Strategic Plan Bringing Sport to Life.

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1 Strategic Plan Bringing Sport to Life

2 A Message from the Chair Dear Reader, Through this new three-year plan, I am delighted to be sharing the next chapter for Northumberland Sport. First and foremost I want to re-state that the fundamental purpose of Northumberland Sport is partnership. Of course we employ staff and have direct contractual responsibilities to Sport England and indeed others who provide funding, but we can only succeed through a strong and vibrant ethos of working together. The partnership has existed since 1998 and has grown enormously in terms of reach, influence and impact. The sporting landscape and financial climate has changed significantly over the years but we are proud to have navigated through those changes and continue to operate from a position of strength. The next few years will inevitably witness more change. In turn, this will pose further challenges, but there will also be tremendous opportunities for us to develop and work to improve sporting opportunities for all, as well as helping the people of Northumberland to be more active, more often. Our most immediate challenge is to manage change in what will be a tough financial environment. The main priority is to demonstrate impact through strategic influence and partnership working and to rise to the challenge of delivering programmes efficiently. A reorganisation of County Council services this year will mean changes for sport and leisure. As part of this, our first action in this three-year plan was to transfer Northumberland Sport staff from the Council who have acted as host organisation for many years, to Blyth Valley Arts and Leisure. This transfer took place on 1 st April 2014 and ultimately a new single leisure trust for the entire county is planned and Northumberland Sport staff will have a key role in this emerging structure. We believe this offers a fantastic opportunity to work even closer with a range of sports providers across the county whilst at the same time enabling the Northumberland Sport Board to continue to function and provide that all important ingredient of independence that has and will continue to be key to Northumberland Sport s success. We will also continue to support and engage with our partners regionally and nationally. Our strong bond with the other North East County Sports Partnerships and our commitment to the national County Sports Partnership Network adds real value to our development and profile in the sector. Finally, it would be remiss of me not to thank the Northumberland Sport Board for their continued endeavours in helping steer the work of the partnership and I look forward to working with them as we progress. Yours in Sport Tim Cantle-Jones Chairman of Northumberland Sport - 2 -

3 Our Mission Statement To lead the strategic development of sport and physical activity in Northumberland to enable people to become more active. The Foundations of our Partnership As our mission statement makes clear, Northumberland Sport is a partnership aimed at facilitating opportunities to increase participation in sport and physical activity. We achieve this through working in collaboration with sporting organisations and many other partners from the health, community, private and voluntary sectors across the country. The Northumberland Sport website is packed with information about work that we are leading on or are involved in with other organisations. (Please take time to visit our site at Not everyone fully appreciates or understands the breadth and scope of what we do, so in addition to updating our website regularly, we have produced a summary document Who we are and what we do that explains more about the role that we play. This can also be found on our website

4 Our Strategic Priorities Like any organisation we are looking ahead and attempting to plan and organise business in alignment with expectations about the changing landscape for sport and our position as a County Sports Partnership. As a consequence, over the next three years we will be focussing effort around four strategic priorities. Priority One Extending our reach, influence and impact for the benefit of sport Working to sustain the existing partnerships we have and achieving more with those organisations Engaging new partners with shared sporting and physical activity objectives locally, regionally and nationally Establishing new business with organisations outside the sport and physical activity sector through innovation and for mutual benefit Providing a recognised promotion and communications route to the market for sport and physical activity Priority Two Meeting and exceeding our contractual obligations to Sport England and other funding stakeholders Advocating and interpreting Sport England policy and strategic aims locally including through local management of national programmes and promotion of funding Ensuring value for money for the investment we receive including achieving efficiency targets Making delivery funding go further and maximising leverage from other sources Demonstrating achievement through consistently attaining high performance ratings Priority Three Helping deliver shared strategic outcomes for sport and physical activity Contributing to evidential outcomes across wider health and social policy agendas working with and through key decision-making bodies Leading on a county plan to get more people active, more often Coordinating a partnership approach to improve sports facilities and the infrastructure for leisure and healthy recreation Providing data analysis and insight on the sport and physical activity market to inform product development and participation growth Priority Four Managing business effectively and efficiently whilst driving continuous improvement and raising standards Operating a transparent governance framework which places the Northumberland Sport Board at the helm of strategic management Ensuring an appropriate balance between officer and board responsibilities Effectively managing core costs for staff, overheads and operations - 4 -

