Sport Wales Advisory Group
Here Helen Humphrey, the Chair of the Sport Wales Advisory Group, updates how the group has been scanning the horizons to provide insight on the future challenges facing the sector.
It's hard to believe that we are now more than half way through the first two year term of the Advisory Group. The group was set up by Sport Wales to harness the skills, experience and insight of leading figures from commerce, health, communications, education and leisure. We’re an independent group of 14 volunteers which aims to research trends which will impact sport and society in the today and the tomorrow. With Sport Wales’ board often concerned with the here and now, our brief is to focus on long term vision.
After a thorough analysis of where our energies could be most effective, our first year had been spent working on two projects which we feel can add real value to the sector.
We knew that Sport Wales was dedicated to making a nation of champions and getting every child hooked on sport. At the heart of this, and laid out in Sport Wales’ Coaching Strategy 2010-16, is getting more of the nation involved in coaching and volunteering. Sport Wales has set out really ambitious targets which it’s met. This includes getting 10% of the Welsh population actively involved in coaching and volunteering in sport. That’s an increase from 113,000 to 240,000, or just shy of two Millennium Stadium-fuls.
Our group felt that in order to achieve this, volunteering needed a makeover, a re-framing to pull more of the population into a pastime which asks so much but can give so much back. The result of this is Give to Gain- a framework which we’re confident can help organisations from the local bowls club to an NGB create an environment which can both secure and galvanise existing volunteers while delivering the growth Sport Wales is committed to delivering. The framework has been approved by the Sport Wales board and discussions are currently with the workforce team.
Our second project is Acting Today for an Active Tomorrow. This piece of work is working with world class research partners to scan the horizons of society and sport to determine the interventions that the sector needs to make to ensure that come the 2026 Commonwealth Games, our nation is placing on the podiums and not stuck on the sofa. The commercial background of our group has meant we’ve been able to sign up nine partners to help fund this project, from the health, education and third sectors, and in these tightened times we hope this can show the sector a new way of working. The sector will be seeing the results of this work in the autumn. We’re excited about the findings of the project and are confident it’ll give everyone in sport direction on how they can remain relevant against competing pressures in an ever-evolving, technology-infatuated society.
Our work continues on both projects. Our aim is that our findings benefit the whole sector, providing insight and guidance for improved delivery against a backdrop of continued reductions in resources.
If you’d like to contact the group to feed in your thoughts for how we can support the sector, please do contact us at advisorygroup@sportwales.org.uk
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