions to assess whether your proposed application is eligible.
Complete the initial application form. This can be accessed on

http://funding.sportengland.org/funding_programmes/rural_communities1.aspx

If you would like some pre-application advice please contact Sport England on: 08458 508 508.

Workshops

We want to hear from individuals or clubs to understand how you have benefited from the workshops and how these may have contributed to your development as a coach. For example, you may have attended the session on Analyse Your Coaching that led you to develop a specific area in what you deliver.

This information will be used to produce a full monthly feature within a separate article, for example “ The Day in Life of A Coach”. It would enable us to track some successes out there and to acknowledge this success with 3 FREE WORKSHOPS of your choice. Please call or e-mail Kam Webster to discuss this offer.

The SASSOT Education & Training workshops for May to the end of the year are currently being finalised. Apart from the standard workshops i.e. First Aid and Safeguarding and Protecting Children, other titles include:

Appointed First Aid

Fundamentals of Movement

Coaching Disabled Performers

Multiskills

Role of the Volunteer Coordinator

However, this list is not complete, as changes are continually made as a direct result from the feedback we receive into the SASSOT office.

To allow for the opportunity for all to access the workshops, various locations have been booked all around the County. We do hope that it continues to be an asset to your continuing professional development within the world of sport.

As always we do advise that as some sports have more stringent First Aid requirements for Clubmark and coaching purposes, all delegates should check with their NGB before enrolling on these workshops in order to avoid disappointment after the event.

Can I please ask that you check the website on a regular basis as updates are always being made to dates and venues.

Please be advised that in cases of cancellations, a 5 working day notice period is required. Delegates can opt to change to another workshop or alternatively send another representative.

If you find that you cannot attend the workshops we have planned, contact Kam and she may be able to help you find alternatives.

Kam Webster
Education and Training Officer
Tel: 01785 619 695
Email: kwebster@staffordbc.gov.uk

Events Calendar ... is yours listed ?

Do you have any key sporting events that you would like to be included on our Events Calendar?

If so, click here to access the template and fill in your event details along the lines of the Tennis example. Then simply return the template to Leigh Morton and your event will be available for all to see.

To view the Events Calendar to see what's currently on offer click here.

For more information contact:
Leigh Morton
Tel: 01785 619349
Email: lmorton@staffordbc.gov.uk

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