5 Developing new business and generating more income Commissioning effectively, optimising the return on any investments made Implementing evaluation measures to challenge and improve performance Driving equality and safeguarding standards through everything we do or commission The connection between these strategic objectives and our delivery programmes is illustrated in our business summary diagram (which can be found later in this plan). Specific actions from each of our strategic priorities will be embedded into Annual Delivery Plans. About our Programmes Core & Extended Services to National Governing Bodies (NGBs) A primary obligation we have through our Sport England contract is providing services to NGBs. We are required to proactively seek to work with all funded NGBs aiming to deliver their Whole Sport Plan objectives through work in Northumberland. We will establish and sustain an agreed understanding of NGB priorities and how they relate to Northumberland. This will be based on shared insight and knowledge and will focus on delivering a measureable impact for increased participation in sport. We will engage partners both from local sport networks and our wider network (where possible integrating funded programmes as outlined elsewhere in this plan) to optimise available resources and achieve efficient delivery of results. Proactively seek to work with sports of strategic importance based on joint opportunities to significantly increase participation. Our core funding enables us to employ sufficient staff capacity for this task so much of our offer in this respect is in officer time. We will however join up programmes and seek to attract other resources, local, regional and national to add value to this area of work. To deliver enhanced services to NGBs funded by Sport England, particularly NGBs/sports with strategic significant to Northumberland, through local agreements to assist local impact of national Whole Sport Plan priorities. In doing so to achieve high satisfaction ratings from 95% of NGBs we work with based on our CSP Customer Satisfaction Survey. The Physical Activity Plan Northumberland Sport is commissioned by Public Health to lead the development and coordination of a physical activity plan in the county. The purpose of the plan is to galvanise partners to work in collaboration to get more people more active, more often and realising the health and social benefits this achieves

6 We work with a wide range of partners in support of the plan s purpose. This coming year it is our intention to finalise a review and refresh of the plan that has existed since Through our dedicated coordination function we will continue to engage and enthuse interested organisations across our networks to help increase active lifestyles in Northumberland. The refresh will extend the life of the plan to We will utilise a grant from Public Health to sustain core team capacity for the coordination role. We also envisage investing a minimum 25,000 in delivery projects that will support the plan s objectives in and will be working closely with health and leisure partners to optimise funding investment in the plan over the next three years. We will agree more specific target outcomes with partners as the refresh of the plan is concluded. These will be reported to the Northumberland Sport Board when approval for the refresh is sought. This is envisaged to occur by no later than September The Sports Facilities Strategy In 2010 Northumberland Sport established a Sports Facilities Strategy which was subsequently adopted by Northumberland County Council. The strategy maps facility provision, identifies gaps and highlights investment needs. The Northumberland Sport Board has agreed to monitor the strategy action plan on behalf of the council and other key partners. We will coordinate and service a partner approach to this through six monthly consultations and will report comments to the Board. We will also assist the County Council and others with responsibility for facility development (including the leisure provider) to review the strategy as and when required. Our contribution to this work relies on officer time and the continued engagement of the Northumberland Sport Board to help steer developments and an effective approach to investment. To sustain a strong partnership approach that optimises investment in all sports facilities in Northumberland. Safeguarding Children and Vulnerable Adults in Sport Sport England requires all CSPs in England to sustain prescribed standards for safe sport. Our main responsibility concerns providing advice, advocating best practice and influencing others. Northumberland Sport is a member of a national network of CSPs and NGBs, required to continually improve the safeguarding of children and vulnerable adults through sport. We do this in collaboration with the NSPCC Child Protection in Sport Unit (CPSU) and as part of local structures and procedures for - 6 -

7 safeguarding and child protection led by statutory agencies such as the Northumberland Safeguarding Children Board, Children s Services and the Police. We aim to deliver our responsibilities by ensuring we have trained staff to promote and influence good practice and to respond appropriately to requests, queries or disclosures. As well as submitting annual plans to Sport England through the CPSU we will conduct an annual self-assessment to measure our impact and progress and inform future planning. Part of our core funding from Sport England requires us to invest in appropriate training for our staff to enable the responsibilities outlined above to be delivered. We will also invest in appropriate material both hard copy and through our website to advise and influence others. We will ensure training for others is available through the North East Course Finder programme. We will ensure we meet all obligations to Sport England and the CPSU through our quarterly and annual performance assessments with them. Equality Standard Sport England requires all CSPs in England to achieve a minimum foundation level Equality Standard. The purpose of this is to ensure there is a clear commitment to equality. CSPs are obligated to have an agreed policy for equality that has been communicated to staff (paid and unpaid), the CSP Board and the wider sporting community. We currently have the foundation level, Equality Standard. This ensures that the partnership can develop a culture that enables and values everyone s involvement in sport. Part of our core funding from Sport England requires us to invest in appropriate training for our staff to enable the responsibilities outlined above to be delivered. We will also invest in appropriate material both hard copy and through our website to advise and influence others. We will ensure we meet all obligations to Sport England and our quarterly and annual performance assessments with them. Coaching Funding Sport England has contracted every CSP in England to help develop an appropriate, skilled coaching workforce that in turn will support the delivery plans of National Governing Bodies of Sport (and other Sport England programmes) that require qualified coaches. We are charged with assessing current provision against local need and to manage an approach for addressing the gap between the two

