Approrpiate Facilities & Funding
Having appropriate, modern and pleasant facilities is a key requirement to grow participation and create sustainable clubs. We must maximise the availability of capital funding from Governmental sources and the Rugby Football Foundation to enable the development of quality facilities at all levels of the game.
Objectives
Achieve funding for all levels of the game from Government and Lottery sources of a minimum of £7m p.a. averaged over the Plan period
136 The Game Investment department was established to maximise funding from Governmental sources. The Game Investment team has achieved significant success over the last two years in obtaining Government funding and has positioned itself well through the effective and targeted use of the funds obtained to date from Governmental programmes, such as the full utilisation of the CCDP funding that has been spent across 152 projects.
137 The success of obtaining future Government funding is conditional upon both Sport England developing new processes for ‘bidding’ for funding via the ‘Whole Sport Plan’ process and DCMS obtaining additional funding for sport from HM Treasury. It is also important to recognise the range of funding that has been obtained and the uses to which it has been put in developing the Community Game, much of which is direct funding to projects or programmes that does not pass through the accounts of the RFU. Additionally, we need to build upon the ‘leverage’ factor whereby we increase the value of each £ invested through partnership funding arrangements and innovative use of funding streams.
Revise and update the National Facilities Strategy and implement the changes
138 The National Facilities Strategy (NFS) was approved by Council in 2002 and has formed the basis of our implementation of the CCDP Funding secured from the Government. Recently there has been a marked change in Government thinking on investment in sport and facilities with a ‘multi-sport’ approach now being favoured. This makes our representations to Government that much more important. We need to align our National Facilities Strategy with this development in Government thinking to ensure that we secure our share of capital funding that may become available from the Government. We therefore intend to reconvene the original facilities group to update the NFS for the shift in Government policy and set appropriate new targets.
CB funding will be targeted to support priority areas of the Community Rugby work programme
139 The CB conditional funding process will be used to allocate financial resources to support priority areas of the Community Rugby work programme. This will be supported by CBs own budget processes based on a common CB financial template that will facilitate monitoring and evaluation.
Respond to the Government’s Regionalisation policy
140 Regionalisation via the nine Regional Sports Boards is a key part of Government’s sports development strategy. We need to align - but not change - our management structures so that we can respond appropriately and positively to maximise the associated funding opportunities for the Community game. The establishment of Regional Rugby Development Partnerships envisaged in the Schools, Students and Youth Review Report may well form part of the answer.
Strategies and Plans
Develop ‘partnership’ based funding for facilities improvements
141 With both CCDP and RFF programmes, we have successfully implemented a ‘matched’funding approach for projects, resulting in significant extra funding being raised. We have successfully lobbied the Government not to withdraw its funding support, as originally planned, at the end of the current three year CCDP programme. We have now been advised that we have a further £4.75m funding from Government over the next two years. It is essential for the continued investment in and improvement of our facilities across the country that we persuade the Government to maintain this capital funding for sport on a long term and consistent basis.
Develop local and regional facilities plans by the end of 2006
142 With the NFS in place and significant work underway with facilities improvements with both the CCDP and RFF programmes, we now need to put in place detailed facilities development plans on both a local and regional level. These plans will be necessary for the next stage of lobbying Government for capital funding support as part of the Whole Sport Plan proposals and our bid for ‘Single Stop’ funding for Rugby Union.Such local and regional plans will cross-reference with the NFS Model Venue Framework that advises on the recommended facility specification for clubs offering different ranges of activity programmes.
143 It is important that CBs input into the development of these local and regional facilities plans. Activity generated by the CB work programmes will need to be sited at appropriate facilities. Where this is not possible it may generate a facility need in a particular area that should be registered in the aforementioned plans.
144 The NFS Model Venues 3 and 4 specifications could be used as the template for activity at clubs identified as ‘Beacon Clubs’. Given the extensive nature of the facility specification at these venue types, it is likely that National League clubs may more easily fulfil such a role.
Establish and maintain a facilities database for Rugby Union
145 The first RFU Strategic Plan identified that we lack the necessary data on key elements of our sport. This is certainly true in respect of club facilities. It is vital that we have an accurate ‘baseline’ for our facilities inventory and can track improvements over time. We must therefore assemble over the next two years a facilities database for our sport.This could be obtained via the RFU Questionnaire but we should evaluate whether it would be better to use a mixture of RDOs and appointed consultants to assemble the data and reduce the workload on Volunteers.
CBs to review their current investment in Community Rugby work programme
146CBs have an active and positive role to play in the success of the game. They can use their resources to complement those being directly invested by the RFU and other partners. CBs should now review their current areas of investment and measure them against the Critical Success Factors of the Community Game.
Use CB and Regional Rugby Development Partnerships to respond to Government’s regionalisation agenda
147 The establishment of Regional Rugby Development Partnerships, as recommended in the Schools, Students and Youth Review, will provide a mechanism for the game to interface with the Regional Boards being set up by Sport England. It is important that we align ourselves with governmental structures so that we maximise access to funding opportunities. A combination of CBRDPs and RRDPs working together should enable us to deliver a co-ordinated ’local’ and ‘regional’ response to Government and their agencies that will involve all stakeholders and lead to an increase in funding and resource provision.
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