CLUBMARK
What is it? and how does it affect your club and yourself?
Hopefully this guide will allow you to understand the purpose of Tennis Clubmark, and the benefits gained in driving your club towards recognising important standards such as child protection, good club management, assisting volunteers, equity and diversity, coaching, attracting new members and building up your club’s profile for the future.
Background:
Clubmark was introduced in 2002 by Sports England with several key aims:-
– To Develop a set of common criteria to ensure that consistent best practice and
minimum operating standards are delivered in accredited clubs, whatever the sport.
– To empower parents and carers when choosing a club for their children.
– To ensure that Clubmark accredited clubs are recognised through a common approach
to branding.
– To provide a forum to support good practice in sports clubs working with children and
young people.
Clubmark is currently being implemented across 24 sports. Each National Governing Body administers its own version of Clubmark. In Scotland Tennis Scotland acts for the LTA helping progress Clubmark accreditations throughout the country.
The LTA’s Clubmark:
Tennis clubs that have recently joined the scheme are finding it well worthwhile. Clubmark provides you with the tools and resources required to deliver a quality tennis development programme and to operate in line with best practice. A folder supplied by the L.T.A. guides you through the entire process.
Clubmark is not intended to be difficult to achieve or complicated to implement, nor is it unnecessarily bureaucratic. The many tangible benefits include :
– A free resource folder which is simple to follow and will navigate you through the criteria.
It is split into four sections, Club Action Planning, Tennis Programmes, Policies &
Procedures and Club Management.
– Each section starts with a checklist, listing all the documents you will need to provide in
order to secure Tennis Clubmark accreditation.
– Included in the folder is a CD Rom, guidance notes, resources and templates to help you
through the process.
– The entire process should take about 5/6 months to complete. Throughout this time
assistance can be obtained from Tennis Scotand.
Who Can Apply?:
Clubmark is available to all affiliated clubs in Scotland. The term “clubs” should be considered in the broadest context. It also includes commercial and community clubs, local authority leisure centres, schools, sports centres, traditional tennis clubs and multi sports clubs.
How to Apply:
If you wish to apply for Tennis Clubmark accreditation, you should contact Tennis Scotland, Edinburgh. Telephone 01314441984 or go to their website – www.tennisscotland.org.
And What’s Next:
You must identify one person to lead the entire process, along with nominating individuals to manage each of the four Sections. Try and choose people who already have expertise in these areas. Tennis Scotland will advise you and your colleagues what training courses you have to attend. The courses are staged within your locality and are fully funded by Sports Scotland, at no cost to yourself or your club.
Throughout your progress, Tennis Scotland will assist and navigate you through to completion and prepare you to be assessed
How will your completed file be assessed?:
A trained LTA or Tennis Scotland officer will assess your Clubmark evidence, within four weeks of submission. If all the supporting documentation is in place, your club will then receive an assessment visit by an L.T.A. trained officer. If you are successful you will receive :
– A tennis Clubmark certificate and plaque that can be displayed at your club.
– Permission to display the Tennis Clubmark logo within your clubhouse.
– Free publicity on the national Clubmark website, www.clubmark.org.uk
– Eligibility for L.T.A. funding.
– Permission to use the Clubmark logo on your clubs literature.
Review and Re-accreditation:
Tennis Clubmark is not intended to be a ONE-OFF quality accreditation award but an evolving process, capable of supporting your club as it continually improves and develops. There will be a review one year on from accreditation when you will be asked to review your clubs progress towards achieving the agreed club action plan and to complete a new action plan for the coming year.
After four years re-accreditation of the Tennis Clubmark status will need to be applied. The certificate must be valued as a kite mark for quality. It is likely that some additional work may be required to secure re-accreditation as three years will have passed since the last review.
The Benefits your Club will get:
The L.T.A. are striving towards a national club framework which helps clubs improve themselves. They want every club to be managed effectively and to ensure that they provide a safe environment for junior members to enjoy and play tennis. They will also endorse and support your tennis programmes, your policies and procedures, the hard working volunteers, along with your off and on court rules.
The Tennis Clubmark criteria have been customised to ensure that they are relevant to tennis, so many of our other sporting funders are stipulating that any club wishing to receive financial funding must be Clubmark accredited.
The L.T.A. can offer professional advice regarding, court resurfacing, floodlighting, coaches contracts, club constitutions, planning applications, child safety policies, free insurance, Wimbledon tickets for British Tennis Membership (BTM) risk assessment forms for coaches, code of conduct for people working with children, equity and diversity policies, a volunteer policy, volunteer check lists, coach licensing and registration.
The list is ENDLESS, the support is IMMENSE — DON’T MISS OUT !
and finally ………… BE THE BEST OF THE BEST!