8 We will recruit, reactivate and retain coaches to address identified need and close any gaps in provision across the county and across all the sports that we work with. We will develop and implement an appropriate support programme for coaches including ensuring access to coaching courses delivered locally and we will sustain a web based coaching database and toolkit for coaches and customers seeking to employ or deploy coaches. As part of our Core Funding from Sport England we will invest our capacity grant in our Coaching Development Manager and we will work with other North East CSPs to invest in and sustain the North East Couse Finder service. We will invest in sustaining and managing CoachWeb the national coaching database to benefit Northumberland. As part of our contractual obligation to Sport England we will produce annual coaching plans and we ll deliver workforce services to a minimum of 10 National Governing Bodies to assist local impact for their workforce priorities. This will include delivering 6 monthly generic workshop programmes. The Sportivate Programme Sportivate is aimed at semi-sporty young people aged between years old. It provides 6 week taster sessions that young people have identified through consultation. The aim is then for those young people to join a regular club/session that has been identified by the delivery partner or that they continue to take part in the activity to fit their current lifestyle. Northumberland Sport has responsibility to submit an annual plan to Sport England that s been developed through consultation with local delivery partners. We broker a large number of activities and a variety of sports and schedule these across the year. Over the next 3 years the programme will be funded to the tune of 128, 000 delivering sessions countywide For this investment we will reach 1,300 young people from across Northumberland. The Satellite Clubs Programme This programme aims to attract people aged 11 to 25 years who may not have an interest in formal and competitive sport but who want to get involved in a more relaxed setting and perhaps for social enjoyment. Satellite Clubs are extensions of existing community sports clubs (hub clubs) built around the participants needs and have an emphasis on friendship and social experience

9 We are required by Sport England to submit annual plans based on consultation with schools, local sports clubs and National Governing Bodies of Sport. Our main responsibility is to identify opportunities (and a shared funding package) to establish Satellite Clubs that will attract sufficient demand from young people to make them viable. One of the intended outcomes is that young people will carry on playing having gained confidence and an appetite for the sport by joining the hub club as a natural progression. The programme will run until and over the next 2 years we envisage investing around 213,000 through employing our Satellite Clubs lead and by priming the start-up of clubs with items such as coaching, kit and equipment. Having established a number of clubs in we will aim to engage with a further 36 schools over the next two years. The School Games Programme The School Games is a sports competition stucture on four levels - intra-school, inter school, county festivals and national finals. The programme is designed to enable every school and child to participate in competitive sport including meaningful opportunities for disabled youngsters. We have a clearly defined role to support a Local Organising Committee (LOC) to ensure the Northumberland Level 3 County Festivals are delivered successfully and we also support volunteering and leadership elements at Level 2 and as referred to elsewhere in this plan (see Department for Education Volunteer Funding) We act as the lead applicant for the grant from Sport England and in support of the LOC. We therefore administer a delivery budget for the Level 3 Festival, which for and is 25,000 per year. We also receive a capacity grant and as well as utilising half of this to employ an Apprentice, we also commission a School Games Organiser as the County Festival Event Manager which is linked to all the Level 2 competitions. We are required to support the LOC with prescribed responsibilities from Sport England, which are monitored through our performance assessment. Ultimately we aim to support a high quality event with participant numbers above average pro rata for Northumberland compared to other CSP areas. Primary School Premium Funding The Primary School Premium Programme (a government funded programme) offers a dedicated resource to increase PE and sport provision in all primary/first and middle schools. Our role, along with all CSPs is to offer independent advice and support to ensure schools are confident they are getting optimum impact from the funding

