Sports Management Q2 2011 - UUM

TALKBACK
Everybody’s Talking About …
The future of sport
in the Big Society
T
he coalition government’s Big
Society agenda will have a
significant impact on both the
public and voluntary sectors in sport.
The power shift from government
to community will bring opportunities
for society to have a greater say on the
design, development and delivery of
Ian Cooper, director,
Ian Cooper Associates
A
key services. However, with this comes
shared responsibilities to meet the
needs of communities, develop a more
creative way of thinking and work
through the bureaucratic barriers.
Karen Maxwell talks to key industry
experts to ask what needs to be done
to make it work.
new government – a new challenge to
local government sport and recreation
departments. Sport and recreation employees
have shown themselves to be responsive
and resilient in interpreting and responding to government initiatives.
Since 1988 they have met the challenges of Compulsive
Competitive Tendering, Best Value, Comprehensive Performance
Assessments and Local Area Agreements by the dozen.
Staff have been excellent at reworking programmes to meet
key requirements of new legislation.
We start from a position of strength with many exceptional
programmes and skilled managers. We have the continuing
support of the County Sports Partnerships and operational experiences
from a wide range of mass participation/volunteer
driven sports events. The sports trusts too are making an impact
in the sector with their support of sports development. The government
is doing its bit by introducing more grants, some yet to
be defined. So far so good. But I have concerns about the ability
of sport and recreation staff to meet Big Society requirements.
First, sports staff now work in small teams often in a corner of
a larger department without a specialised senior officer who has
‘clout’ where it matters. Second, direct grant aid and resources
to advise on funding applications have been reduced. Councils
have less resources to directly support Big Society programmes.
Finally, the Active People Surveys show that sports volunteering
is static or decreasing slightly. Capacity and increased commitment
in this sector remains a major issue for local government to
resolve. Reliable volunteers are hard to find and retain. Hard economic
times result in an understandable ‘job first’ attitude.
Solution? Money and political commitment again – councils
need to show commitment to programmes and in-house staff if
the Big Society programmes are to be delivered.
22 Read Sports Management online sportsmanagement.co.uk/digital
Justin Davis Smith, Chief Executive
of Volunteering England
n many ways, community sport is ahead
of the Big Society agenda. The vast major- I ity of opportunities to participate in sport
are delivered by grassroots sports clubs who
are almost wholly reliant upon a voluntary workforce of up to
two million adults. There is also much evidence to suggest that
sport delivers wider benefits such as improved health, reduced
crime and greater social cohesion.
The Big Society will highlight the great work that is already
happening in community sport and encourage others to get
involved by removing the bureaucracy that can get in the way.
But this won’t happen on its own; there is a need for greater
recognition of the importance of investment in volunteer management
and support services to enable volunteering to flourish.
To keep people engaged in sport, clubs must provide a high
quality, enjoyable sporting experience. At the same time, they
are faced with complex issues around club management, such
as community asset transfer, facility management and safeguarding,
increasing the need to recruit skilled volunteers from
outside of sport. High quality volunteer management will be
crucial both in helping clubs to retain existing volunteers and
in attracting new ones. National governing bodies will have an
important role to play here, but so too will volunteer centres,
which can advise on the best ways to recruit and support volunteers
from non-sporting backgrounds. In recognition of this,
Volunteering England is recruiting a number of volunteer centre
sporting champions to provide clubs with the support they need.
The 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games offer a unique opportunity
to showcase the value of sport and volunteering to
our communities, so it is vital that we continue to make the
case for long-term investment in the people and organisations
that will drive volunteering in sport forward.
Issue 2 2011 © cybertrek 2011