Scottish Sports Association

The Scottish Sports Association (SSA) has been in existence since 1983 as the federation of the Governing Bodies of Sport in Scotland. It was established to represent those members and act as a consultative body. It is crucial that the Association exists for and is valued by its membership and other sections of the sporting community. There is a clear mandate that these organisations wish the SSA to focus on the tasks that they themselves are unable to do, and become highly effective in this work.

Vision

There is a wide range of duties and services that many stakeholders would wish the Association to perform, but it crucial that the SSA must focus its resource and act in a strategic way.

As an effective lobbying and consultation body, the SSA needs sufficient profile within the political and sporting world and an established vision is considered important to provide guiding principles on which the work of the Association is directed.

It is against this backdrop that the Scottish Sports Association has developed the following mission statement:

“To become the co-ordinated voice of the national sporting and recreational organisations of Scotland”

Roles

There is a need for the Association to identify its key roles and objectives as we move forward over the next 4 years, to enable it to reach a position that reflects the mission statement above.

The SSA is very clear about some of the key reasons it exists, and these are identified as:

To act as the collective voice for and to represent the views of the governing bodies of sport in Scotland
To act as an influencer on key decision makers and potential supporters
To provide leadership and vision for Scottish sport
To lobby for investment in and greater recognition of sport from the public and private sector
To contribute to National Policy development on sport and recreation and monitor its implementation
To contribute to promoting the profile and improving the image of sport
To advocate the role and importance of volunteers in sport and the clubs they support
To advocate the role and importance of sport to the health and welfare of individuals and communities in Scotland
To encourage links with the education and health sectors
To represent the interests of members within a wider UK context
To source and provide information on key national issues of relevance
To support members and others in delivering sport at all levels
To provide a network for Scottish Governing Bodies
To encourage media interest in all sports

This list is extensive, but not exhaustive and must be seen in light of the existence of a devolved Scottish Parliament and an Executive who currently take the majority of all the decisions affecting Scottish sport. The necessity for SSA to exist and operate effectively in such a climate is even more emphatic, whilst acknowledging it also has a role in keeping in touch and influencing UK level developments as well.

It is acknowledged that some of these roles are not the exclusive domain of the Association and it will be crucial to work in partnership with other agencies, for example sportscotland will have a significant role in contributing to improving the image and profile of sport and encouraging media interest.

Opportunities

The recent changes in the political and sporting landscape within Scotland are significant and provide an extensive number of opportunities for the SSA.

These include:

The awarding of the 2012 Olympic Games to London
The existence and work of the Physical Activity Task Force
The absence of any other organisation as a national leader for voluntary sport
The possibility of forming a Scottish Sports Forum
Modern technology allowing much improved information service
The increasing need for an advisory and information service to members and others – including Parliament and MSP’s
The increased use of consultation documents by the Scottish Executive and others
The raised profile of the significant importance of physical activity to improve health and wellbeing
Recognition of a continuing need for training and modernisation of governing bodies
Opportunities for sport to lobby at political party conferences and within the election process
An increase in the need for research into benefits of sport and recreation
A desire for increased sharing of good practice across those involved in sport
An increase in major sporting events being hosted within Scotland and their positive impact on governing bodies

Priorities

The Scottish Sports Association is a small organisation in terms of its staffing and resource, but represents a significant sector of the sporting community within Scotland. There is huge potential to influence and consult on behalf of sport and the Association can make a significant difference in the political arena. Nevertheless, from the extensive list of roles and increased opportunities, it is clear that the work must be prioritised and it is therefore crucial that there is a distinct focus on what goals it wishes to achieve against a realistic timescale.

For the life of this strategic vision, the Scottish Sports Association has identified the following priorities:

Establishing the strategic priorities for our members

There is a need for the Association to ensure open and efficient dialogue is established with its members to identify the key issues and challenges that face Scottish sports.

Raising the profile of Scottish Sports and emphasising the importance of strong governing bodies and their member clubs

By increasing the profile and ensuring that clear consistent messages are being delivered from Scottish sports, this will allow improved input into the formulation of national policy.

Increasing the available funding and resource into Scottish sports

This is an essential objective to allow sports to grow to meet their own objectives as well as national targets identified in Sport 21 and to respond to broader policy and legislation requirements.

There are other roles identified above that clearly have a place within the work of the Association as strategic options and these will be allocated appropriate time and funding resource in accordance with the operational plan.

Additionally there may be tasks that members and other partners may consider appropriate for the Association to fulfil, but it would only be with additional resource and a mandate from the membership that these would be taken on.

Operations

The operational work of the Association is detailed in the Operational Plan, which will be developed on an ongoing annual basis.

The three pillars of SSA’s operations will be:

FUNDING – ensuring there is sufficient grant funding and membership income to maintain the core business. Additional funding will be sought through lobbying the private, public and voluntary sectors to allow growth within the Association and sourcing funding streams for members.

SPORTING STRUCTURE – working to ensure the correct structures exist to allow sport and physical activity to exist, develop and thrive. This will include policy making, working in partnership with key agencies and maintaining the profile of sport within the community.

SELF-HELP – in addition to providing those key roles at national and political level, the Association will play a part in delivering services to members and offering advice and sharing good practice. The role as a facilitator will be developed depending upon resource.

Inclusion and Equity

In addition to the general operational framework for the Association, the SSA will also operate under the overarching principles of inclusion and equity within sport and in all its operations.

Management

In order to allow the operational aspects of the business to operate it is essential that the correct staffing structure is in place managed by a dynamic and effective Board. The Association must ensure it is aware of a range of opportunities for its members by remaining focussed on the national picture and issues of strategic importance.

The Board

Memorandum and Articles will be developed accordingly to modernise the Association for the future with succession planning and skills audits being integrated into the process. This will ensure that the Board reflects a range of skills and experience to manage the Strategic Business and direction.

Staffing

The current staffing structure will need to be slightly expanded to ensure there is sufficient staff support to implement this plan and allow the Policy Director time to operate in the wider sporting and political arena. In time, if the membership and partners wish the Association to take on additional tasks then this structure will need to be expanded. The operational plan addresses this.

Funding

Detailed funding plans and figures can be found in the Operational Plan but the two funding principles are as follows:

To increase the available budget of the SSA to support a modest increase to the staffing plans to enable the organisation to carry out these roles
To identify additional funding streams to decrease the reliance on any single source

Timescale

This Strategic Vision Document has been produced with the next 4 years in mind. It is considered that the mission will be valid for many years to come and some of the objectives will remain in place for future plans as the Association moves forward.