News

De Vere Deluxe Carden Park recognised for junior development

Future golfing champions will be hailing from Cheshire it seems. The region's leading golf resort, De Vere Deluxe Carden Park, has just been honoured with two accreditations that recognise its work in developing junior golf.The course was awarded the English Golf Union (EGU) & English Ladies Golf Association (ELGA) ‘Golfmark' Award and Sport England's Clubmark Accreditation.

Focus on club development in Merseyside

In 2007 Merseyside Sports Partnership embarked on finding out how many quality clubs there were in Merseyside, gaining the Clubmark Licence, putting in place a monitoring tool to manage the number of clubs working towards and achieving Clubmark and also supporting the partnership to develop high quality support to Clubs.

Spotlight on…Stephen De Wint

Steve is Chief Executive of the Lincolnshire Sports Partnership, and has been a member of the national Clubmark Advisory panel since September 2006.

Go-Row in London...Tideway Scullers celebrates a trio of triumphs

Clubmark-accredited Tideway Scullers School Boat Club (TSS) is celebrating a triple success this September.

The club is recognising the work of key volunteer Alec Hodges, success at the World Rowing Championships and a grant to support youth rowing.

Case Studies

GreaterSport - A License to Deliver!

Earlier this year GreaterSport - The Greater Manchester County Sport Partnership gained a license to award Clubmark. This means clubs working towards their National Governing Body accreditation can receive additional support and also clubs with an NGB that is not licensed to deliver Clubmark can now also achieve Clubmark by fulfilling the generic criteria. 

Introducing policy to support Clubmark

Northamptonshire is one local authority that has recognised the value of supporting and encouraging clubs to achieve and retain Clubmark accreditation. In 2006, Northamptonshire County Council introduced a policy of supporting junior development through Clubmark clubs which use education establishments across Northampton.

Operational update

CSP update

CSPs have an increasingly important role to play in the development of Clubmark. Following the successful delivery of the licensing programme with NGBs in year one, it is recognised that this work needs to be expanded to include CSPs in order that they can license those clubs whose NGBs are unable to do so at present.

John Bell, Chair of the Merseyside Sports Partnership Board commented:

" Developing quality clubs is a key priority for the Merseyside Sports Partnership and together we can support clubs to increase club membership and have access to resources, whilst being recognised as a quality environment for young people to go"

CSPs will be driving Clubmark, offering support to ensure that the distribution of Clubmark clubs by number, sport and geographic location is maximised.

The process of licensing CSPs is currently underway and excellent progress has been made in the North West, East and the South East regions. CSPs that can currently accredit clubs from non-aligned NGBs are GreaterSport, Suffolk Sport and the Merseyside Sports Partnership.

Speaking about her experience of the licensing process, and its importance to clubs in Merseyside, Natalie Woodford comments "This has given us the opportunity to examine the practices and procedures that we have put in place to support clubs."

In addition, the following CSPs have all completed a significant amount of work towards the licensing process and are either working with or looking for pilot clubs to take through the process:

• Leicestershire and Rutland Sports Partnership
• Derbyshire Sports Partnership
• Northamptonshire Sports Partnership
• Norfolk Sports Partnership
• Oxfordshire Sports Partnership
• Kent Sports Development Unit
• Essex Sports Partnership
• Bedfordshire and Luton Sports Partnership
• Living Sport, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Sports Partnership

Other CSPs which have committed to the process are:

• Hampshire and Isle of Wight Sports Partnership
• Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes Sports Partnership
• Berkshire Sports Partnership
• Active Surrey Sports Partnership
• Sussex Sport 
• Lancashire Sport 
•  Sport across Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent

Natalie Smith at Northamptonshire Sport has recently been involved with training of national assessors at her partnership and comments that "We have received excellent feedback from the training led by Clare MacLeod, National Clubmark Manager and Principal Consultant at KKP. This has given our team and partners a much greater understanding of the key elements of Clubmark and will ensure that we drive accreditation onwards and upwards."

The added impetus that CSPs will give us will ensure that we have 10,000 Clubmark accredited clubs by 2012. 

Summary of accredited clubs

Congratulations to those clubs accredited in September