British Athletes Commission
CEO Report 2016
The BAC has existed in its current format, funded by UK Sport since 2013. In that time the BAC has worked with a great number of athletes and different stakeholders such as Sport Resolutions UK, UKAD, Sport England and EIS. The role and the profile of the BAC has evolved during this period and the BAC now offers both a safety net for our 1,500 world class athletes in over 40 sports as well as a contribution to performance through improving selection processes and governance. The BAC believes it is essential as an organisation to learn as much as possible from the developing experience, to deliver the best possible service to our members and how best to collaborate with NGBs to help them improve both performance processes and good governance.
Triage and Support Services
As awareness of the BAC’s triage service built amongst the membership the number of times the athletes came to us for advice, support and guidance increased. This was always going to be influenced by the Rio Games too, such that of the c. 130 requests for help from members over the past 12 months over 40 occurred in the run up to the Games. This equates to over 10% of all athletes on Podium or Podium Potential programmes needing our support in the past year. A further contribution that the BAC has made to Performance is through supporting over 40 athletes that competed at either the Olympic or Paralympic Games in Rio many of who returned as medallists.
The majority of cases that we have dealt with have been about selection or funding issues others have related to matters such as:
· Safeguarding
· Bullying
· Agency contracts
· Classification of Paralympic athletes
· Mental welfare
Each case is assessed on its merits through an initial conversation held by the BAC’s CEO with the athlete. The confidentiality of these cases is paramount and this is stressed to the athlete because without this trust the triage service would not work.
All cases are managed in house by the Executive team - often supported by Ed Simpson, a lawyer, who gives his time voluntarily to the BAC - or where relevant the cases are managed collaboratively with the panel of pro bono specialist sports lawyers managed by our partners Sports Resolutions UK.
The Performance Lifestyle team at the English Institute of Sport are also key partners of ours by way of signposting the BAC’s services, including the confidential mental welfare helpline. We also work in tandem with the PL team when we have concluded athlete cases to ensure that s/he feels supported whether they are going back into a performance programme or starting transition.
Voice of the Athlete
Working collaboratively with key partners such as Pride Sports and Sporting Equals the BAC has built up an understanding of the specific needs of various sections of our membership and has worked to represent their views. In addition, other critical areas in which the BAC has acted as a voice of either all or part of our membership are:
· Raising the profile of the support that the BAC can offer athletes at a time when an athlete is charged with an anti-doping violation by UK Anti-Doping.
· Raising the profile of the issue of mental welfare of athletes in performance sport to the extent that it is now included within the scope of the bespoke insurance policy the “Athlete Medical Scheme’ and better support is in place via the EIS medical services.
· Working collaboratively with a range of agencies including Ann Craft Trust, Sport England, UK Sport and the Sport and Recreation Alliance to raise the profile of Adults at Risk within Safeguarding.
· Being the first players’ association in the UK to appoint LGBT Ambassadors following research undertaken with the help of Pride Sports. Matt Lister and David Hill have started this crucial role with great enthusiasm.
· Providing substantial feedback to the International Paralympic Committee in collaboration with our legal partners Lewis Silkin as part of the IPC Classification Code Review.
· Having athletes acknowledged as key stakeholders in the UK Sport project on Elite Training Centres, helping inform the Guiding Principles for all 6 sites and retaining an athlete focus in their development.
· The BAC has worked with several NGBs in the creation of their most recent selection policies. We have also sat as an independent observer on several selection panels for the Rio Games. We are now taking this knowledge and sharing it with UK Sport and Commonwealth Games England and applying it to draft selection policies for the Winter Games in Pyongchang and the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast in 2018
But arguably the most significant impact of the BAC’s voice has been in making a number of submissions to the DCMS working party on Duty of Care (to athletes) being chaired by Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson. In the written call for evidence phase the BAC provided a number of submissions from our Athlete Advisory Group, our Athlete Representative network and one of our LGBT Ambassadors and our members.
In the focus group phase there were 6 separate sessions each looking at a specific subject in the terms of reference. These included
· Education
· Transition
· Athlete representation
· Equality
· Mental welfare
· Injury and medical issues.
The BAC was invited to attend 5 and took a different athlete to each one to bring their direct perspective to the research and the importance of the report commissioned by DCMS. It is anticipated that Baroness Tanni will publish her report before the end of the year and the BAC will look forward to its recommendations and working with our partners to deliver them.
The BAC is committed on behalf of our members to “Clean Sport” not only in relation to anti-doping but also match fixing and classification of athletes with disabilities. Our work with regards to anti-doping was evidenced this year when the AAG coordinated a campaign that led to a letter being sent to WADA on behalf of over 600 of our members asking for a full investigation into systemic doping in Russia. This substantially helped WADA’s own Athletes’ Commission lobby internally and was a factor in the commissioning of the McLaren report.
