UK Sport and Sport England have called for more diversity within governing bodies, in their Charter for Sports Governance in the UK.
Their job is to invest National Lottery funding into sport in the UK and their new ‘Code for Sports Governance’ outlines key elements to make the sport sector a higher standard.
Along with guidelines on transparency, integrity, leadership and membership, UK Sport calls for diversity ‘at all levels of the workforce’.
The main points include:
- increasing targets for the amount of women on sporting boards from twenty-five percent to thirty percent
- creating interview scheme for under-representing groups
- introducing other specific targets for areas like disability
UK Sport say the code is ambitious but they are protecting public investment by keeping the sector at a high standard.
They said: ‘Bodies tasked with organising sport are holders of public trust. They are the guardians of something which is precious to millions and in many cases they are the recipients of substantial public funding.’
‘Public funding is a privilege, not an entitlement, and carries a responsibility to uphold the highest standard of integrity.’
Residents of Gloucestershire are pleased to hear that diversity is being taken seriously, when funded by public investment into the National Lottery.
Diversity is an important issue to many, living in a multicultural society. We asked the people of Gloucestershire why they thought diversity in sport is important. Hear what they had to say below: