the asa's strategy 2009-13: Latest Updates

Strategy Update 26 September 2008

I was very pleased with the reaction to my first blog entry, not one direct response to me but quite a few of you wanted to sign up to hear more! I'll assume everything is fine then! If you do want to discuss anything to do with the Strategy please email me at ceri.wynne@swimming.org

Much progress has been made in developing the strategy over the last month. Feedback has been received from the asa Board and the Board were happy with how the strategy had developed. We have made a presentation to Sport England (SE) on our funding application 2009-13 and had the draft Strategy printed in time for distribution to the Council meeting on 11th October.

As is often the case there have been a few discussions about the style of the document, it is similar in style to the existing Vision and strategy documents but is probably more focused on outcomes and how we are going to achieve them. There is, however, almost total agreement that the content is the appropriate way forward for the asa.

An important indicator for SE will be to assess the customers 'satisfaction' with the sport.  The customer may be a participant, someone in a club or on the talent programme.  The criteria for this is yet to be agreed and it will be measured by SE with initial benchmarking completed in early 2009. In addition we will commission our own satisfaction survey to compliment the SE data and to extend our information from a similar survey in 2005.

The SE funding application date has been extended and we will be submitting our funding application by the 23rd October and expect a decision in early January. The final strategy will then be published in January 2009.

Strategy Update 5 September 2008

Hopefully you will be aware that the asa has been preparing and consulting on its Strategy for the period 2009-13, in conjunction with developing our funding application for Sport England for the same period.  These two documents are significant and they represent the future for our organization. They indicate the way we will work and set down the priorities for everyone to see.

We have been consulting on the Strategy for nearly 10 months and have consulted staff, volunteers, partners and Board members. We have tried very hard to ensure that this Strategy is developed from 'the bottom up' and the regions have been fundamental in setting their own priorities and targets within a national framework. 

The final draft will be presented to asa Council on Council on 11 October. We also invited comments via the website and this element of the consultation ended on August 22.

Because the document will have such importance I thought it was important for you to know what will happen now. This is why I have begun to write this blog. It will be updated on a regular basis as we have news. If you would like to receive an email when it is updated please email Sharon.rose@swimming.org

Working alongside this process we have been engaging with Sport England to take out of our Strategy the areas that it will be interested in funding.  This has posed us with some particular problems as Sport England changed its priorities at the end of last year.  However, we are about to have our third meeting with Sport England and have submitted our first draft. The final application will be made at the end of September.  We are requesting significant amounts of money to enable us to deliver an agenda that encompasses health, education, club development and talent.

If you have any detailed queries please do not hesitate to contact me via email: ceri.wynne@swimming.org

Ceri Wynne
English Programme Manager