10 We have been given three objectives from Sport England. Firstly to audit usage of the funding, secondly to identify whether schools want help to achieve their ambitions for PE and Sport and thirdly to attempt to enable that to happen. We have allocated capacity funding to employ additional support to undertake the audit. We shall conduct a further review on capacity needs to ensure schools are supported in accordance with our funding conditions. We will ensure we meet all obligations to Sport England and demonstrate a clear approach to co-ordinating and sharing sporting opportunities to schools, identifying those in need of additional support whilst effectively linking with NGBs and appropriate local partners. Department for Education Volunteer Funding This short-term investment will be used to identify and deploy young and adult volunteers (aged 16 and over) in particular, but not exclusively, in Level 2 of the School Games Programme (see School Games section). We have already identified volunteers from local clubs, Northumbria University, Northumberland College, the Sport Makers Programme and School Young Sport Leaders. All of these volunteers will be supported through training that links to the opportunity they are involved in through the Level 2 activity. Northumberland Sport will invest 13,000 into this programme in To identify, induct and support 20 volunteers to support the Level 2 delivery of the School Games. Sport England Volunteering Programme This short-term programme involves modest continuation funding to help sustain the legacy of the Olympics 2012 Sport Makers Volunteer Programme. We recruited and worked with 262 Sport Makers in Northumberland (who completed a minimum 10 hours volunteering) and are continuing to engage with those volunteers that have requested support to carry on their volunteering. This year we will be encouraging volunteering through Northumberland based events including the Elf Run, Sport Relief Mile, Race for Life, Swing for Bling, Workplace Challenge and the School Games. We will also be encouraging volunteers into more structured and formal coaching and leadership through our Coaching Development Manager

11 Northumberland Sport will invest 13,000 in this programme in To retain and continue to engage with as many Sport Makers as possible. Workplace Challenge Programme Workplace Challenge was initiated in Northumberland to increase participation in sport and physical activity by employees in local businesses using the motivation of teamwork and peer support. The programme has expanded to incorporate a national website with additional Sport England Lottery investment lead by the County Sports Partnership Network (CSPN). We will work with Public Health, NGBs and activity providers to provide a programme of activity and events to engage employees and showcase sporting opportunities available locally. This programme also presents an opportunity for income generation for the partnership. We will invest capacity funding to coordinate and deliver the Workplace Challenge programme and grow the database of adults participating in sport and physical activity. We will meet our obligations to CSPN and expand the number of employees and businesses we engage with. This work will support our volunteer development, NGB engagement and physical activity outcomes, providing an opportunity to market programmes to adults via the workplace setting. The Sports Challenge Fund This is a modest short-term fund ( ) that we are managing with the purpose being to encourage NGBs to integrate with their plans (and to match fund) for increasing participation in Northumberland. This could include training for coaches, kit and equipment for clubs, supporting volunteering or any other proposal that will encourage new participants. We will negotiate with NGBs to develop innovative projects that can demonstrate and evidence up-take of sport in Northumberland. We will commission small grants up to 3,000 with match funding or better as a pre-requisite. We will invest approximately 20,000 in this project. To prime a minimum of 5 projects

12 StreetGames Door Step Clubs StreetGames is a nationally recognised charity bringing sporting opportunities to young people from disadvantaged backgrounds. The Door Step Clubs Programme is about offering the right activity at the right time and through a club that delivers in a way that meets the demands of young people. We have secured a small, short-term contact with StreetGames ( ) where we will be working in partnership with the other North East CSPs to support existing and develop new Door Step Clubs. Our role is to connect the charity to local partners in identified locations primarily in south-east Northumberland. Our primary function in this relationship is to broker collaboration and identify opportunity but delivery funding for Door Step Clubs will be invested through StreetGames. We have been set a target of 10 clubs to work with over the next 12 months. The Northumberland Sport Fund This is a grant awarded to Northumberland Sport in 2002 aimed at young people facing disadvantage including those with a disability, from a low-income background or living in the looked after system. A sub group of the Northumberland Sport Board (an Advisory Group) will commission projects in accordance with the funding criteria. We still have around 50,000 in this fund and allocation to projects will depend on proposals the Board receives. Match funding will be a pre-requisite. The Board is under no obligation to spend all or part of this fund within the lifetime of this plan. Commissions will depend on the quality and impact projects can achieve. To ensure effective use of the fund

13 Business Summary Diagram Enabling more people to get active in Northumberland Bubble key Volunteering Primary Schools Infrastructure & Operational Development Sport England programmes Other funding School Games DfE Satellite Clubs Core Agreement Core team staffing Supporting NGB priorities Advocating Sport England Policy & Strategy Strategic networking Coach and volunteer development Local management of national programmes Robust governance & financial management Investment leverage Sportivate Street Games Nld Sport Fund Sports Challenge Fund Infrastructure & Operational Development Budgets - Financial management, monitoring & accountability Insight - Active People Survey & market segmentation Leadership & Governance - Advocacy, strategic leadership & influence change Management - Facility Strategy Action Plan, Physical Activity Plan & Partnership performance Marketing - Communications including website, social media & PR Stakeholder Engagement - National network & local formal working groups Standards - Equality, Safeguarding & independent audit Physical Activity Plan Partnership Core Funding Coordination Engaging stakeholders Priorities for action Physical Activity Projects 13

14 Find out more To find out more about the work of the Northumberland Sport Partnership please visit one of our online channels below or contact the office on Like us /northumberlandsports Follow Watch our latest videos NorthumberlandSport 14