We take a look at Northumberland Sport's Club and Coach Development Officer Stephen Parsons, who as well as being the CSP's Clubmark expert, is also heavily involved with two Clubmark clubs.

Stephen began work for Northumberland Sport in January 2009 as Club and Coach Development Officer and a key focus of his work programme is to support local community sports clubs and provide specific help to enable them to achieve Clubmark accreditation.

Stephen was part of the Northumberland Sport team (which included colleagues from three other north east county sports partnerships) which earned its Clubmark license in April 2010 following successful completion of Assessor Training.

One of his responsibilities is to monitor clubs through the accreditation process and he applies the knowledge gained from the Assessor Training to identify areas for support, specifically with applications from Athletics, Cricket and Netball clubs.

Stephen has recently been involved in the review and accreditation of two disability clubs, a modern pentathlon club and four angling clubs as part of the ‘North East Regional Assessment Panel' for Clubmark.

He is also heavily involved with two Clubmark clubs: Morpeth Rugby Club and Morpeth Cricket Club (read the Morpeth Cricket Club case study here) both as a team player and a coach supporting the Ladies and Under 8's section at rugby and the Under 13's at cricket.

Stephen's voluntary contributions have led to him becoming a member of both club committees as coaching co-ordinator and these roles have enabled him a greater understanding of accreditation demands, issues and benefits - making him the ideal contact for clubs needing advice.

Since achieving its license, Northumberland Sport has accredited 4 junior sports clubs and it is currently working with more local sports clubs and partners to push the total  numbers of accredited clubs in the area up to the 100 mark before 2012.

For more information about becoming accredited through Northumberland Sport please visit
http://www.northumberlandsport.co.uk/clubs/club-accreditation