FEBRUARY 2012

1000 DOORSTEP SPORT CLUBS - A CONSULTATION

DEADLINE: FRIDAY 16TH MARCH 2012

StreetGames is seeking feedback on the proposed roll out of 1000 new Doorstep Sport Clubs from all agencies interested in the development of youth sport in disadvantaged areas.

Please write your comments at the end of this form, and e-mail to

What are Doorstep Sport Clubs?

  • The focus of thenew Government and Sport England Sport Strategy is on young people. The strategy, titled ‘Creating A Sporting Habit for Life’ (January 2012) commits £1 billion to youth sport over the next five years. The priority is 14 to 25 year olds, tackling the huge problem of young people dropping out of sport in this age group. One of the strategy’s commitments is for StreetGames to lead the creation of 1000 new Doorstep Sport Clubs.
  • StreetGames is working with Sport England to finalise the roll out plan of Doorstep Clubs. We expect this to be completed by the end of May 2012. Nothing will start until Sport England sign off the plan and agree the budget.
  • At the moment, the plan is to engage over 150,000disadvantaged young people as participants and members of Doorstep Clubs, an average of 150 young people per club – although in reality clubs will be all different shapes and sizes.
  • Doorstep Sport Clubs will be youth led - they will have a culture that is very different from the mood and style of traditional, typically lease holding voluntary clubs.

The 8 core principles of a Doorstep Club

We expect organisations that sign up to creating doorstep sport clubs to be moving in the direction of achieving these 8 core principles. We know that not all will achieve them.

1.Target disadvantaged young people from the age of 14. A key target for all Doorstep Clubs is to tackle drop out from sport at the age of 16 years and build in plans to encourage lifelong participation. We call the process of acquiring the habit of life-long participation ‘sporting capital’. (Doorstep Clubs will be able to cater for under 14’s, but will not attract investment for this age group from Sport England Lottery Fund).

2.Youth Leadership - Doorstep Club activity will be shaped by the participants. This will mean that clubs will cater for a complete range of mixed ability from the casual fun participant to the talented player. Participants will also gain leadership in :

  1. Sporting capital (being able to take responsibility for organising your own sports participation),
  2. Volunteering

3.Collaboration with National Governing Bodies of Sport – Doorstep Clubs will work in partnership with a large number of NGBs to develop:

  1. membership/affiliation;
  2. new competitions and leagues;
  3. coach recruitment and education;
  4. new Activators – a dynamic coach that can engage really well with young people as well as network with a host of local agencies.

4.Equity – all Doorstep Clubs will sign up to equity plans for girls, disability, and where relevant, bme. Some clubs will be girls only or disability only. We will draw on the expertise of Us Girls to shape our offer to young women. As a rule of thumb members of Doorstep Clubs will reflect the demographics of the local area.

5.A well trained and skilled workforce for Doorstep Clubs – a commitment to continuous up skilling of all the key roles that contribute to the effective planning and running of the clubs. All coaches, leaders and organisers will be able to join a Doorstep Club Organisers Group, and be encouraged to work in teams within and across sports to enhance the participants experience and journey.

6.Evidence of impact and success – a consistent quality data capture system operated by all Doorstep Clubs and evaluated by StreetGames. In addition, important new research will be commissioned to capture the key shifts in policy, trends, and statistics.

7.Brand and marketing – Doorstep Clubs will benefit from a strong brand and innovative marketing materials to enhance their local delivery.

8.Sustainability – financial sustainability of Doorstep Clubs will be built into the planning from the very start and reviewed on a regular basis. We expect sustainability to be a product of enhanced fundraising skills and effective engagement with mainstream sport via eg NGBs and CSPs.

Who is best placed to run the Doorstep Clubs?

  • A Doorstep Club will often be part of the wider services and activities delivered by a local organisation. For example, a local authority establishing Doorstep Clubs with community organisations involved in asset transfers, or leisure centre reprogramming, or a social enterprise running a Doorstep Club as one strand of its projects and services.
  • Most clubs will be run locally by local organisations, although some will be delivered by national organisations. We expect the delivery organisation to have a very good grasp of its neighbourhood beyond just the paper analysis of demographics and deprivation.
  • County Sport Partnerships will play an essential role helping to identify the correct locations and suitable organisations in their area. They will also be a great source of support in club development, coach development, and school/club links.
  • Some sports-specific NGB affiliated clubs that work with our target group will want to join the Doorstep Sport Clubs because of the add-on benefits. Each case will be viewed on its merits and we hope to persuade them to develop their offer and move towards delivering along the lines of the 8 core principles (above).
  • NGBs are invited to support Doorstep Sport Clubs and take advantage of the 1000 landing sites for their new products and approaches to growth in the disadvantaged youth market.

