County Sports Partnership Update

 

A Sports Facilities Framework for Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent

The above piece of work has now been commissioned and Nortoft Partnerships Ltd have commenced work on the initial facility audit, local strategy reviews, national governing body priorities and proposed Building Schools for the Future programmes.

 

 

The Sports Facilities Framework was identified as a priority action in the 2007-08 Delivery Plan.  In essence, the study will offer Partners the strategic context for facility provision and the actions needed to help increase participation in sport and active recreation by 1% per annum and improve performance.

 

This is critical with a number of Staffordshire and Stoke–on-Trent sports facilities being of aged stock and in need of major refurbishment or replacement to meet the needs of 21^st century sports provision.
 

Partners have also identified the need for the Framework to provide:

1. A fundamental audit and review of existing “hub level” facilities and above (see figure 1 page 8) 
2. A mechanism for getting beyond historical issues and accelerate cross boundary working 
3. A robust framework for facility provision over the timeframe of the study (up to 2021), which creates a critical mass of quality provision, which improves access and opportunity 
4. The feasibility of developing a network of “hub level” facilities and above, which support talent and further develops the sub-region as a sport tourism destination 
5. A Facilities Framework as one of the key building blocks in the joint action needed to increase participation in sport and physical activity 
6. A key tool to assist Local Authorities and improve performance against LAA and Comprehensive Performance Assessment Indicators 
7. Strategic sense of the increasing number of key projects currently being considered 
8. A sub regional context for the development of local authority Local Development Frameworks 
9. A major opportunity to improve and impact on the Building Schools for the Future programmes and Community & Learning Partnerships (Extended Schools). Regeneration programmes and Staffordshire’s emerging 2012 plans.

The final report is scheduled for completion by July 2008.

 

Detailed consultation will take place with Partners on the development of the framework between now and July.

 

For more information contact:

Mark Thornewill, Director
Tel: 01785 619896
Email: mthornewill@staffordbc.gov.uk

 

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Stoke-on-Trent Sports Summit - "Check & Challenge" Event

 

Representatives from key delivery agencies across the city met at Port Vale Football Club on Friday 1^st February for the Stoke-on-Trent Sports Summit "Check & Challenge" event.

The event, chaired by Rauf Mirza, West Midlands Regional Sports Board Chair, was organised by Sport England and Sport Across Staffordshire & Stoke-on-Trent as the second in a series of summits to address low rates of adult participation in sport and active recreation (as indicated in Sport England's recent Active People Survey).

 

Pictured above: Delegates with the Charter to inspire an increasingly active, healthy and successful City.

 

The aim in organising this event was to bring together those key partners and stakeholders from around the City, who were involved in developing the original ‘Action Plan’ to increase participation in sport and physical activity, in order to check on the progress being made and challenge the implementation plans to ensure that they are on the right track to achieve the agreed outcomes.

 

For more information contact:

Mark Thornewill, Director
Tel: 01785 619896
Email: mthornewill@staffordbc.gov.uk

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New ‘Extending Activities’ Project to bring nearly £750,000 into Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent

 

An exciting new project aimed at getting more young people involved in community sport will bring nearly £750,000 into the sub-region over a three year period.  ‘Extending Activities’ is funded by the Government and is part of the new ‘Five Hour Offer’ aimed giving all young people the opportunity to do five hours of PE and sport per week.

 

Background to the Five-Hour Offer

In July 2007, the Prime Minister announced additional investment of £100m into the PE and Sport Strategy for Young People (formerly PESSCL).  This funding covers the three-year period from April 2008 to March 2011 and will be used to give every young person aged 5 to 16 years the chance to do five hours of sport a week, and every young person aged 16 to 19 years the chance to do three hours of sport a week.  This is commonly referred to as the ‘Five-Hour Offer’.

 

The total additional funding will cover the following workstrands:

DCSF will provide £60million to Youth Sport Trust to cover:

• the addition of FE sports co-ordinators (FESCOs) linked to SSPs
• the completion of the roll out of competition managers linked to SSPs
• top up grants to SSPs to pay for coaching
• multi-sport clubs for children with special needs linked to SSPs
• National School Sport Week

DCMS will provide £36million to Sport England to cover:

• Extending Activities - funding to support extending ‘club’ activity designed to attract ‘semi-sporty’ young people

 

Extending Activities – The Background

Through the Five-Hour Offer, all Young People aged 5-16 will take part in two hours of PE through the curriculum. 

 

Young People can be broadly divided into three categories:

• 30% ‘Very Sporty’ – those currently doing 2-3+ hours of sport outside of the curriculum
• 50% ‘Semi-Sporty’ – those currently doing approx 1 hour of sport outside of the curriculum
• 20% ‘Non-Sporty’ – those unlikely to be doing any sport outside of the curriculum. 

The Extending Activities Workstrand focuses on the 50% of Semi-Sporty young people and aims to get them doing an additional 1-2 hours of community sport per week, by offering new opportunities or by marketing existing opportunities in a different way to ensure they appeal to this group of young people (i.e. by using different venues / methods of delivery etc.)

 

Extending Activities – The Details

• EA will be delivered through County Sports Partnerships (CSPs) via a CSP-led plan with the involvement and ownership of local delivery organisations and partners
• The EA Plan will link closely with wider positive activities provision for young people and with other agendas including Local Area Agreements, Building Schools for the Future, Cultural Offer, 2012 Plan and Children and Young People Plans
• EA focuses firmly on the 50% of young people classed as ‘Semi-Sporty’ and currently doing 2-3 hours of PE and sport per week
• The National EA target is to ensure that 900,000 young people from the 50% Semi-Sporty population take up an additional 2 hours of sport / physical activity by 2011
• EA involves running term-time programmes of sessions over 8-10 weeks, with each session lasting 1-2 hours
• Programmes are to be delivered out of school hours in club / community settings (including school sites)
• EA funding can be used to establish new activities, build on and extend current provision or enhance existing good quality provision thereby creating new opportunities for the target group
• Although the Five Hour Offer as a whole covers the 5-19 age range, EA focuses on 11-19 and especially the Key Stage 2/3 transition and the 14-19 age range as these are currently identified as ‘drop off points’ for participation
• EA uses a broad definition of sport that includes activities outside of Sport England’s support structure that are relevant and compelling to children and young people. These include activities such as dance, aerobics and climbing. It does not include activities such as walking or cycling to school.
• Sport Across Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent will receive two allocations of funding per year for the three years of the workstrand – one for Capacity and one for Delivery.

 

Strategic Management of Extending Activities

Sport Across Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent is responsible for submitting the Sub-Regional EA Plan to Sport England and will be accountable for the funding and monitoring and evaluation.  However, to ensure that the decision-making process takes into account the views of Partners, an Extending Activities Steering Group has been set up to oversee the workstrand. This includes the following representatives:

• Sport Across Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent: Director, Sports Manager and other Core Team Members as appropriate
• Staffordshire County Council: School Improvement Officer for PE and Active Lifestyles, Community and Learning Partnership Operations Manager, Children’s Trust Manager
• Stoke City Council: Interim Sport and Leisure Services Manager, Community and Learning Partnerships Operations Manager
• National Governing Bodies of Sport: NGB Forum Representative
• Local Authorities: Staffordshire Leisure and Cultural Officers Forum Representative, Sports Development Officers Forum Representative
• Partnership Development Managers: Staffordshire Representative, Stoke-on-Trent Representative
• 2012: Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Co-ordinator for the 2012 Games 

What Happens Next?

The Capacity Funding will run for a full three years from 01.04.08.  The EA Steering Group is currently considering several options for the use of this funding and confirmation of this will be circulated shortly.

 

The Delivery Funding will run for two years, seven months (from 01.09.08 to 31.03.11).  The Steering Group felt that applications should be co-ordinated at a local level, and more information about this will again be circulated to all partners shortly.

 

For more information in the meantime, please contact
Jane Kracke
Sports Manager
Tel: 01785 619187 
Email: jkracke@staffordbc.gov.uk 

  

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Executive Board Champion Focus

This month we focus on Andy Weston, SASSOT's Safeguarding Children and Young People Champion.  

Andy has worked for Staffordshire Football Association for the past seven years. Prior to this he worked in sports development within Stafford Borough Council and as a leisure manager for a sports centre.

Andy brings to the role a knowledge of NGB policies, facility development through Football Foundation bids, and Child Protection policies, through his role as a FA tutor and mentor. Having worked as a county officer, he has a wide knowledge of Staffordshire and the opportunities and challenges within.

 

1. What do you see as the key challenges for the Partnership with regard to Safeguarding over the next 12 months?

Ensuring that all clubs and organisations are adhering to the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups act and the implications around CRB as from September 2008. This is a huge area and one we need to support our volunteers with.

  

2. With one of our local professional football clubs flying high at the moment, what impact would having a local Premier League team have on the development of the game in Staffordshire?

Let’s not count our chickens but……hopefully it would bring some feel good factor to the County and raise the awareness of the game to even more people. More children may wish to get involved in the game, because they will see the big names playing locally and want to emulate them.

Financially it will bring more money in to Stoke as a City which could in effect benefit other areas of the game.

What we need to remember for every club that makes it in to the Premiership there are many others who are struggling. Whilst it would be great for a local club to get there, we can’t forget the other local clubs who are not doing so well at the moment and help and support them.  

 

3. If you could have one wish granted (money no object) to impact on participation in sport and/or active recreation, what would it be?

Build a weather machine, so we have more sunshine, which will in turn make people more inclined to get up, get outdoors and get active!!!

 

On a serious note, I would invest more in people. We have so many good coaches/volunteers out there doing tremendous work at the grassroots of sport, but lots of them don’t get paid or paid very little. If we are to improve not only participation but standards we have to put money in to the workforce. By doing this more people will get involved, the workforce will be even better skilled, people will get a better experience, people will improve their performance levels (whatever level that may be) and people will want to stay involved for longer. 
 

People make things happen,!!!!!!!

I wonder which one is easier to achieve!!!!!!

