Amateur Rowing Association - The Home of British RowingFrequently Asked Questions - Clubmark
The aim is for Clubmark to be established as the accreditation scheme
for sports clubs in this country. That will ensure that the Clubmark
criteria of child protection and safety, quality coaching, equality and
good management are incorporated into all club structures throughout
England. The scheme will be used not only by the National Governing
Bodies but also other organisations which run sports clubs for young
people so that Clubmark becomes the national standard for quality.
Yes, over time the criteria of the scheme will be reviewed and new
criteria may be introduced to improve the benefit of Clubmark to NGBs
and clubs. For example Clubmark can be developed to support volunteer
programmes such as Step into Sport. Benefits such as the sharing of
best practice between sports will be extended and more resources and
information will be made available on the internet.
The National Governing Bodies which already use Clubmark are
encouraging more of their clubs to join and more of the NGBs currently
not using Clubmark are expected to come into the scheme. The next step
will be to expand Clubmark to other organisations that provide sport
and active recreation as part of their activities such as Youth Clubs.
Also, as awareness of the benefits of being a well run club increase
then so will the demand for properly accredited clubs. Processes for
other organisations to award Clubmark such as County Sports
Partnerships are also being developed.
Yes. For example golf runs a scheme called Junior Golfmark which aims
to create a positive and welcoming environment for children. The
English Golf Partnership is now looking to incorporate Sport England's
Clubmark with the golf scheme to ensure there is common benchmarking
across different sports. The two schemes should be aligned later this
year.
Yes, even though some sports have their own accreditation schemes.
Sports which may move to Clubmark in the future include: Football, Ice
Skating, Bowls, Sailing, Karate, Mountaineering, Horse Riding,
Lacrosse, Golf, Auto-Cycle, Sub Aqua, Fencing, Baseball/Softball,
Angling and Boxing
Sport National Governing Bodies using Clubmark include Athletics,
Rowing, Cycling, Judo, Canoeing, Swimming, Triathlon, Gymnastics,
Cricket, Rugby Union, Badminton, Hockey, Squash, Rugby League,
Volleyball, Basketball, Tennis, Orienteering, Table Tennis and Netball.
All these sports are encouraging their clubs to join the scheme and
there has been a big increase in interest recently. For example: while
Badminton has10 clubs which have achieved Clubmark there are 191
applications from clubs in the pipeline. Queens Club in Exeter which
has achieved Clubmark has gone from strength to strength with a huge
increase in membership and recently finished Runner Up in the CCPR Club
of the Year Awards.