The Equity Standard - A Framework for Sport
West Yorkshire Sport are delighted to announce we have achieved the foundation level of the Equality Standard - A Framework for Sport.
The Equality Standard - A framework for Sport
West Yorkshire Sport has achieved the foundation level of the Equality Standard which is a guide for sports and community organisations. It will assist us with developing structures and processes assessing performance and ensuring continuous improvement in equality.
Introduction
Lord Carter at the Equality in Sport Conference on 9th November 2004 launched The Equality Standard: A Framework for Sport (The Standard).The Equality Standard is a framework and vehicle for widening access and increasing the participation and involvement in sport and physical activity from under represented individuals, groups and communities, especially women and girls, ethnic minority groups and disabled people. It will assist sports organisations in developing equality-proofed policies, structures and processes and will allow for performance to be assessed, ensuring continuous improvement in equality.
The Standard is a collaboration of the four Home Country Sports Councils and UK Sport, and is supported by the Central Council of Physical Recreation, the Women’s Sports Foundation, the English Federation of Disability Sport and Sporting Equals. Progress through The Standard is a mandatory condition within the national funding agreements involving Sport England, National Governing Bodies (NGBs) of Sport and national and regional sports organisations in England. For those NGBs with a UK wide remit UK Sport has linked the achievement of each level within the Standard with models of good governance as outlined in Investing in Change.
Implementation
A new website detailing the implementation of the Equality Standard will be launched by the Home Countries in April 2006. In the interim period, further information is being hosted by Vaga Associates, and can be viewed at: www.equalitystandard.org.
The Standard Explained
The Standard is based on two broad areas of activity:
Developing Your Organisation - This will be a reflection of the culture, policies, leadership and people.
Developing Your Services - This activity refers to the impact that policies, leadership and people have on an organisation’s programmes, communications and customer service.
There are four levels of achievement, Foundation, Preliminary, Intermediate and Advanced:
Foundation (achieved May 2007) - The organisation is committed to equality and that commitment is communicated to all staff and volunteers.
Preliminary - The organisation is clear about what it needs to do to achieve equality, it understands the issues and barriers faced by under-represented groups in sport and has a robust equality action plan which all staff, volunteers and key stakeholders understand.
Intermediate - The organisation is increasing opportunities for participation and involvement by a diverse range of people including representation on its own leadership, staff, board and senior volunteers. All internal policies pay due regard to diversity.
Advanced- Leadership and staff, including coaches and officials as well as participants are offered a fair and equal opportunity and are reflective of the community the organisation serves. Equality is central to the way an organisation carries out all of its work. All affiliated organisations and clubs are able to engage and develop participants, coaches, officials and administrators from under-represented groups.
Equality Standard
The Equality Standard is a framework developed to assist sports organisations to widen access and reduce inequalities in sport and physical activity from under representative individuals groups and communities, especially women & girls, ethnic minority groups and disabled people. The standard helps assess the performance of the County Sports Partnership on all aspects of equality.
The Standard will enable West Yorkshire Sport to:
- Provide a framework for achieving equality in sport.
- Ensure democracy and the sound governance of the sport
- Increase the number of participants, members, coaches, officials, spectators and volunteers.
- Help meet legal duties
- Enhance the skills and knowledge base of Staff and Volunteers
- Increase active involvement in equality at every level
- Improve equality practices through monitoring and evaluation and review methods
- Improve chances of accessing funding and sponsorship
Further details of the Standard can be found at: http://www.sportengland.org/the_equality_standard.pdf
