From the Sector for the Sector - the changing face of Governance in Welsh Sport

In his debut blog for the Alliance, James Brandon, our Projects and Programmes Manager talks about our recent work with Sport Wales in helping to deliver the Governance and Leadership Framework for Wales.

On Tuesday 21st April, Cardiff City Stadium played host to the launch of a brand new Governance and Leadership Framework for Wales. Building on the foundations of the Alliance’s Voluntary Code of Good Governance, the Framework clearly defines for the leaders of the sector the principles, behaviours and success indicators of good governance. It’s a Framework that is unique, owned by the sector and it is the sector, through consultation and research, who have defined that standard for good governance in the future.

The landscape of sport is an ever shifting horizon with challenges around participation, austerity, funding, and performance, requiring boards and directors to be dynamic and prepared for what lies ahead. It is well documented that the demands on Directors are not just growing but actively becoming more complex; a challenge for the whole sector restricted by the amount of time any one person can spend on activities. A recent McKinsey & Company article “Changing the nature of board engagement” suggests that boosting effectiveness in a board is more than spending time around an activity, or subject, but about changing the nature of the engagement between Directors and the teams they work with. Furthermore, the importance placed on conduct and behaviours has changed. No longer are boards effective purely because of what they do, but how they go about it. MWM Consulting, in its paper “The behavioural drivers of board effectiveness: A practitioners’ perspective”, found:

“a Board can have the clearest and the most robust processes and adherence to Governance principles, but if its members do not have the courage and judgement to call out and deal with the real issues facing the business in a timely and direct manner, the Board will fail to add value and may end up destroying it.”

By no means does any organisation call this an easy challenge, and neither is this about establishing good governance principles on their own. Sport Wales have listened to the sector in Wales and have responded to the challenge the future is posing all sports organisations in Wales. In 2014 a programme of consultation with national governing bodies in Wales was established. The task; to ask 50 organisations the very simple questions of what were the minimum standards for good governance and how do you want Welsh Sport at all levels to behave in the Boardroom. This consultation is what makes the Framework unique, it is established by the sector and for the sector; it is the sports themselves who are setting the standards they all wish to aspire to.

So the sector have spoken and the Framework is ready, what next? Over the next 4 years the partnership between the Alliance and Sport Wales will provide a range of support direct to NGBs to help implement the framework and prepare for the many challenges they face. The Alliance is already working with the Welsh Football Trust, Welsh Hockey and Welsh Rowing to provide direct support. In his blog, Neil Ward has recently discussed the changing nature of the sporting landscape and how the WFT are responding with the support of the Alliance.

The Alliance is continually looking to the future and providing support for the challenges that are approaching. All sport is facing a variety of challenges and the future for many looks uncertain. This is a theme that is being explored in our Sports Summit 2015 “Fit for the Future”, taking place on 4th June at the Kia Oval.
 

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