Are these the right characteristics of a Doorstep Club?

  1. StreetGames and its wider range of partners will create 1000 Doorstep Sport Clubs for over 150,000 disadvantaged young people between 2012 and 2017. In the future, low income young people will reap the benefits of being in a local club environment that meets their needs and offers a number of sports to play both informally and competitively.
  1. Doorstep Sport Clubs are multi-sport clubs that will grow participation and help combat adolescent drop-off by flexibly applying the most up to date knowledge of what works to retain the 14+s in sport. They will cater for the spectrum of sporting needs – from the keen to the casual participant.
  1. Doorstep Sports Clubs build on the success of the StreetGames network of projects that have been successfully delivering doorstep sport for years, as well as the recent NGB product innovations Activator programmes that are popular with disadvantaged young people. Both generate new participation in informal surroundings. It is not only StreetGames that deliver doorstep sport. Other organisations that are geared up to this target market like Access Sport, CYP, Positive Futures, community programmes of professional sports clubs, and many unbranded interventions are invited to talk to us with a view to joining in the campaign for 1000 clubs.
  1. The ambition is to provide the participants with the skills and appetite for life-long activity (through the acquisition of ‘sporting capital’) We are working on what this really means in practice and will soon produce a discussion paper outlining what Doorstep Clubs will need to do to promote life-long participation. Research shows this is likely to involve developing the confidence, sports skills and the knowledge needed by young people if they are to make their own way in adult sport.In due course some of the clubs will create adult teams[1]. Behaviour Change modelling taken from the expertise of the health sector will be built into the practice of the sports workers.
  1. Doorstep Sport Clubs are a landing site for NGB new products and styles of delivery, talent identification and competitions. They are fertile ground for new NGB members, teams, clubs, leagues, coaches, officials, and administrators. NGBs will be invited to join in the creation of the clubs and will play a lead role in setting up the sport-specific strand of a club’s offer.
  2. Doorstep sport clubs are very different in style from traditional sports clubs that cater for adults and juniors. Doorstep Clubs will be youth led: young people will set the mood and tone of the clubs and provide a welcome and friendly local sport environment for hundreds of young people. The strong youth leadership aspects to the clubs will ensure they are genuinely in sync with the preferences of young people. We expect the clubs to change every now and again as young people’s preferences change. There will also be well managed adult and youth volunteer opportunities within each club.
  1. Host agencies will include many of the organisations that currently run StreetGames projects, as well as new partners. An example of planned partners is Local Authorities, community organisations, social enterprises, youth clubs, leisure centres, health centres, existing sports clubs, professional sports clubs, and FE Colleges.
  1. The facility and venue arrangements will vary by club– sometimes there will be one venue, sometimes it will be a main venue with outreach happening in other smaller venues (on a hub and spokes model) and sometimes it will be a variety of venues spread across an estate or ward.
  2. The internal life of the Doorstep Sport Club will extend beyond sport to include social events such as trips[2], parties, camping trips and residential tournaments. The Doorstep Sport Club will integrate into the life of a neighbourhood and be locally ‘owned’.
  1. Modern and innovative coach education will create a new generation of coaches with the skills to motivate disadvantaged youth and coach a number of sports in a style that meets young people’s needs (usually adapted and fun version of the sports). Coaches will be responsible for helping young people to move between sports, and develop from outreach informal sessions to competitive teams, tournaments and central venue leagues. We are working on a new syllabus with First for Sport that is all about multi-skill coaching in the doorstep sport club.
  1. The Doorstep Sport Club is a flexible concept– there are a number of models to suit local circumstances. All will shape provision to match the needs of the age group of the participants. For example, a club will recruit 13/14 year olds in year one and adapt provision as they mature. As the club matures, it will start to support adult teams and provide adult activity sessions[3].
  1. There will be both mixed and female only activity and disabled only/ mixed activity. Which sports are provided by a Club will be determined by NGB plans and local demand. The insights gathered from Us Girls and our youth volunteering programme will be incorporated into local delivery plans.

Is this the right journey for the club participant?

