For sport to continue to thrive in the UK, it is essential that sports bodies are effective and sustainable organisations. The world of sport, and the one in which sport takes centre stage to inspire and enrich lives, are changing at a faster rate than ever before. The impact of Covid-19, as well as increasing financial pressures, regulatory responsibilities, technological advances, competition and fragmentation both from within and outside of sport, and expectations in meeting demands from fans and evolving societal needs, are among some of the major challenges that sports organisations need to contend with and address on a daily basis in order to survive and grow.
Since its launch in 2016, the Code for Sports Governance has helped to enhance governance standards across British sport. However, in the face of this uncertain and complex landscape, it has become ever more vital that sports bodies are able to exhibit organisational excellence and resilience across a multitude of areas, which include and go beyond governance. We believe this is integral not only to the long-term health of sport, but also to sustaining high-performance success.
As a result, one of the priorities set out in UK Sport’s 2021-31 Strategic Plan is to build long-term organisational health across sports and the wider sector. We are therefore excited to introduce the ‘Organisational Health Tool’ - our first, comprehensive step to better understand the health of National Governing Bodies (NGBs) and inform how we can best support them to be well-run, effective and sustainable organisations, operating within a connected and thriving sporting system.
The Tool consists of four thematic areas, which we believe underpin great Organisational Health:
Each of these areas is divided into a number of components. These components are not independent of one another but as a whole, they will help NGBs and other organisations to not only sustain but also transform themselves into healthy sporting enterprises, delivering success on and off the field of play.
The Tool is designed to be used in a number of ways:
- As a support and self-reflective tool to help sports bodies to better understand their own organisational health, whilst improving their resilience and growth.
- To help UK Sport build a cohesive picture of each funded NGB through regular and trusted engagement, as well as the systematic collation and review of relevant data and insights linked to each of the components. This will shape our continuous understanding of organisational issues and developments impacting our funded partners; our ability to identify and react to risks, trends and opportunities across the system; and the type of advice and support we provide to individual organisations and across the system.
- To inform bespoke development programmes or funding that UK Sport will put in place to help NGBs strengthen the health of their organisation. To deliver this, we will collaborate closely with our funded partners and the Home Country Sports Councils to ensure more efficient and effective use of resources and share learnings that are beneficial across the sporting community.
The Tool has been developed with input from external partners. It is intended to be for – and used by – sports bodies, UK Sport and other partners. It is purposely agile, in order to be adapted and evolve over time to ensure it remains relevant and valuable to sport.
Notably, the Tool is not a list of requirements for partners in receipt of funding from UK Sport to comply with, but a guide on what we understand would make sports bodies sustainable and successful in this complex landscape in which we all operate. The indicators for each of the components are listed as examples (rather than a definitive list) and some duplicate or overlap across different areas, given how interconnected many of these are.
UK Sport is determined to engage and work collaboratively with partners to support their continuous improvement and transformation. We are therefore excited to work with you in using the Tool; see how it benefits the sporting community and how it can be improved; and ensure it plays its part in helping us all grow a system which is healthy and thriving - for the good of sport and society.
To explore the four areas of the Organisational Health Tool use the navigation buttons above. Alternatively, you can download a version of the full Organisational Health Tool below:
Download the Organisational Health Tool (Interactive format)
Download the Organisational Health Tool (Accessible format)
The Organisational Health Tool
