I recently read a fascinating article “The Future is Bleak without Good Governance” where Lord Colin Moynihan talks about our sector falling behind the times and how governance is essential to the future of sport. At the same time both the government’s and Sport England’s strategies have highlighted the need for good governance for any organisation receiving public funding in the future.
CSP Network, the charitable umbrella body for County Sports Partnerships, has just come to the end of an 18 month governance review process and as a result have recently announced the change from a previous representative structure, to a skills based and balanced board with the appointment of a number of highly competent internal and external board members.
In 12 months the whole board will have changed – that may sound scary but in reality we are now in a position to focus on what we need to do, and have taken the opportunity to bring in some proven external skills and flair to help make sure that the impact CSPs can have will grow.
We have had the support of Sport England and excellent guidance from Campbell Tickell, governance specialists who have run a 12 month governance support package of seminars and webinars for CSPs and led our final CSP Network recruitment programme.
We have also been working for over 12 months on defining and understanding what the next generation of CSPs should look like and while we await the outcome of the DCMS CSP appraisal process it feels good that the fundamental building block of the Network’s governance has been reviewed, changed and implemented.
This has been a positive process and feels very timely as we enter a new phase in sport and physical activity.