Blog: 'Disability sport is likely to feature in my new work-related resolutions'
The English Federation of Disability Sport (EFDS) website features a blog post every Friday through the year. This month's theme is leading the way in 2016 for disabled people in sport and physical activity.
Over December, you can read key leaders talk about their hopes for the year ahead. The second for the month comes from Emma Boggis, CEO of the Sport and Recreation Alliance.
Emma’s blog:
I am a fan of New Year’s resolutions. As my husband will testify, I have a habit of making them – sometimes for both of us – because I find it a great way of making sure that we make time to try new things or find time for things we value.
In 2015 “we” set three sport-related resolutions - to play golf at least once a month, to learn to dance and to run a half marathon somewhere interesting.
Although I can’t claim unequivocal success, they have impacted in a good way on our behaviour and encouraged us to make time for things we enjoy.
So as this calendar year draws to a close I am starting to think about what personal and professional New Year’s resolutions I might make for 2016.
As we head into a New Year with (hopefully) a new Government Strategy for Sport and (definitely) a Paralympics in Rio, the topic of disability sport is likely to feature in my new work-related resolutions for at least two good reasons.
Firstly, at the Sport and Recreation Alliance we strive to champion sport and recreation and be at the heart of a world leading sector. We want people to understand and appreciate – and value – the benefit sport and recreation can bring, and we want to encourage Government and policy makers to create the right environment for the sector to thrive.
We hope that the new Strategy will set out what Government expects sport to deliver, because it has been a huge success story. These expectations are as applicable to disabled people as the population as a whole.
We also know that many of our members want to ensure that their governance structures reflect the community they serve, which means that disabled people can and should play a role on their Boards, and not just because they are disabled.
Sometimes those people will ensure that the needs of disabled people are taken into account, but sometimes because they can bring valuable skills which would enhance any board – examples include legal, commercial, financial or communication skillsets.
We promote this aspiration through our work on the Voluntary Code of Good Governance, where principle four regarding objectivity focuses on the need for a balanced, inclusive and skilled Board. We have been delighted to have Dr Phil Friend, now a Trustee at the English Federation of Disability Sport (EFDS), talk about this at a couple of our recent events.
The second reason that disability sport is likely to feature in my professional New Year’s resolutions is because I am proud to be on the Board of the British Paralympic Association (BPA), where our vision is: “Through sport, inspire a better world for disabled people”.
This vision is driven by our belief that through the power and inspiration of the Paralympic Games and the world class achievements of Paralympians, real change can be achieved in the perceptions of society as a whole and the way people individually think, feel and behave towards disabled people.
But what does this mean in practice for me? Well, firstly I hope it means there are some synergies between these two roles where I can use my knowledge and experience from one to inform the other.
Secondly, it means that encouraging Alliance members to create opportunities for disabled people in sport and recreation is important to me personally, and it is why we have taken opportunities to think about the role we as an organisation can play.
So, in addition to including discussion of inclusion in our events, last week I met with the Minister for Disabled People, Justin Tomlinson MP. We are fortunate that in this Minister we have an unashamed sports fan – indeed I first met him just before the election when we were warming him up about getting involved in the All Party Parliamentary Group on Sport.
Although his elevation to Ministerial Office scuppered that plan, it is great to have someone “on the inside” who gets and appreciates sport and the value that it has, to disabled and non-disabled people alike.
A very visible demonstration of his interest is that two of the three pictures on his office wall are sport-related and in the New Year I am pleased to say he has offered to get together key influencers in the world of disability sport to ensure the new sport Strategy delivers as much for disabled people as everyone else.
I hope that in 2016, with both my Alliance and my BPA hat on, I can help genuinely contribute to increasing opportunities for disabled people in sport and physical activity and be held to account at the end of the year for delivering on my New Year’s resolution to do just that.
