What is the Community Sports Coach scheme?

The headline objective for the Community Sports Coach scheme is to establish 3,000 paid, qualified Community Sports Coaches working at local level to increase the number and range of coaching opportunities according to strategic and local need by 2006. It is intended that the scheme will result in:

 • A step change in developing a career structure for coaching;

• An increase in the number of qualified coaches employed at a local level;

• Quality standards for the recruitment, employment, management and development of coaches;

• Managed, quality continuous professional development support for employed coaches; and

• High-quality coaching with a focus on young people.

The development of a pool of high-quality Community Sports Coaches will not only contribute to enhancing the quality of existing activity but also provide the opportunity to generate substantial new activity over time. The pool of Community Sports Coaches will be employed in a geographical area and will work as a team across a range of clubs, schools and local authorities, based on identified need and deployed in such a way to ensure that the maximum number of young people benefit.

The funding available through the scheme should be considered as one element of an overall strategic approach to the development of the coaching workforce at a local level, including attracting new people into coaching and support for existing coaches working in a voluntary capacity. This strategic approach will need to consider recruitment, employment and deployment, training and development, retention and communication, linked to the ultimate goal of creating a world-class coaching system as outlined in the UK Vision for Coaching.

Please see http://www.sportscoachuk.org/NR/rdonlyres/9E98CE9A-BF31-4620-A614-D514D31A0B28/0/uk_coaching_vision.pdf for the complete document

What is a Community Sports Coach?

A Community Sports Coach:

• Is a qualified National Governing Body coach with the relevant experience for the coaching role;

• Is committed to continuous professional development;

• Agrees to abide by a code of conduct; and

• Has been checked by the Criminal Records Bureau.

Employed on a full or part-time basis by an employing body operating to minimum standards, Community Sports Coaches will be deployed with a core focus of work across schools, clubs and local authorities to:

• Coach young people, predominantly outside of curriculum time, to develop core movement and sport skills across a number of sports or with a particular focus on one sport;

• Coach at a local level with a focus on the FUNdamentals/Learning to Train or equivalent development phases of NGB player pathways; and

• Retain young people in sport by ensuring a high-quality, enjoyable, young-person-centred experience and providing guidance on progression opportunities based on the young person’s interests and abilities.

The core sport focus for the Community Sports Coach scheme will be the first 31 sports to be involved in the National Coaching Certificate, with some local flexibility based on identified local need.