Introduction
Lord Carter at the Equality in Sport Conference on 9^th November 2004 launched The Equality Standard: A Framework for Sport (The Standard).The Equality Standard is a framework and vehicle for widening access and increasing the participation and involvement in sport and physical activity from under represented individuals, groups and communities, especially women and girls, ethnic minority groups and disabled people. It will assist sports organisations in developing equality-proofed policies, structures and processes and will allow for performance to be assessed, ensuring continuous improvement in equality.

The Standard is a collaboration of the four Home Country Sports Councils and UK Sport, and is supported by the Central Council of Physical Recreation, the Women’s Sports Foundation, the English Federation of Disability Sport and Sporting Equals. Progress through The Standard is a mandatory condition within the national funding agreements involving Sport England, National Governing Bodies (NGBs) of Sport and national and regional sports organisations in England. For those NGBs with a UK wide remit UK Sport has linked the achievement of each level within the Standard with models of good governance as outlined in Investing in Change.

Implementation
A new website detailing the implementation of the Equality Standard will be launched by the Home Countries in April 2006. In the interim period, further information is being hosted by Vaga Associates, and can be viewed at: www.equalitystandard.org.

The Standard Explained
The Standard is based on two broad areas of activity:

• Developing Your Organisation – This will be a reflection of the culture, policies, leadership and people.
• Developing Your Services - This activity refers to the impact that policies, leadership and people have on an organisation’s programmes, communications and customer service.

There are four levels of achievement, Foundation, Preliminary, Intermediate and Advanced:

• Foundation – The organisation is committed to equality and that commitment is communicated to all staff and volunteers.
• Preliminary – The organisation is clear about what it needs to do to achieve equality, it understands the issues and barriers faced by under-represented groups in sport and has a robust equality action plan which all staff, volunteers and key stakeholders understand.
• Intermediate – The organisation is increasing opportunities for participation and involvement by a diverse range of people including representation on its own leadership, staff, board and senior volunteers. All internal policies pay due regard to diversity.
• Advanced- Leadership and staff, including coaches and officials as well as participants are offered a fair and equal opportunity and are reflective of the community the organisation serves. Equality is central to the way an organisation carries out all of its work. All affiliated organisations and clubs are able to engage and develop participants, coaches, officials and administrators from under-represented groups.

Assessment and Verification of achievements
In order to make progress through the Equality Standard for Sport framework, organisations will have to provide, for each level, a portfolio of evidence of their achievements. Portfolios will then be assessed and verified by panels employed and convened by relevant Sports Councils. NB. Organisations that have achieved the Preliminary Level of the Racial Equality Standard in Sport can use this as part of the evidence needed for the Equality Standard for Sport.

Milestones
All national governing bodies in England have agreed to implement the Standard as an integral part of their whole sport plans. They are committed to achieving the preliminary level of the Standard by March 2006.

It is anticipated that NGBs and Sports Organisations should be in a state of readiness for assessment by March 2006.

Sport England is obliged to demonstrate leadership by not just encouraging our partners to implement the Standard, but to implement it ourselves within the organisation. It is the right thing to do and our partners expect no less.

Roger Draper has therefore committed Sport England to implementing the Equality Standard, and to achieve the preliminary level by March 2006.

Support available

• Consultants have been employed to develop guidance and processes to implement the Standard as well as providing individual support to NGBs and sports organisations on a case-by-case basis.
• A Directory of Equality Trainers and training opportunities is being developed to complement this equality work.
• Representatives from each of the Equity Partners in England will be available to provide support and advice relating to the development, promotion and implementation of the Standard.
• Web site support will be available. Progress of developments and a series of guidance notes and fact sheets will be included on the site.

Implementation of the Standard within Sport England will be facilitated by training programmes, including the computer-based Fairness and Inclusion training, and equity impact assessment training, which will be available by April 2005.