UK SPORT FUNDING

[eddie]

April 2009 - April 2013

[graeme]

2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013
that's 5 years

Just as..

Start - 1 - 2 - 3 - Finish

is five legs?

[mharky]

exactly!

[Mrs H]

Okay so now there is an announcement on the BOF webpage which also says

Sports Council Funding
UK Sport has awarded British Orienteering £500K across a four year period from the 1st April 2009 to the 31st March 2013. The majority of the money will be used within the International Programme.

so how does that stack up against previous amounts?

[BandD]

This is all very confusing and it needn't be.
We could do with more detail from BOF about all this funding.
If, as they say, the Whole Sport Plan is a Sport England "demand" then clubs in Ireland Wales and Scotland can ignore it and get on with something regarded as important in their areas.
At the same time, Sport England staff can do the Sport England jobs and let the UK Sport funded staff (is there any?) concentrate on the jobs (international and otherwise) that the whole of Britain is paying for in funding and levies etc.
Come to that, what percentage of the levies e.g. from Scottish Six Day is going into the English purse. Maybe none of it. But we should all know that sort of thing.
(Now someone will tell me it is on some website if only I look in the right place)
It really is about time English orienteering set itself free from the British yoak just as athletics and other sports have done.
Despite how it might sound, I am not being parochial about this ..... it is Sport England that (quite rightly) demands that their funding is spent on English clubs and English people e.g Steve Vernon's development scheme excludes clubs from outside England.
It is BOF which should make it absolutely clear what is happening ... for example, they could post all the English only news etc etc on the Orienteering England website and only use the BOF website for all-British interest material.
Bill Melville

[Scott]

To answer the few point that I can:

My understanding is that, due to the "national" breakdown of funding bodies, Welsh clubs currently miss out significantly on development money (hence the lack of a Welsh RDO). Although the WSP was targeted at SportEngland, I wouldn't be surprised to learn that sportscotland/SCfW/SportNI are asking for something very similar.

The levy income from the summer multi-day events is split 50:50 between the hosting association (SOA/WOA/NWOA as appropriate) and the BOF Development Fund, to which any club can apply for grants (this is what used to be known as the "Multi-Day Fund"). Given the dearth of applications in recent years, this is currently quite a sizeable pot of money. Apply!

I think (as you say) part of the problem is that BOF has to act as the lead administrative body both for Britain and for England (given that the EOC is a comparatively minor organisation), hence the confusion. By contrast, the other Home Nations have their own governing bodies (SOA, WOA, NIOA) to handle many of the jobs that BOF performs for English clubs.

In an ideal world, I would love to see BOF issue detailed budgets and Treasurer's Reports similar to those of USOF, so we could see exactly what money gets spent where.

[Billy Whizz]

I think EOC is limited to organising England teams and cannot fulfill the many valuable functions of BO(F). Have heard that team members fund 70% of team costs, English Regions 15% and the grant from Sport England (qv) represents 15%.

Quoting from the Orienteering England website:

About the EOC

"The English Orienteering Council is the long-established (1973), autonomous and democratic body which has sole responsibility for English national orienteering teams. Its voting members comprise representatives (often the Chair) of each of the nine English regions of the BOF. The Council meets annually at the JK to make policy decisions. The leg-work is performed by the Selectors and Team Managers appointed at that meeting."

"Unlike the other Home Countries, England has no National Association and no National Governing Body. It receives no direct funding from Sport England, but in recent years has received a small grant of £2,000 annually of Sport England funds from the BOF. The bulk of the funding for the Council’s activities comes from the English regional Associations. Athletes fund their own kit, food and accommodation by a substantial personal contribution. Minimal travelling expenses are, however, paid.

"The EOC currently supports four competitions annually: three separate Veteran, Senior and Junior Home Internationals, as well as a multi age group competition, Interland, against selected European countries. These offer representative competition to athletes of both sexes aged between 13+ & 60+, unlike GBR competition."

[JEP]

The funding is great news.

The funding is for 4 financial years. It is £2.27m from Sport England for programmes affecting England but also covering elements which are common to all the home countries such as coaching development and marketing.

The UK funding is £0.5m for the same four financial years for the international elite programme.

Scotand, and NI are in the process of applying for funding to their Sports Council's for programme funding. Wales are being supported to try to get funding but I gather that is hard work.

All in all a good package, probably in excess of previous funding from Sport England but less from UK Sport. The Whole Sport Plan process gives more freedom to Governing Bodies but they do have to work towards participation targets.

[mikey]

The UK funding is £0.5m for the same four financial years for the international elite programme.

But, if I'm reading the summary of the December board of directors' meeting correctly (now on the BO site), this support will 'be definitely withdrawn' from 2013.

Is that correct? What are the implications for elite funding?