Code for Sports Governance strengthened following major review

• Major review highlights improvements made in sports governance over past five years, including in diversity & inclusion - but a need to go further
• Organisations which receive significant funding from Sport England & UK Sport will have to publish ambitious annual plans to accelerate diversity & inclusion at Board level and beyond
• Requirement to appoint a Director to lead on welfare and safety among other requirements introduced

While continuing to drive improvement across all areas of governance, the revised approach is primarily focused on ensuring that bodies in receipt of substantial public funding from Sport England and UK Sport have a detailed and ambitious Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan (DIAP) to increase the diversity on their Boards and senior leadership teams, as well as across their wider organisations. 

The requirement to set plans and publish them, focusing on organisations as a whole, will encourage transparency about where organisations are making progress and where they are falling behind.

Launched in 2016, the Code for Sports Governance has been applied to over 4,000 organisations that receive government and Lottery funding from Sport England and UK Sport. It has had a significant impact since its introduction, helping to improve the standard of governance across national sports organisations while accelerating the diversity of boards.

Since its introduction representation on Boards across sport from women, people from Black, Asian and other ethnically diverse backgrounds and those with a declared disability has increased notably.

The original Code contained a clear requirement for funded bodies to drive greater diversity on their Boards, helping female representation on the Boards of partners complying with the Code to rise to 44%.  Numbers have also risen in relation to representation from people from Black, Asian and other ethnically diverse backgrounds, and from those with a declared disability, increasing respectively to 13%*[1] (from 4% in 2015) and 13% (from 3% in 2015), reflecting the progress and desire of the sector to make change.

While progress has taken place, the review highlighted the need for organisations working in sport and physical activity to do more and go further, in considering how they can best reflect society as a whole, across a wider range protected characteristics as well as regional and socio-economic factors.

The evolution of the Code therefore puts a stronger emphasis on ensuring organisations have greater ambitions to drive up further diversity and inclusion across all aspects of their work. 

Following the conclusion of the review, Sport England and UK Sport can now confirm a number of changes:  

• Each relevant partner, including national governing bodies, will be required to agree a Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan (DIAP) with Sport England and UK Sport. The plans are expected to be ambitious and robust and set out clearly how partners will work to improve diversity and inclusion across their whole organisation – not just at Board level. The annual publication of DIAPs will deliver greater transparency about progress, allowing the public celebration of success but also highlighting where there are gaps and where some organisations fall behind. Organisations will be supported to set relevant benchmarks in specific areas and will be expected to publish their first plans by the end of next summer, with meaningful progress made within two years. Sport England and UK Sport will secure additional support to help develop and monitor DIAPs. If a sustained lack of commitment or progress is not evident, this will be deemed non-compliant and withdrawal of funding will be actively considered.
• To help strengthen welfare and safety in sport, organisations will be required to appoint a Director to take a lead in this area. This requirement follows other major work on this issue, including investing to support organisations with their own safeguarding work, and the expansion of the Safeguarding Case Management Service to help more sporting organisations access expert support.
• Organisations will now be asked to implement and promote good governance standards, including with respect to diversity and inclusion, throughout their wider operations.Good examples of where this is already happening include the Football Association's Code of Governance for County Football Associations and the England and Wales Cricket Board's County Governance Framework. Both of which are driving improved standards of governance and increased diversity across their county and regional organisations.
• The Code will require Boards to factor impact on stakeholders, the environment and wider society into their decisions and the actions implemented by their organisation. This might be in relation to transport or procurement policies, or how facilities are developed, for example.

Sport England and UK Sport will provide relevant investment and resource support with partners to help them meet the goals set out within each DIAP, including introducing targeted support to assist with monitoring and delivering progress, and extending their partnership with Perrett Laver by a further year. 

This programme works to identify and develop a network of senior, experienced candidates from a range of backgrounds, including women, people from Black, Asian and other ethnically diverse backgrounds disabled and LGBT+ people. So far it has supported 37 appointments made to sports boards, 65% of which have been from Black, Asian and other ethnically diverse backgrounds, 73% of which have been female, and 8% of which have been individuals with a declared impairment or health condition.  

Supported by £450k of funding from Sport England and UK Sport, new elements to this partnership confirmed today include:

• A pilot for improving diversity at regional/local level, mirroring the national programme that has been so successful.  Several National Governing Bodies are part of the pilot which will also support the new cascading Requirement in the Code.  
• Funding to support diverse recruitment at board level – enabling partners not only to benefit from the network Perrett Laver has developed but also to secure some support from Perrett Laver for specific recruitments.

To date, funded organisations have welcomed this initiative as a powerful way of ensuring they are able to access potential candidates who might previously not have been on their radar.

Candidates who have successfully come through this process include Jennifer Thomas (Non-Executive Director, England Netball), Tunji Akintokun MBE (Non-Executive Director, England Athletics), Sanjay Bhandari (Board Trustee, GreaterSport) and Kirsten Furber (Independent Non-Executive Director, British Wheelchair Basketball).

Chief Executive of Sport England, Tim Hollingsworth said:

“Today marks a milestone in the evolution of our sector, the way it is run and how we ensure fairness and inclusion for all. We are incredibly proud of the impact the Code for Sports Governance has had since 2016, and the way it has been adopted as a vehicle for meaningful and positive change.

“The changes announced today build on this momentum. We are confident that the new requirements - and the focus in particular on the impact of ambitious Diversity and Inclusion Action Plans - will be welcomed and embraced. It is a further step towards greater diversity of background, experience and understanding of sport and activity environments having a seat at the table at the very top of sporting organisations.”  

Chief Executive of UK Sport, Sally Munday said:

“The review undertaken into the Code for Sports Governance is an important part of UK Sport’s and Sport England’s commitment to ensuring the organisations we invest in are well governed. A huge driver for us is in supporting thriving organisations that reflect the diversity of the country we represent. 

“The review is a clear demonstration of the amount of positive change that can be made to drive good governance in sport, and that diversity of thought around board tables leads to better run organisations. The review has presented some clear next steps and we look forward to working with our partners and stakeholders to keep pushing up the standards of how high-performance sport is led and managed and to ensure our high-performance community is truly inclusive.”

Sports Minister Nigel Huddleston said:

"I firmly believe that sport should lead the way in good governance, diversity and inclusion. The launch of the Code for Sports Governance in 2016 marked a step change in governance standards across the sector. These changes announced today are the next phase in making sport stronger for the future.

"I'd like to thank UK Sport, Sport England and everyone that took part in the review for the important role they have played in setting new standards going forward. I look forward to continuing to work towards our shared goal of a robust, diverse and fair sports sector."    

Chief Executive of Activity Alliance, Barry Horne said:

“Activity Alliance welcomes the strong commitment to diversity and the proactive inclusion of disabled people in all aspects of sports governance and delivery. The code clearly requires sports organisations to build on the good progress being made on gender diversity. There is still much more work to do to ensure a clear commitment to equality for everyone, especially for disabled people. Bodies will now need to produce, and deliver on, meaningful plans to bring disabled people and other under-represented groups into the heart of their decision making.

“The days when organisations can assume they know how to deliver to diverse communities without involving them are over. We will work with Sport England and partners to achieve this genuinely inclusive vision and ensure there is greater fairness for disabled people in sport and activity.”

For more information visit Sport England’s website.

[1] 7.89% BAME and 4.87% ‘other’. Included as an option choice a part of the Diversity in Sport Governance Survey, ‘other’ could include people from a ‘white’ background who did not identify with a specific option choice (e.g. White British).