People Development Programmes

UK Sport currently offers People Development Programmes and support in the following areas:

Athlete Support Programme

Performance Lifestyle is an individualised support service specifically designed to hep each athlete create the unique environment necessary for achieving success. The programme is available to all athletes on the World Class Pathway, as well as those in professional sports which deliver the service – namely The English and Wales Cricket Board, the Professional Rugby Players association and the Welsh Rugby Union.

Performance Lifestyle advisers are trained over a period of 12 months by UK Sport. The five key modules in this training are: induction; communicating with athletes; transitions in sport; career development; and supervised practical experience.

These trained Athlete Advisers, based at sport institute sites throughout the UK, provide guidance to competing athletes on how to improve performance through creating the optimum sport life balance. Support is available for: time management; budgeting and finance; dealing with the media; sponsorship and commercial activities; and negotiation and conflict management techniques.

Elite Coach

Launched after the Athens Olympics in 2004, up to 10 coaches are selected annually to participate in a three-year accelerated coach development programme – Elite Coach. This is a targeted, focused and fully supported programme for the very best coaches selected who demonstrate the talent, dedication and determination to succeed and produce outstanding performances. The driving principles of the programme are: British coaching driving performance in elite sport; supporting and adding value to the investment in athletes; and accessing the very best within the UK and international sport and business.

The 2007 Elite Coach intake are:

Alex Perry – Disability Table Tennis; Audrey Cooper – Volleyball; Rick Velati – Triathlon; Mark Wood – Bob-Skeleton; Paul Green – Taekwondo; Stefan Trofan – Table Tennis; Rhona Martin – Curling.

The seven new candidates are the fourth group since the scheme’s inauguration in 2004.

Fast Track Practitioner

The Fast-Track Practitioner Programme is a partnership approach between UK Sport, the Home Country Sports Institutes (HCSIs), the National Governing Bodies (NGBs), the British Olympic Association (BOA) and the British Paralympic Association (BPA). It is a one-year scheme designed to accelerate the professional development of young sports science and sports medicine practitioners who demonstrate the potential for employment within the high performance system. With continuing professional development, these individuals will grow into the next generation of high performance system practitioners.

The objective of the programme is to increase the number of practitioners who have the required competencies to work with coaches to assist in the development of world class athletes. It is designed to provide the opportunity for high calibre graduates to pursue a practitioner career within the high performance system. It provides extensive on-the-job training from experienced practitioners already in the system, thus equiping the interns with the competencies and skills required to deliver services to elite athletes.

Event Managers Development

UK Sport is committed to ensuring the UK has a sports events workforce equipped to meet the demands and requirements of staging major events and a successful Olympic, Paralympic and Commonwealth Games. As well as co-ordinating the UK’s efforts to bid and stage world class sporting events on home soil, the World Class Events Team also have a role to provide specialist technical support and expertise to local organising committees. In addition, London 2012 has resulted in a doubling of financial resources for investing in events, thus increasing the number of sports events planned to be hosted throughout the UK and increasing UK Sport's engagement with the event organisers who are assigned the task of staging a successful event.

Consequently UK Sport has been exploring options to provide a tailored and carefully targeted event managers development programme, which was introduced in 2007. The programme has the overall aim of capturing, harnessing and transferring event-staging knowledge between sports for the greater benefit of all those involved.

IDEALS - International Development through Excellence and leadership in sport

UK Sport works in partnership with organisations and agencies across the world to help assist developing countries with the creation of their own sporting systems to promote the power of sport as a tool for human and social development. Forming and maintaining strategic partnerships with international partners and development organisations will ensure that the UK is kept abreast of sport for development initiatives worldwide.

Investment in the leaders of the future is central to UK Sport’s Worldwide Impact Strategy. The IDEALS programme contributes towards the leadership development of young people within the UK and Southern Africa and towards the development of strategic partnerships through the International Development Programme (IDP).

International Leadership Programme

One of the five key elements of UK Sport’s Worldwide Impact Strategy is “investing in the leaders of tomorrow” and the International Leadership Programme is aimed at developing people within the UK with the potential to exert significant influence by reaching higher positions within the governance and administration of international sport.

The participants confirmed for the 2008 programme are:

Mark Simmers – Snowsport GB; Vikki McPherson – UK Athletics; Sue Catton – England Hockey; John Spencer – Rugby Football Union; Nick Pink – Youth Sport Trust; Lindsey Jackson – The FA; Steve Barrow – The FA; Densign White – British Judo Association; Phil Atwell – British University Sports Association; Zena Wooldridge – England Squash; Charlie Bethel – GB Wheelchair Basketball Association; David Holmes – British Dressage and Charlotte O’Neill – British Swimming.

Women and leadership development programme

UK Sport is committed to gender equality in sport and recognises that the situation for women in leadership is such that positive action is required. UK Sport decided to develop and fund a programme which would provide training and support for women with the talent and desire to achieve senior positions in sport. The programme not only reaffirms UK Sport’s commitment to gender equality but also contributes to its Worldwide Impact goals in terms of international representation and advancing World Class Standards by improving governance in sport. The Women and Leadership Programme is run in partnership with the British Olympic Foundation and CCPR.

There are currently 15 women on the programme from a range of National Governing Bodies and sports organisations. Current participants are:

Emma Atkins – Sports Coach UK; Jane Bateman – The FA; Melanie Beck – British Swimming / GB Diving; Penny Briscoe – British Paralympic Association; Melanie Curds – UK Athletics; Danielle Every – The FA; Alison Faiers – England and Wales Cricket Board / Amateur Rowing Association; Lyne Greenwood – Northern Ireland Sports Forum; Sue Hornby – British Canoe Union; Margaret Nolan – Coachwise; Helen Phillips – Welsh Gymnastics/Commonwealth Games Council for Wales; Emma Griffin – British Judo; Lucy Smith – British Gymnastics; Katherine Taylor – Badminton England and Heather Williams – British Triathlon.

100% me tutors

The 100% ME Accreditation Scheme aims to provide the British sporting community with greater access to anti-doping education and information that is engaging, relevant and consistent with current anti-doping policy and regulation.

A key component of the 100% ME programme, the Accreditation Scheme is designed to train and accredit a network of tutors and advisers from partner organisations in the UK to deliver the anti-doping message confidently and accurately.

100% ME Accredited tutors and advisers are responsible for supporting athletes and athlete support personnel by giving relevant and reliable education and information on anti-doping rules and procedures.

They also represent the provision of quality education and information and therefore all accredited tutors and advisers will be supported by UK Sport through regular remote training, development, monitoring and assessment conducted by UK Sport.

doping control officer programme

The UK Sport Doping Control Scheme consists of Doping Control Officers (DCOs), Chaperones and Blood Collections Officers (BCOs) who collect samples at sporting events and squads throughout the UK. The current register of field staff stands at 150 qualified Doping Control Staff.

Doping Control Officers collect urine samples from athletes, while the introduction of Blood Collection Officers in 2007 allows UK Sport new powers to collect blood from athletes. Chaperones have the responsibility of notifying athletes that they are required for testing.

The challenge for the scheme is to recruit quality individuals in accordance with UK Sport’s equality procedures and to ensure numbers are measurable to the amount of testing that will be incurred in the Pre-Beijing and Pre-London 2012 periods.