You can contact Andy by emailing: sportacrossstaffordshire.co.uk

 

If you wish to find out more about any of our other Executive Board members click here.

Next month we will be featuring David Pinnock, SASSOT's Finance and Investment and Marketing and Communications Champion. If you would like to ask David a question contact Jason Britton by 18 April on 01785 619599 or email jbritton@staffordbc.gov.uk

 

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Equity - SASSOT awards more ACCESS grants    

The Partnership is pleased to announce that it has awarded another £1,800 to four sports-based projects in the sub-region, which address equality of access.

 

SASSOT, through its ACCESS Across Staffordshire Fund has recently awarded grants to support girls’ cricket, girls' rugby and disability canoeing.

The grants now mean that SASSOT has awarded £5,800 to worthy local projects which are working hard to ensure widened access to sport and active recreation across the sub-region.

 

Dave Ford, Community Sports Coach, said on hearing of the award to support his girls’ cricket academy, “This is fantastic news. Girls’ cricket is growing incredibly quickly. The award from SASSOT will help to secure quality coaching in a safe environment.”

 

Neil Maguire from Stafford Ladies Rugby Club commented, “The future looks set for ladies and girls rugby in the Stafford area. We really appreciate the support from SASSOT.”

Pictured above: Abigail Maguire age 13, currently playing for Stafford U15's and a Staffordshire County player

 

Two projects from Trentham Canoe Club were also worthy recipients in this round of the Partnership’s ACCESS Funding. John Court, representing the canoe club said, “Our project to adapt and improve the seating location in our canoes means that paddlers with spinal chord lesions will have more opportunity to enjoy paddling with us this summer. SASSOT’s financial contribution towards this is tremendous.”

 

The SASSOT team will be working with the successful projects to monitor their progress and will use details of their successful outcomes for case study purposes, which in turn may inspire other groups to improve accessibility.

 

For further information on the ACCESS Fund and Equality in Sport please contact Jason Britton at jbritton@staffordbc.gov.uk or on 01785 619599.

 

 

Football Development Grants from Kick It Out

A new Football Development grant is being made available by Kick It Out and the Football Foundation to help support football development within minority communities.  

The ‘One Game, One Community’ Development Grant is targeted at community groups and amateur clubs working with black and minority ethnic groups on football projects.
 
The aim of the grant is to help support participation from BME communities in all areas of the game including playing, coaching and refereeing and to help grassroots clubs develop closer links within mainstream football. 
 
The grants offer a cash sum of up to £2K for development activities in 4 priority areas.
 

For further information please go to www.kickitout.org/514.php 
 

A web-friendly application form in Word format is available at: http://www.kickitout.org/515.php

For more information contact:
Marcus Asbury
Sports Development Officer (Equity)
Sport Development
Adults and Community
Telephone (01902) 556223
Email: Marcus.Asbury@Wolverhampton.gov.uk

 

Inclusive Fitness Initiative Explained 

The Inclusive Fitness Initiative (IFI) invites you to learn about the IFI, increasing our understanding and awareness, providing you with new opportunities to engage with the IFI throughout the West Midlands.

Date: Monday 21st April 2008 Venue: University of Worcester Location: University College Worcester, Henwick Grove, Worcester, WR2 6AJ Click here for a booking form or for further information please contact Michelle Dent, Regional Inclusive Activator (West Midlands):Telephone: +44(0) 114 2572060 (Text phone users add prefix 18001 for Typetalk) Email: michelle@inclusivefitness.org Website for further details: www.inclusivefitness.org

 

Inclusive Fitness Week In the West Midlands
24^th – 30^th April 2008  Click here for more details.

Venues:

Aldersley Leisure Village
Bedworth Leisure Centre
Wyre Forest Glades Leisure Centre
Moseley School Health & Fitness Centre
University of Worcester

Click here to read the March edition of the Equality Standard for Sport newsletter.

Click here to read the April edition of Sporting Equals newsletter.

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Upcoming Workshops

The Royal Life Saving Society (RLSS), one of the most respected First Aid training organisations in the country, are currently supporting SASSOT in running a 3 hour Emergency Aid (Community Life Support Courses) which is relevant for most sports. 

However, there are now just 2 sessions available.  Please check the website for details of venues, date and time and also note that some sports have more stringent requirements for Clubmark and coaching purposes.  Delegates should check with their NGB before enrolling on this course.

Arrangements are currently being made to arrange a First Aid 6 hour Appointed Person workshop. Please watch this space for further details. 

We continue to deliver regular workshops such as Safeguarding & Protecting Children and Emergency First Aid.  Due to a decline in numbers for, Equity in your Coaching and A Club for All, the frequency for these workshops has been reduced to two per year. If you find that you are unable to attend the workshops we have planned, contact us and we will help you find alternatives.

 

Finally, some of you may have attended the Coaches Conference hosted last year.  Due to the success of this Conference, arrangements are now underway to plan one for 12^th October 2008.  We will keep you informed as this progresses.

 

For more information on the above please contact: 

Kam Webster

Acting Education and Training Officer
Tel: 01785 619695
Email: sassotadmin@staffordbc.gov.uk