Vince’s update – July 2025

Firstly I’d like to say hello to all of our members and workforce. I’ve taken some time to get my feet under the table, meet as many different people involved in Touch in various guises (thank you to Invicta and Warwick Touch for making me so welcome!) and attended a wide variety of Touch events from Nationals to National Touch Series and charity tournaments to Schools finals.

It has been an exciting and interesting period, getting to know more about what an amazing National Governing Body England Touch is, how quickly the sport is growing, and the potential for so much more in the next few years.

It is also clear we have an incredible workforce of both paid and volunteer staff who consistently go way beyond what could be expected of them to deliver the outstanding experiences for our players, and enable them to participate at whatever level they want to play at. We simply would not be able to function without these people and I am grateful for all your efforts in making England Touch so successful.

Organisational structure and strategy

As we continue to grow we need also to continue to evolve as an organisation. As a part of this the Board are reviewing the vision and areas of focus to ensure we can grow the levels of participation, diversify our player base and achieve sustainability as an organisation, especially financially. This will inevitably bring some changes, and we have already started this process with the Board.

Firstly, at Board level, a full review of Director roles has been done to ensure we have the right skills at that level to enable us to develop. We have also reviewed the sub-groups of the Board and will be making changes here to ensure the most efficient and effective leadership at Board level for the ETA.

Sport England places a strong emphasis on robust governance structures and processes in its recognised NGBs. This starts at Board level with the Chair and Directors who are ultimately legally responsible for what we do and how we do it. This governance, combined with a consistently growing membership and playing offering, will be needed to underpin any applications for significant future funding or system partner status.

Turning to the workforce, through the hard work of Crystal Ravenscroft – who over two years ago was commissioned to conduct an organisational review of the structure of the ETA – we now have a clear understanding of the functions, challenges and needs of the organisation.

This has fed the creation of a new structure which is being confirmed during the coming months. Board have given their approval for this work to develop and we will be discussing this with individuals and groups who may be affected by these changes to ensure we get it right.

In turn, this will also feed the creation of a single, focussed strategy for the ETA which will drive and determine our annual action plans. We will report back at AGM on our delivery against this plan so that you as members have a full and transparent understanding of what we are doing and why.

Within this there will be a greater paid staff involvement in the delivery of services through either oversight or support to help groups deliver what we need as the ETA and based on the feedback we have been receiving from you as members.

Competition structure and membership

One of the changes we will be communicating soon is an enhanced competition programme for the next season, led by Kevin Hill.

Your thoughts and knowledge in this space will help to ensure this creates the best competition programme for the widest range of players, including those who at present may be casual or social Touch players and seeking to offer them a more localised, recreational competition programme, more consistently, over the summer.

Regional Development Series events are now regular dates on the calendar through the winter across the country. Many of the people who organise those events are also involved as players and coaches at clubs in the NTS, with regions at Nationals, and the High Performance programme. It is therefore understandable why Regional events have a pause during the summer, so we need as an Association to be able to support them to happen when the weather is at its best.

Additionally, we are looking to grow our membership significantly in the coming year. This will ensure a wider base of the pyramid, reduce the reliance on our representative players as the majority of our members, and ensure a more sustainable business model. My thanks to the Membership Group who have helped shaped our thinking in this space, especially Chris Pennington, Rich King, Crystal Ravenscroft and Julian Edwards.

International competition

The four-year cycle of international competition starts over the next few weeks with the Atlantic Youth Touch Cup in Limerick, the European Seniors Cup in Stirling, and European Opens Cup in Calvisano.

To all those who have gained selection to represent your country, a huge “Well done!” It is a moment of which you should be rightly proud.

Once again we are sending a phenomenal number of teams to these events – 11 to Limerick, 11 to Stirling, and six to Calvisano – which reflects the ongoing appetite for playing at this level, commitment to training and preparation, and increased depth of talent. New Zealand 2028 will come around quickly, and the upcoming competitions will lay the next level of structure on the foundations which were laid in the build-up to Nottingham 2024.

To all the ‘team behind the team’ within the HP Programme, who have and will do so much to make this a great experience for the players, an enormous “Thank you”. Your efforts as coaches, physios, managers, organisers, psychologists, and numerous other roles, do not go un-noticed by the Board and me and we are truly grateful for the time and effort you give to delivering a world class programme for our representative players.

We will be circulating some dates for a Pre-Tour Meeting in the coming days to give you any further info we can share and fully acknowledge your role in making this all happen.

Now that I have my feet well and truly under the table I intend to write to you regularly over the coming months. In the meantime, if you have any questions or comments do feel free to contact me directly and I look forward to meeting as many of you as possible.

Yours,

Vince