Update to the Workforce Governance, Registration and Coaching Roadmap

The focus to date has been on the Workforce Governance being able to bring a more consistent and comprehensive approach to coaching/teaching, celebrating all coaches and teachers of Sport and Physical activity through the right touch governance registration of the coaching workforce.

EMD UK is the only National Governing Body (NGB) for group exercise teachers/coaches and as a system partner of Sport England has supported and been a valued participant in this project since it’s onset.

Further testing phase begins

This project to date has been standing alone through its pilot readiness phase and through the strategic lead of Sport England will now continue into a further phase of testing which aligns this project with the wider sporting system considerations, the Safe Sport Project and the UK Sport High Performance Coaching Strategy.

Sport England and the NGB coaching leads have worked together to align an emerging plan that NGB’s have developed to primarily focus around the coach and coaching.

The proposed pathway is for further development and testing in the Coaching System Roadmap. This is a pathway that is proposed to bring a clear action plan and focus for the next three years. The strategic context is across 4 areas:

1. Diverse, skilled and fulfilled people
2. Healthy and efficient organisations
3. The future power of sport and physical activity in a safe environment
4. A well governed system

This will create a collaborative framework in which NGB’s will empower their coaching/teaching workforce to deliver great experiences. The two-year pilot commissioned by Sport England and led by CIMSPA has identified some learnings and summary recommendations.

These recommendations will include NGB’s holding their own register and the further testing of a national register which will be an independent visibility tool for viewing the NGB registers. In order to be professionally recognised and included in the register it is important that group exercise teachers and coaches become professionally recognised as members of the NGB, EMD UK.

EMD UK are the only NGB with group exercise governance responsibilities and the only organisation that can offer Professionally Recognised membership in register preparation.

What will EMD UK do

In order to become register ready EMD UK (NGB) will work towards effective governance and an integrated workforce governance framework in support of group exercise coaches/teachers.

Each NGB will be responsible for developing a work force register under a shared national standard of deployment which EMD UK have been working towards for two years. This will be a publicly accessible register which will enable visibility on the vetting and accountability of all the coaching and teaching workforce.

In readiness, EMD UK have developed supporting resources for group exercise coaches and teachers that will enable them to meet the shared deployment standards to include free training to widen the scope of practice for teachers and the first safeguarding training that has group exercise teacher specific units.

EMD UK has revolutionised the sector by its thought leading work on scope of practice for group exercise teachers and coaches. This with enable the group exercise workforce to gain professional recognition and become part of this register, have a voice and shape the future. Whatever the practical discipline of a group exercise coach/teacher there is a scope of practice that will recognise the group exercise coaching/teaching workforce or enable recognition through the bridging programme.

It is now, as never before, more important that the value you bring as a group exercise coach/teacher is professionally recognised and that you are visibly enabled in your scope of practice by being able to hold and show that status you hold by your NGB. Prepare yourself for the future and prepare to have your voice heard.