What is Things to Think About based on and why has it been
developed?
We regularly receive requests from our core-funded sports bodies for help as they
develop their governance, finance and control frameworks.
Things to Think About (
TTTA
) has been designed to provide
support in that development, as well as to make details of
the standards we already assess in the sports bodies we
core-fund available to our wider group of stakeholders.
It is a series of governance, finance and control framework
prompt questions to help you think about how you govern, manage and
control your organisations, as well as useful website links with
further information.
TTTA
has been
developed by Sport England and UK Sport using an existing framework
– our self-assurance process.
What is the self-assurance process and how does
TTTA
link to it?
All core-funded sport bodies
receiving public funding from us are required to complete an online
‘self-assurance’ return annually. The self-assurance process is a
key responsibility of the Boards of our core funded bodies and
encourages continuous improvement. Completion of the process
provides assurance to us that our core funded bodies have adequate
governance, financial and control frameworks in place or have
actions planned to achieve the minimum standards we expect of
our core-funded bodies.
TTTA
is not part of
the assessment process but bodies we core fund can use it to
provide some self-assurance support. It also provides
all-year-round governance, finance and control framework support
not just to our core-funded bodies but also to all those involved
in governing and managing sport.
TTTA
is based on the
self-assurance return which is a standards checklist. Our
core-funded bodies measure themselves against these standards –
their evaluation is then reviewed, assessed and reported to us by a
firm of independent auditors. Meeting our assessed standards is
designed to help ensure that public funds are secure and managed
effectively by organisations that have robust governance, finance
and wider control frameworks.
The six high-level areas covered in the
self-assurance checklist are:
How to use the
TTTA
tool
As set out in the pyramid below, each of the
six high-level areas covered in our self-assurance process
breaks down to a small number of specific outcomes and then to a
number of detailed supporting outcomes.
Things to Think About goes one step further
than self-assurance. It provides help and advice in the form of
prompt questions and useful website links in relation to each of
the individual supporting outcomes (or building blocks) of
self-assurance.
Click on the links above or in the left hand menu to access the
TTTA
tool.

We hope you find this tool useful and
informative and that it helps you and your organisations continue
to build and maintain robust governance, finance and control
frameworks.
There is a great deal of information and advice in this
self-help tool. For that reason you might find it easier to use by
looking at bite-size chunks as and when required.