Information for clubs
Sport North Tyneside can help you help your club grow and fulfil its potential. Good club development is based on your current position, capacity and aspirations.
Sport North Tyneside is providing opportunities for coaches and talented young athletes to apply for funding through our sports grants. For more information about Sport North Tyneside Sports Grants please click on the link.
Clubs can also access local sport courses through the Tyne & Wear Sport Coach Education Programme, for more information about the courses that are available please click on the link above.
Whether consolidating or expanding, recruiting more members or improving services for existing members, every club should take a moment to stop and think. Sports clubs are becoming more professional driven by a desire to improve. The most effective way to develop your club is to apply a simple planning process to set your club on the path to a better future. The benefits include:
- Better use of club resources - people, money and facilities
- Better chances of receiving funding support
- Better services for current members and attracting new members
- Better relationships with the local community
Clubs should not feel obliged to plan – it is more a question of having an informed, objective look at the club’s future, and don’t forget Sport North Tyneside are willing to help you.
How to plan
Before you start planning, remember the groundwork:
- Consult club members, to create shared ownership of the plan
- Create a working group, who will be responsible for developing and implementing the plan
- Decide whether you want to develop a long-term development plan or a short-term action plan or both
The planning process is made up of four parts.
1. The audit - where are we now?
All clubs provide varying sporting opportunities for many different levels and abilities, therefore before you can begin to plan for the future it is important that you consider the clubs current circumstances. By carrying out an audit the club can identify its strengths and weaknesses, as well as look at any possible opportunities or threats for development. This process will provide a clear base for setting some realistic aims and objectives for the clubs future.
Before your club can begin to plan for the future, it is important to consider the clubs particular circumstances and what opportunities it currently provides. The easiest way to do this is to work through a club audit. The club audit should be used as a guide for a SWOT analysis:
- Strengths - e.g. lots of volunteer helpers
- Weaknesses - e.g. few qualified volunteer helpers or coaches
- Opportunities -e.g. potential links with the local secondary school
- Threats -e.g. reduction in junior members this season
In addition to your own club audit, you can also explore the local sports provision and identify what support is available from other sports providers or partners in the area. For example, there may be coaches or officials working for North Tyneside Council who may be able to offer your club some additional support.
2. The aims - where do we want to be?
Having undertaken the audit you will have established your current status and started the process of identifying the clubs main objectives for the future. Ensure your aims are SMART:
- Specific to your club
- Measurable – consider how the clubs progress will be assessed
- Agreed – it is vital that the club involves all committee staff and coaches in the process
- Realistic – the aims should be challenging yet achievable
- Timescales – the club must consider the time needed to achieve the aims
You should now be ready to formulate an action plan to identify how you will achieve these objectives.
3. The plan - how will we get there?
The plan identifies how you will achieve the club’s aims. Therefore, you will need to break down each aim into specific targets for your club to achieve in the first year and some proposed targets for future years.
In order to produce an action plan you will need to go through the following five questions:
- The target - what do you want to achieve?
- The action – how can it be achieved?
- Timescale – when will it be done?
- Led by - who is going to do it?
- Cost - what it will cost in terms of money, time, people and facilities
This plan may also be used as a business plan when applying for funding grants.
4. The review - how well did we do?
Once the action plan has been agreed, it is vital that it is reviewed and updated at least annually. Monitoring and reviewing your club’s progress is invaluable for ensuring that the club continues to move forward.
Accreditation
To ensure peace of mind for members and to recognise the high standards that your club meets, it is a good idea to seek accreditation.
Clubmark - www.clubmark.org.uk - is the only national cross-sports accreditation scheme for clubs with junior sections. It is built around a set of core criteria, which ensure that accredited clubs operate to a set of consistent, accepted and adopted minimum operating standards. Visit www.clubmark.org.uk/about/about-sport-england for more information.
Sport England - www.sportengland.org.uk - recognises and values the commitment made by sports clubs to develop high quality, welcoming environments for young participants. The development of clubs that encourage young people to take-up sport, improve their talents and give them the option to initiate and maintain life-long participation in sport is an essential part of our work to support the sporting infrastructure in England.
For a list of governing bodies click here - http://www.sportengland.org/about_us/recognised_sports.aspx
Promote your club
Sport North Tyneside can help you promote your club. Whether you want a section on this website or put on a taster session, please e-mail sport@northtyneside.gov.uk
The Promoting Sport website has a wide range of resources available to help you promote your club.
CRB checks
The Office of the Third Sector has published guidance to help organisations that use volunteers to be clear about when they do and don’t need to carry out Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) checks on volunteers.
The guidance clearly explains how the check works as part of a proper risk management process. Other safeguards such as interviewing, training and taking references from potential volunteers can also be employed.
Download guidance - New Guidance on CRB Checks for Volunteers. To order a hardcopy of the guidance, call 0845 015 0010 and quote URN 08/Z1.