England Touch proud to be recognised by Sport and Recreation Alliance

• England Touch has been recognised for its good governance principles
• The England Touch Association recently amended its constitution to reflect the growth of the sport within England
• The England Touch Association has been growing exponentially over recent years to become a leading participation sport, with clubs throughout the country, a strong presence at age group and universities level, and thousands of new players taking up Touch all the time

The England Touch Association’s management is delighted to have had the association highlighted by the Sport and Recreation Alliance as an example of good governance within the voluntary sports sector.

Over recent years the sport of Touch has grown rapidly within England, and there are now thousands of players regularly playing at clubs up and down the country. The England Touch Association (ETA) now has four national tournaments for clubs, with a further competition for regions and international age group teams ranging from Under-15s all the way to Over-45s, with most of the teams currently ranked number one in Europe.

Up until the ETA’s most recent Annual General Meeting (AGM) the association had been governed by a constitution whereby a committee, voted in by members. However, given the rapid growth of the sport the previous committee agreed that these governance structures were no longer fit for purpose, proposing instead - using the Sport and Recreation Alliance’s Voluntary Code of Good Governance and Sport England’s A Code for Sports Governance as a guide - a new structure with clearer decision-making functions and lines of accountability and a reformed recruitment process at board level to make sure that the right skills and experience were being recruited.

The board has begun to see the benefits of adopting the new articles straight away and is developing a new strategic plan to take the sport of Touch into a new era in England and build on the 2018 European Touch Championships, which are being held in Nottingham.

The ETA has been highlighted by the Sport and Recreation Alliance along with the likes of the British Wrestling Association, Swim England, and England Athletics, and chief executive Gregg Cropper says that it shows how far that the Association has come in a short time that it is being recognised in this way.

“We’ve made massive strides in the past 12 months, both on and off the field,” he says. “We have more clubs taking part in our national competitions, development tournaments taking place throughout the country where teams take their first step into competitive Touch, and successful England teams that had an outstanding European Touch Championships last summer.

“However, we know that we are on a journey and are putting the pieces in place to help us achieve our ambitions to progress even further. So we are delighted to have been recognised by the Sport and Recreation Alliance in this way as it reflects the hard work that has been done behind the scenes, especially by Carly Heselwood, our previous governance director, non-executive director Natalie Davis and Rich King, head of membership, as well as all of our other board members and directors.

“We believe that our new governance procedures will make us stronger as an organization and more responsive to the needs of our members and partners.”

To see the full report head to www.sportandrecreation.org.uk/pages/principles-of-good-governance