To help the sports sector continue to improve and evolve, we share our expertise to help our colleagues, partners and stakeholders improve the way they govern sports.
We also support national governing bodies (NGBs) by establishing frameworks that make it easier for them to access specialist services, and often act in a consultancy role on areas including commercial, innovation and programme development.
The Knowledge Hub is a platform that we use to share knowledge and best practice, and to encourage collaboration across NGBs and other professional entities that receive core market funding from us.
Access to the site is therefore currently restricted to organisations that receive our core market funding. If you’re unsure whether your organisation has access to the site, please email us at CoreMarket@sportengland.org.
The Knowledge Hub features the following:
Please note that we manage and moderate access to the site.
Developed alongside UK Sport and launched in October 2016, the Code for Sports Governance sets out the levels of transparency, accountability and financial integrity you’ll be required to meet if you’re applying for government or National Lottery funding.
Our Evaluation Framework website will help you evaluate funding streams and projects effectively, and ensure you get maximum value from measurement and evaluation.
It has easy-to-follow guidance and resources that you can use or adapt alongside your own tools to develop the right approach specific to your organisation.
We provide a list of firms that have committed to giving fixed fees, discounted rates and other value-added services.
When contacting firms, please let them know that it’s as a result of their appointment to the Legal Panel Framework, as this will ensure you’re eligible for discounted fees.
If you would like a copy of the list, have any questions or would like to speak to someone about this initiative, contact our Legal Services team.
You’ll be able to understand:
In addition to our Guidance Note, we’ve also developed a Template Instruction Form for you to fill in and use when you contact one of the panel firms.
In addition to the individual services already offered by each of the legal panel firms, each of the firms has committed to providing a free 20-minute helpline service to NGBs and sport and recreation organisations.
When you contact any firm on the panel you must:
Use of the helpline across the firms will be monitored. Please use the helpline appropriately and respect the generous offering from the panel firms by following the rules below:
Please make sure that you check if the legal panel firm covers the area of law that you require assistance on before contacting them.
The Pro-Bono Fund brokers free legal advice from the legal panel framework firms to small NGBs and sport and recreation organisations.
Each firm on the panel has committed to provide up to £5,000 worth of free advice per year to the sport and recreation sector.
Organisations must meet the following criteria to be eligible to apply for the pro-bono fund:
Please Note: Organisations who meet the eligibility criteria aren’t automatically entitled to an award from the fund. Decisions to make an award are at the discretion of the collaborators (Sport England, UK Sport, the Sport and Recreation Alliance, Sport Wales and Sport Northern Ireland).
Small NGBs and sport and recreation organisations who meet the eligibility criteria will be able to apply to the fund for free legal assistance with the following areas of law:
Please note: The pro-bono fund won’t be available for assistance with disputes or contentious matters and organisations will only be eligible to receive one successful application per year.
Access to the free legal assistance is managed through a central application route coordinated by the Sport and Recreation Alliance.
Once an application is successful, the legal panel framework firms are contacted to confirm who’s available to provide advice on the matter.
When a firm confirms they’re able to help, the Sport and Recreation Alliance puts the organisation in touch with the firm and they liaise directly with each other from that point.
A unique reference number will be given to the organisation which they must provide to the firm at the outset of the matter.
Applications to access the free legal advice must be submitted to the Sport and Recreation Alliance Governance team.
To apply, organisations must download and fill in the application form and send it along with a copy of the organisation’s latest audited annual accounts, business plan or financial information.
Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis - the timescales are outlined below:
Applications received after the 20th of the month will not be considered until the following month.
Please read all of the downloadable documents at the bottom of this page before submitting an application. They include:
If you’d like to discuss your application, please contact the Sport and Recreation Alliance Governance team.
You can find out exactly how we'll look after your personal data, but rest assured we’ll only use it to make sure you receive our newsletter, to understand how you interact with our newsletter, and to provide administrative information about our newsletter.
