County Sport Partnership (CSP) benchmarking documents were first produced in 2008 to show the number and distribution of Clubmark accredited and working towards clubs in each CSP area.

Following positive feedback they are now produced on a biannual basis. A mixture of maps, graphs and tables are used to indicate the robustness of Clubmark within each CSP and local authority area. In the latest round of reports circulated around the 49 county sports partnerships, direct comparisons are now made for the financial year April 2009 and March 2010, showing trends at both CSP and Local Authority level. Although ‘League tables' of performance at a national level are not included, some interesting facts have been thrown up as a result of the latest exercise:

• All CSPs have seen impressive increases in Clubmark accreditation, with the nation as a whole seeing an increase of over 20% in accredited clubs, year-on-year.
• Four of the ‘Top-10' performing CSPs, ranked by highest number of accreditations, are in the South East, reflecting the strong position of Clubmark in the region.
• Three of the ‘Top 10 ‘most-improved' CSPs, ranked by increased percentage in accreditations, are in the London region. Year-on-year, the capital region alone has seen 110 additional clubs welcomed in to the Clubmark family.
• ‘Active Surrey' features prominently in both of the above Top-10 lists. Having not been in either list six months ago, the CSP is currently returning both high levels of accreditation and increasing levels of growth.

These reports have been extremely well received by the 49 CSP directors, who will now circulate to their local authority colleagues:

• Thank you for another excellent report on Clubmark accreditation for our CSP. I shall forward to our local authorities/CSPANs as I know they find it very useful information ... Christine Double, PRO-ACTIVE South London.
• Thank you very much for this report, it is really clear and very useful data and intelligence for us to share with partners ...Doug Lowery, Northumberland Sport.
• It is always refreshing to receive quality information and move beyond rhetoric. We will be discussing this information to ensure that we use and deploy it to maximum advantage ...Mike Thomas, Cornwall Sports Partnership.
• Thank you very much - very timely for annual reporting purposes! ...Sadie Mason, Sussex Sports Partnership.

The maps by sport and region have also been updated and can be downloaded from http://www.clubmark.org.uk/members-area/clubmark-maps