for teachers; leadership courses for young volunteers; regular and appropriate competition and support, all helping to create more sustainable rugby union activity in schools and clubs.
Schools affiliations are up by 101 schools, even after a clear out of some 120 schools no longer in existence due to mergers or closures.
Universities and Colleges rugby is thriving. Freshers Fairs kicked off the season and 114 Universities joined the Higher Education Rugby Development Programme, a 13% increase. In the BUSA Championships there were six new university teams and 76 Further Education Colleges took part in the BCS Leagues, an increase of 5.5%. A further 16,177 students took part in other rugby competitions.
Seven FE colleges achieved Accredited College status in the new College Accreditation Scheme and one achieved the higher Beacon College Award.
In Universities, Student Liaison Officer and Development Officer targets focused on University Development Plans, increasing participation in competitions and developing formal and informal FE / HE club links.
The National Students Conference saw a record 57 Universities attend with students becoming involved in the consultation and planning of programmes for next season, including the Play On campaign. Following a review, England Students and English Universities combined to form one single squad.
On the Equity, Welfare & Medical front Regional Development Teams delivered over 48 social inclusion projects, with a value of some £300,000 of activity. Programmes covered everything from inner-city projects run in partnership with local police to girls’ after-school rugby schemes and from working with disability tag rugby clubs to coaching and leadership programmes with young offenders and young men not in employment or training. The RU Working scheme (seen on Sky as School of Hard Knocks) had particular success in Liverpool.
Close work continues with England Deaf Rugby, Wheelchair Rugby and the British Asian Rugby Association. In January the team passed a major milestone in gaining the Preliminary Award in the national Equity Standard charter-mark scheme.
The medical team’s medical issues service responded to over 350 enquiries and information regarding concussion advice was issued, including over 25,000 advice cards sent to schools and clubs.
Work on behalf of catastrophically injured players has seen increased support to players and their families at the time of injury and a programme of long-term support link the rugby community with existing services and provision for injured players. Injury research projects are well supported by schools and academies, helping to provide the kind of detail which will inform future injury prevention programmes.
We have recently obtained funding from V, a government initiative for young volunteers, which has allowed the department to restructure and place four officers out in the field to support CBs and clubs in developing volunteering and especially encouraging young volunteers.
In our schools more than 150 Community Sports Coaches delivered high quality coaching to over 1 million participants, representing the clubs in their community and making a massive contribution to government, Sport England and RFU participation targets. School-club links were also achieved in over 90% of the Schools Sports Partnership network.
More than 3,500 new and emerging schools played in the National Emerging Schools Programme, with over 50,000 players from non-traditional rugby backgrounds setting out on their rugby pathway. The Daily Mail Cup also went from strength to strength, over 20,000 players taking part in the Under 15 and 18 competitions.
Led by our Regional Development Managers, our eight Regional Delivery Teams are building strong partnerships with Constituent Bodies and external partners in a coordinated approach to growing the grass roots game. They also provide: training and resources