What is club accreditation and what are the benefits to my club?

Club accreditation schemes involve the club demonstrating that it meets a set of criteria in areas such as duty of care, equality, club management, training and competition. These schemes recognise quality sports clubs and can be extremely rewarding. Benefits & rewards can include:

Subsidised services and further development opportunities through the sportessex Club Benefits Package

Certification

Use of accreditation logo for promotional purposes

Preferential access to national schemes and funding opportunities

Being better organised and resourced as a club, and able to develop further

Recognition by parents/carers, meaning increased membership if desired

Recognition by schools, meaning improved school/club links

Recognised by sports professionals, meaning possible access to promotion and  support with funding applications

Eligibility for the sportessex Sports Awards 

Recognition of accreditation on the sportessex website

Accreditation is increasingly seen as essential to the progression of a club and for access to services.

 

What types of accreditation exist?

Clubmark

Clubmark is a national cross-sport accreditation scheme for clubs with junior sections and aims to ensure that clubs serve these young people well. For sports clubs that provide opportunities for children and young people to participate in sport, Clubmark helps clubs to improve the quality of their service provision order to:

Ensure the well-being of young people whilst in the care of adults, other than their legal parent(s)/carer(s).

Enthuse young people to enjoy sport and active recreation to build a healthy and active lifestyle.

Enable young people to use their leisure time creatively.

Allow young people to optimise their talents and personal ability.

Identify and support the development of the most talented young people.

Many NGBs (National Governing Bodies for Sport) and County Sport Partnerships (CSPs) offer Clubmark to proven high quality clubs. To find out if your NGB offers Clubmark, click here If not, sportessex have recently become a licensing organisation and you may be eligible to apply for sportessex Clubmark; contact us for more details.

A new scheme called EFDS Clubmark is currently being piloted around the country. The scheme targets those clubs that cannot take an NGB/CSP Clubmark route and meet the following criteria: multi-sport/multi-disability, single-sport/multi-disability, single-sport/single disability or multi-sport/single-disability, which have an open constitution. sportessex are involved in this pilot…watch this space for developments.

Click here to see the national database of clubs with Clubmark

Other Schemes

Alternative accreditation schemes are available to some sports, including the Football Association's Charter Standard award. Please contact sportessex or your NGB for further information.

To find out more about these schemes, or to register your interest in applying, please contact: Colin Bennett here or on 01245 702459.