Schools Competition Developments: Bulletin 2

Introduction
This bulletin provides a brief update of the latest developments around the emerging National Schools Competitions framework and the new Competition Managers who will be employed in School Sport Partnerships from September 2005. The bulletin will be updated regularly and used in a variety of settings to inform partners of progress. Bulletin 1 was published in June 2005, and this second bulletin reports on further progress to date. It will also be uploaded on the following web sites:

• www.teachernet.gov.uk/pe
• www.sportengland.org
• www.youthsporttrust.org
• http://www.yst.org.uk/ncss/

For further details on the National Schools Competition Framework contact Roger Davis on info.ncss@youthsporttrust.org
For further details on the Competition Managers contact Andy Martin on andy.martin@youthsporttrust.org

Background
In December 2004 the Government announced additional funding of £519 million for 2006 to 2008 to continue and expand the national PE, School Sport and Club Links (PESSCL) strategy. Part of this will fund the employment of new Competition Managers in School Sport Partnerships. These will contribute significantly to the ambition that by 2010 a high quality school sport national competition framework implemented locally with opportunities for all will have been developed. It is now recognised that high quality competition is one of the four key elements within high quality physical education and school sport, for ALL young people (see diagram).

A National Schools Competition Framework
In recent months following initial work by the Youth Sport Trust, Sport England, and the National Council for School Sport a National Schools Competition Framework has been developed which complements the principles of long term athlete development. A wide ranging consultation is at present being undertaken with a large number of National Governing Bodies and National School Sport Associations.

This approach will provide consistency to competition structures across sports that reflects the local player pathway development being undertaken by County Sport Partnerships. The content of this framework, shown below, will be ‘customised’ for a range of sports. To date, 16 have expressed an interest in being involved, 7 of which will be included from September 2005 as follows:

• Rugby Union
• Netball
• Gymnastics
• Swimming
• Badminton
• Tennis
• Table Tennis

These frameworks will be finalised for September 2005 for delivery by Competition managers in 20 pilot areas across the country. Each NGB is working closely with their National Schools Association (where one exists) to review their competitions so as to strategically develop a new integrated structure from inter school (local), inter district (county level) and above using the new families of schools as geographic units for Competition. The challenge here is to not create a parallel system but ensure that the right youngsters play in the right competition, talent is given the chance to rise and school club conflicts are resolved.

Phase 2 Sports
A recent seminar for all those sports involved was held to share the lessons learned so far, to report progress on the development of  frameworks in phase 1 sports  and to encourage a ‘critical friend’ approach between sports.  The following have been confirmed in phase 2 to produce their frameworks by April 2006. These sports will start detailed discussions with the NCSS in September.
Cricket, Rugby League, Hockey, Orienteering and Volleyball (TBC)

Phase 3 Sports
The following sports have expressed a wish to be in phase 3. They will be self assessing their readiness in preparation for assessment by the National Operations group in September. This will mean opening discussions in April 06, and their framework going live September 2006.
Golf, Basketball, Rounders, Rowing, Football, Lacrosse, Judo, Canoeing

Competition Managers
An initial investment from the PESSCL strategy will result in 20 Competition managers being in place from September 2005. Interest in these posts has been significant and following a successful round of local briefings with all key partners by the Youth Sport Trust and interviews at county level, all 20 posts have recently been appointed in 5 County Sport Partnership areas.  These are: West Yorkshire, Cornwall, Hampshire, Sussex and Greater Sport, Manchester.: A copy of a draft job description is attached, these were adapted to suit the local circumstances (see APPENDIX 1).

The Competition Managers will be an integral part of the School Sport Partnerships and be line managed by Partnership Development Managers. Their overall role will be to manage and co-ordinate the planning and implementation of the National Schools Competition Framework through a programme of inter-school competition within the School Sport Partnership. They will be complementing and developing existing provision (where it is good practice); and ensure that the competition programme is linked with the equivalent programs delivered by other School Sport partnerships within the CSP/local area. They will also liaise with the County Sports Partnership, NGB’s at county and regional level and the local School Sports Associations to ensure that the programme also fits into the wider context.

Role of County Sports Partnerships.
Following discussions with the 5 CSP areas involved in the pilots (West Yorkshire, Cornwall, Hampshire, Sussex and Greater Sport), their important role to broker and support the interface with county NGBS, School Sport Associations; as well as School sport partnerships and other key stakeholders is now agreed and is outlined in the attached document (see APPENDIX 2) CSP managers will establish and co-ordinate pilot area meetings between themselves and NGBs about brokering relationships between all key stakeholders at county level

Communication, Implementation and Networking Opportunities
A 3 day national induction program will be held for competition managers on the 13/14/15^th September at Loughborough. CSP and sport partners will be contributing. A CPD programme at national and local level will also be developed. A  Competition Managers “handbook” is being drafted for the pilot to include generic information and advice, as well as sports specific information on each sports competition framework and key networks. There will be ongoing induction for Competition mangers as part of the PDM conference on 2/3 November in Nottingham at the East Midlands conference centre.

Each sport has started to communicate this work to their regional and county networks. In particular they will link the evolution of their competition framework to on-going athlete/player pathway developments within each sport where appropriate.

Conclusion
London’s successful Olympic bid for 2012 has brought into sharp focus the importance of our school sport competition structure and our volunteer and young leader networks. The development of the National School competition framework and the role of Competition managers provides great opportunities to increase the numbers of young people taking part in high quality competitive school sport in future.