Competition Manager Programme launched in Derbyshire
Double Commonwealth Gold medal winner and former world record holder over 5000 metres, David Moorcroft OBE, has launched Derbyshire's Competition Manager Programme at the Derbyshire Sport Conference.
There it was announced that an additional £649,000 has been pledged for school sport in Derbyshire. The cash is part of the £100m additional investment in young people and sport announced by the Prime Minister in July.
The money – from the Department for Children, Schools and Families via the Youth Sport Trust – will be coming into Derbyshire over the next three years to provide a boost to the promotion of sport in schools and to encourage more young people to become involved in a wider range of inter-school sport activities.
The £649,000 will be used to appoint Competition Managers in the county.
Three have recently been appointed and a further two will be in post by April 2008.
All five posts will be funded through the scheme until March 2011 and they will work closely with schools to try to create new opportunities and encourage new people to become involved in competitive inter-school sport.
Each of the competition managers will take the lead for a particular area of the county, enabling them to focus their work and to build strong relationships with local partners, which include school sport partnerships, schools and local school sports associations, local authorities, governing bodies and sports clubs.
Newly appointed Senior Competition Manager Will Evans said: "This new funding offers the opportunity to enable all young people in Derbyshire schools to enjoy competitive sport.
"The message from the Government is very clear that competition within school sport is good. The new funding will allow us to make even more impact across Derbyshire."
Evans presented the emerging plans at the conference, which will also consider changes to the structure and funding of the Derbyshire Schools Sports Association (DSSA).
The DSSA is a registered charity and is responsible for managing or co-ordinating the organisation of school sport in Derbyshire. This involves the organisation of competitions at local, district and county level in a large range of sports and the selection of district and county representative teams.
The DSSA has been operating successfully for many years and has a long and healthy track record of success. The conference will consider and comment on proposals to restructure DSSA by April 2008 in order to maximise these new opportunities coming into the county.
Derbyshire’s Competition Managers will be part of a network of 226 Competition Managers across the country who will work with primary and secondary schools to increase the amount of competitive sport they offer.
The conference, at The Hayes Conference Centre in Swanwick, was attended by more than 140 people.