31/10/2022
10 days ago WAKO GB announced that our sport is now recognised by Sport England. I have had lots of questions from our members as to what this means and whether we will now get funding. The short answer is not yet, but I am hopeful for the future.
In order to gain recognition the governing body had to meet certain governance criteria. What does this mean? It means it must operate according to the "Code for Sports Governance".
The code defines three different tiers of recognition. The higher the tier the more funding we can access, but with this comes a greater level of scrutiny that the organisation has the right administrative processes in place to ensure funding is managed and spent in a manner that benefits the sports and its members.
As things stand I am not yet aware of what level of recognition has been granted, but if I was to hazard a guess it would be that we are a non-partnered NGB i.e. unfunded and that we sit at Tier 1 the lowest level of recognition.
However there are opportunities to be had from recognition, particularly when it comes to local authority support, and as a grassroots club, I will be looking into what is available so that we might take advantage of our new status.
This Saturday WAKO GB has called a virtual General Meeting with all of its member clubs and they will be giving us an update on the Sports England recognition. Other topics include the next AGM and democratic processes and structures as we go forward into 2023.
So exciting times for the sport and I hope to have more clarity as to where we are very soon and will report back to our Falcon members next week.
For anyone interested, an overview of the Code of Sports Governance is available from Sport England via the following link. This document provides a brief summary of the Mandatory requirements for both Tier 1 and Tier 3 recognition and is a useful source of reference.
https://sportengland-production-files.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2021-12/A%20Code%20for%20Sports%20Governance..pdf
If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask.
Gordon Mitchell
Team Falcons Head Coach