Doorstep Sport club members will be offered:

  • The opportunity to shape sport in their neighbourhood
  • Access to friendly-sessions of sports of local choice
  • A relaxed, informal multi-sport option
  • Access to new social groups and activities
  • Access to coaches who can deliver multi sport and sport specific sessions and share a philosophy
  • A simple and local pathway within the club into a variety of sports participation opportunities
  • Access to new teams and competitive opportunities run by the Club which are more serious and enter competitions and leagues
  • Talent identification and development opportunities via local quality coaches
  • Access to a variety of NGB services including performance clubs, tournaments, leagues and talent development squads.

In summary, the Doorstep Sport Clubs will provide young people with a supported pathway to lifelong participation in sport – we call this sporting capital.

In a mature doorstep sports club the participants’ pathway will look like this:

  • Typically Doorstep Sport Clubs will run outreach sessions - traditional doorstep sport sessions which engage new participants. Participants have the choice to just take part in the weekly multi sport sessions or to also take part in the sport specific sessions providing an exciting menu of participation options.
  • People join the Doorstep Sport Clubs at any age. In the first few years, clubs will secure a loyal cohort of young members and grow provision with them. So, in year one activity might be for 13-15s and in year two activity is for the same people but in a different age band and new activity will begin for the next cohort of 13-15s. Talented youngsters will be supported to be the best they can via the NGB programmes.
  • Young people will be supported to lead from an early age. The learning from the CSYV programme is built into the volunteer management structure and the youngsters gain awards, progress to gaining coaching and sports leadership qualifications.
  • The internal life of the Club will extend beyond sport to include social events such as trips, parties, camping trips and residential tournaments. The Club will integrate into the life of a local estate and be locally ‘owned’.

Talented youngsters will be supported to be the best they can via the NGB programmes. We will arrange talent ID opportunities with those NGBs that commit to doorstep sport clubs

How will StreetGames manage the national roll out of Doorstep Clubs?

Central staffing- The central staffing team will be kept small. This is our preference by policy – not simply because of the need to keep down central costs. StreetGames is committed to providing as much resource and support to front line delivery as possible.

Also, StreetGames does not want to lose our entrepreneurial spirit under the weight of a bureaucratic structure and high staffing levels.

Also we are reluctant to denude local projects of their effective managers and put them into national structures; instead we will mentor and train these project managers to be part time Doorstep Sport Advisors/Fieldworkers so that they can share their knowledge and expertise with others, but not at a cost to their own organisation or project.

Doorstep Sport Advisor/Fieldworkers -Doorstep Sport Advisors are our preferred route to designing and developing new Doorstep Clubs with partner organisations.

DSAs are experienced project managers and practitioners who provide their experience and expertise to organisations who want to become Doorstep Sports Clubs. This is a method which we have found to work successfully for a number of years across the StreetGames network. Usually, DSA’s will work across a region, but occasionally their skills will be needed further afield. The DSA model is ideal because it is so flexible; it draws on the expertise of a large number or practitioners whose day to day job is tackling the live issues of delivering doorstep sport in disadvantaged areas.

It is expected that DSAs will meet one or more of the criteria below. It will be rare that all of these skill sets will be met by one person. The aim is to train up DSAs and provide good practice sharing to help them develop their own skills and experience to meet the rest of the criteria.

The skills and knowledge a DSA brings to the role will be enhanced by the soon to be written Doorstep Sport Club toolkit – which will be the application of best practice to the context of the doorstep sport club.

Together with our existing network of DSAs, we will recruit additional DSAs with skills in:

  • Mobilising teenage girls into sport – via the Us Girls network
  • Managing young volunteers
  • Qualified Trainers to CTS Level3
  • Festival and competition management
  • Doorstep Sport Sessions
  • Disability
  • BME
  • Fundraising
  • Collecting and managing data.

The DSAs will be managed by StreetGames Regional Managers and supported by the central team. DSAs are content to be paid a very fair rate as they value being recognised by StreetGames for their skills and experience, and they enjoy supporting other like-minded organisations and colleagues who are committed to the same agenda of doorstep sport. Our preferred model is to compensate an organisation for the loss of a DSAs time, rather than compensate the individual.

Achieving 1000 doorstep sport clubs - Consultation so far with existing StreetGames projects indicates a great willingness to progress to modernising their way of working by delivering the doorstep sport club offer. This view is shared by other networks that have access to 14+ in disadvantaged areas especially Clubs for Young People, Access Sport, Catch 22, Rugby Football League, and Football League Trust. There have been positive discussions with Locality with a view to opening up the offer of joining Doorstep Sport Clubs to their 700 local affiliated community organisations. We expect other networks, including Sported, NCVYS and YMCA to express an interest in due course.