Athlete Representation
At the time of writing this report the BAC has 34 representatives in 20 sports across Summer and Winter / Olympic and Paralympic. In the light of the new Code of Governance published by the Sports Councils in November and because we are at the end of a Summer Games cycle we will now build on the commitment of working with NGBs to ensure appropriate Athlete Representation is in place. During the last four years the BAC has worked hard to re-establish a presence in performance sport, not only regarding defining our role but how we go about it – in a collaborative manner wherever possible. We have worked with several NGBs such as the British Bobsleigh Skeleton Association, Short-track Speed Skating, Wheelchair Fencing, Triathlon, Shooting and Curling (amongst others) have sought advice from the BAC to help them create a job description suitable for their own objectives and for the BAC to assist in the election of those Athlete Representatives. This has then created several sustainable three-way partnerships between the BAC, NGBs and the appointed athletes.
Danielle Brown MBE Paralympian was appointed to the role of Development Manager in November 2015on a 12-month contract. During that time, Danielle has supported the executive by doing presentations to NGBs and athletes, helping in election processes and creating a new BAC AR Handbook, which we were able to produce at no cost due to the generosity of sponsors First Ascent.
With this being the end of Summer Games cycle the current Athlete Representative cohort will be in transition as some will be determining their future and NGBs are selecting Performance squads for the Tokyo Cycle. The BAC is grateful to all Athlete Representatives for their support in this transformational stage for the organisation and wishes those transitioning away from sport every success. To those that we remain we will look to work with you to promote Athlete Representation in your sport and to grow the network to share learning and experience.
Growth in Membership
The BAC continues to build a reputation outside of the UK Sport funded sports with other NGBs, Sports Councils and the further education sector. We continue to develop our relationships with Sport England, Sport Wales and Sport Scotland to discuss how we might work with their NGBs and athletes who have represented their country but have not reached World Class standard and are therefore not on Lottery Funding. The BAC has worked with Jennie Price, CEO of Sport England to raise the profile of supporting and safeguarding Adults at Risk not only in performance sport but also within the wider sporting landscape. We are delighted to have started working with UK Deaf Sport and will develop this relationship ahead of the Deaf Olympics in 2017 and have welcomed the 27 members that make-up the Performance squad in England Squash. In addition we are delighted to have set up partnerships with the Universities of Bath and University of Manchester to give BAC membership to selected Sports Scholars who are dual career students and athletes.
The challenges facing athletes are the same wherever they are on the Talent Pathway so this is an area where the BAC will seek to continue to grow our influence and the services we offer always ensuring we have the right support in place to be able to support our members who often need urgent answers in tight timescales.
Commercial Development
This year the BAC has signed LG as a sponsor and member benefit provider. LG are providing our members excellent discounts and offers on all their electronic products. This is a 3-year arrangement and we look forward to working with them over the next cycle. Sport Mobile have also joined the BAC as a member benefit provider, they offer excellent rates to our members especially those who use their mobiles abroad.
Governance
The Board will be announcing the new chair of the BAC at the 2016 AGM. Karen Pickering MBE stepped down as chair after a numbers of years as a director and Chair BAC in the Summer. The Board would like to place on record their thanks for her commitment to the BAC. Anna Watkins MBE has been interim chair for the last 6 months since Karen’s resignation providing continuity between the Board and the executive and has overseen the recruitment process for the new chair. This process brought forward a number of candidates; all three that made the shortlist to be interviewed have agreed to join the Board subject to members’ approval at the AGM. It is the Board’s view that they will bring additional skills to our Board and strengthen the governance of the organisation.
The BAC is continuing to work to improve Safeguarding standards in Performance sport with both the NSPCC’s Child Protection in Sport Unit whilst working through the Safeguarding standards, the Ann Craft Trust and the Steering Group for Safeguarding Adults at Risk. UK Sport has allowed the BAC to extend the time available to complete the next standard in the Equality in Sport framework but the BAC continues to do work in this this area with organisations like Women Ahead, Sporting Equals and Pride Sports.
Both the Board and Executive team will be working on ensuring that the BAC has integrated the requirements of new Code of Governance into our own processes and policies. The BAC has already shown commitment to ensuring equality and diversity on Boards. Our current Board is diverse – a mixture of “member” directors and independents as well as a 50/50 representation for gender and people with disability..
Conclusion
The BAC is in a stronger place at the end of the Rio cycle than the start in terms of its governance, finances and role in high performance sport. The Board and executive are committed to growing the influence of the BAC in the next four years and supporting more athletes appropriately wherever they are on the Talent Pathway.
Ian Braid
CE0, British Athletes Commission
December 2016
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