Sport England has made changes to its Code for Sports Governance, as part of a renewed focus to ensure that sport bodies that receive public funding have a “detailed and ambitious” diversity and inclusion action plan in place.
The revised approach is primarily focused on ensuring bodies in receipt of significant public funding from Sport England or UK Sport increase diversity on their boards and senior leadership teams, as well as across their wider organisations.
The new requirements include the need for organisations to set plans and publish them, in order to more transparently chart where they are making progress – and where they might be falling behind.
Launched in 2016 by Sport England and UK Sport to drive improvement across all areas of governance, the Code has been applied to over 4,000 organisations who receive government or National Lottery funding from either organisation.
While SAPCA doesn’t receive public funding, and therefore isn’t directly under the “jurisdiction” of the code, the association has embraced the code’s main principles – including the appointment of independent, non-executive directors.
Welcoming the changes, SAPCA chief executive Chris Trickey, said: “When the Code for Sports Governance was first published, we were in the process of strengthening the governance of the association, and moving towards a skills-based board.
“Since then, we have reduced the number of elected positions and appointed people from across the sports and play construction sector to key board roles.
“That process was completed this year with the appointment of new board members for individuals to lead in key areas – such as strategy, business development, membership, technical and export promotion.
“We welcome the latest changes to the code. Having a professional, transparent approach at all levels of sport and physical activity can only make our sector stronger – especially at a time when we are set to play a crucial role in assisting the UK recovery from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Learn more about the Code for Sports Governance here.