NEWS

This newlsetter was sent to all our website members on 29th December 2011.

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Dear Coaching Highland Website Member

Coaching Highland Extraordinary General Meeting

We are writing to inform you that today we have written to our company members (the 8 local sports councils in Highland), to invite them to attend an Extraordinary General Meeting to be held at on Tuesday 7th February 2012.

The reason for the EGM is to vote on the following resolution:

Resolution 1: We, the Directors of Coaching Highland, having considered all available courses of action available to us following an independent study and options appraisal, propose that Coaching Highland is wound up and all assets and liabilities are transferred to High Life Highland on 31st March 2012.

The background to this proposal is that in October 2010, sportscotland who had been funding us for many years withdrew their annual £40,000 support to Coaching Highland. This funding paid for our core coaching development programmes such as coaching grants and organising education courses. The reason they did this was to employ 9 Regional Coaching & Volunteering Managers internally who would have a responsibility to develop coaching and volunteering across all 32 local authorities in Scotland rather than funding specific ones directly. Coaching Highland engaged the University of the Highlands & Islands (Inverness College Research Department) to scope options for the organisation over the past few months and through dialogue with our partners, it has been decided that the best way forward is to close Coaching Highland down and transfer the assets to High Life Highland who will carry on the work. I will elaborate on the reasons for this later.

High Life Highland is a company limited by guarantee with charitable status which was launched on 1st October 2011 to deliver the community, learning and leisure functions of the Highland Council as an Arm’s Length Organisation. In terms of sport, this includes leisure facilities, sports development, disability sport, active schools programme and other related services. The two main staff at Coaching Highland (Alan Hoseason and Elissa Steven) were employed by The Highland Council and seconded to run Coaching Highland and so were transferred by TUPE to High Life Highland (HLH). Therefore, if we transfer all Coaching Highland assets and programmes to HLH, then we are effectively returning the delivery of coaching in house rather than running our work through an external charity. The Highland Council covered the salaries and office costs which meant that sportscotland funding could be used entirely on delivering support to coaches in the Highlands.

sportscotland funds HLH to a significant level for the active schools programme as well as capital investment in leisure facilities and our conversations between the relevant parties has indicated that sportscotland would be keen to work with HLH in relation to coaching as part of their wider investment and partnership in sports development. In addition, the new regional post they have put in the area is responsible for driving coaching strategy and so there is less need for a strategic board of directors at Coaching Highland.

This makes our work more operational and we are all confident that delivering coaching services via High Life Highland is the best option.

The Board of Coaching Highland has approved this approach, and the Board of HLH met on 8th December 2011 to approve also. To comply with regulations, we have applied to OSCR for their permission.

In terms of the Sports Leaders Award Programme, it is mostly funded from trusts and grants and the funding has meant that Coaching Highland could employ a Sports Leaders Co-ordinator. What we have agreed locally, is that if all the funders agree to this proposal, the post and funding would transfer to HLH and continue exactly as planned – with no changes. The post would be subject to a TUPE transfer meaning that the exact terms and conditions would transfer with the post.

We hope you will agree that under the circumstances, this is the best way forward for coaching development in the area.

Yours sincerely

Alan Hoseason
Coaching Development Officer

Statement from the Board of Directors of Coaching Highland

Background

Coaching Highland (CH) was originally set up as a voluntary organisation, titled Gael Force Ten, in May 1995. Its purpose was to develop the quality and quantity of sports coaches in Highland in response to a report by Slainte which identified that whilst there were many coaches delivering in many sports clubs, the majority of them were not qualified to do so. The organisation grew to be so successful that in 2005 it was replaced by CH which was established as a company limited by guarantee with charitable status. This change in status enabled funding to be brought in from external agencies and trusts. This complimented the Highland Council (recently changed to High Life Highland) funding which covered salaries and core office costs.

Two HLH staff run the company with a third employee who is hired directly by CH to deliver an extensive Sports Leaders Award Programme for over 1,000 people.

The work of CH was recognised at a UK level in 2008 by being the first ever recipient of the title UK’s Leading Agency in the Support of Coaching, and was also runner up in 2009.

Current Situation

In October 2010, sportscotland restructured their coaching support to a regional model and this meant a loss to CH of their core project delivery budget, a sum of £40,000 per annum. This now means that CH has no operating budget.

Instead, sportscotland now employ a Regional Coaching & Volunteering Manager for Highland and the Islands, which has resulted in a change of roles and responsibilities for the Highland area. The aim locally has been to clarify ways in which we can ensure the range of coach support and development continues to the high standard enjoyed by all to date and that neither the level nor the quality of service is hampered.

CH have been utilising their reserves in order to continue their coaching development work during 2011-12. However, this is rapidly diminishing and the organisation will be unable to continue for more than a year if the situation is not resolved soon.

Therefore, as a Board of Directors bound by Charity and Company Law, we are looking at options for the future and will make a further announcement later in the year when the most effective way forward has been identified.

Please note that all existing grants and courses to March 2012 will run as normal.