The Sport England Clubmark safe, effective, child-friendly scheme is a new nationally adopted set of standards for enabling national governing bodies of sport (NGBs) and their affiliated clubs to set and meet standards that will lead to better quality sports club provision for children and young people.
A nationwide promotion for sports clubs
The Sport England Clubmark scheme applies across a wide range of sports. It will be promoted nationally to enable parents, carers and young people to quickly recognise a club that is committed to providing a quality experience.
Nor is it just Sport England and NGBs that will be supporting this new important quality mark. The Child Protection in Sport Unit and sports coach UK support the scheme and local authorities working through the Sport England Active Sports programme will be promoting Clubmark at local level.
Acknowledging the best
Clubs that take up the challenge of developing their standards to the national benchmarks will work towards Clubmark accreditation, to meet the safe, effective, child-friendly criteria. These cover four key areas of a clubs provision:
- The playing programme coaching and competition
- The protection and safety of children and young people
- Sports equity and ethics
- Club management
Benefits to Clubs
Each club that works towards qualifying for Sport England Clubmark accreditation will be able to:
- receive support from sports development professionals
- improve the quality of coaches in the club so that their club can be even more successful and competitive
- access workshops to capitalise on the latest thinking in relation to motivating young people, protecting them, being accessible to all of the young people in the community and developing their club
- become a member of the Sport England Volunteer Investment Programme giving them access to specialist support and materials regarding the recruitment, management, retention, and motivation of their volunteer workforce
Each club that gains accreditation will:
- be better organised and resourced as a club and able to further develop
- increase membership and so ensure the future of their club whilst increasing the competitive pool from which to draw in the future
- be networked into local and national sports organisations that can provide further support to Clubmark clubs
- be promoted in their local community and on a national database
For further information about how your club can start working towards Clubmark Accredation:
Please call Daniel Matson Sports Development Officer on 01775 761161 or email dmatson@sholland.gov.uk
