Sport England and Club Matters Release Return to Play Resources

Sport England's Return to Play Resources

Sport England have produced guidance that will support sector partners, grassroots clubs, community groups and other providers of sport and physical activity to make sure they have the tools they need to welcome back staff, volunteers, members and participants when it is safe to do so.

The guidance is available here: https://www.sportengland.org/how-we-can-help/coronavirus/return-play

Support available includes:

• Inclusion and accessibility guidance - helping you to understand the government guidance for different groups, how you can engage and reassure specific audiences who may be nervous of returning and how to ensure your facilities are, and remain, accessible to all when allowed to reopen.
• Support for the professional workforce - including advice on staffing considerations for when the safe reopening of facilities is allowed, as well as news on support available from the government and links to resources such as training and development opportunities.
• Volunteering guidance - setting out some of the main considerations to help your volunteers return safely, well-informed and prepared.
• Managing liability and risk guidance - to give providers, be they clubs, governing bodies, community groups or regional associations, advice on what issues need considering and how they might tackle them in order to safely return to play.

Return to Play content from Club Matters

In support of the new advice Sport England has released, the Club Matters team has developed content and resources that will help clubs/organisations to apply that guidance. The new resources, which are now included on our dedicated coronavirus response page, take a variety of formats to provide helpful guidance for clubs and organisations. Ranging from full workbooks to templates and checklists, the resources include:

• Re-Opening Toolkit – this resource includes info on how clubs/organisations can plan their return to sport, with advice on what they need to think about across different areas such as re-opening their facility and protecting their people. The following resources can all feed into this toolkit!
• Risk Register Template – this template, with a dedicated user guide, is designed to help clubs/organisations introduce or update their practices regarding how they track risks.
• Creating a Risk Assessment guide – this resource, which draws from the current advice from the Health and Safety Executive, provides step-by-step guidance to help organisations address risk, including coronavirus-specific considerations.
• Understanding your People guide – covering the different ways clubs/organisations can gather the views of their people in relation to the coronavirus and how it might have impacted their ability/willingness to return to sport, this guide has top tips for how organisations can use that insight.
• Social Distancing guide – this resource covers the different practices and considerations clubs/organisations may need to introduce so that social distancing can be implemented in line with current Government advice.

Club Matters Virtual Workshops: Open Sessions

We're really pleased to see that our new virtual workshop sessions have been popular with clubs and delivery organisations during lockdown! The new format is allowing for extra flexibility around timings, but please be aware that we have now increased the minimum number of attendees to 6 people.

Any open sessions we run are being promoted and booked through the following link: https://www.sportstructures.com/education-training/book-onto-a-course/club-matters-workshops/