Sports development

George Loxdale
 Introduction
• Quality should be an organisation-wide
approach to meeting customer needs, but
within a budget and in the most
sustainable way. The starting point for this
is knowing how you are performing as an
organisation and building up the best
features you can towards accepted
standards.
• Standards of performance are usually laid
down by national organisations or
independent bodies so that comparisons
can be made. Most schemes try to
measure quality in the hope that this can
be continuously improved on.
 Benchmarks

• These are targets or standards set to enable

organisations to compare themselves. This
means making comparisons with other similar
organisations or against standards set Nationally
in order to compare performance and delivery,
for example. A quality system or scheme
encourages this process of assessment, so that
providers can aim to continuously improve their
services.
 Quest

• Quest is a national quality system that can

be used for assessment of sports-
development schemes. Quest is an
industry standard developed by sport
England and measures specific elements
of sports-development work including
research, management, customer service
and partnership working.
 Quest (cont)

• Quest is aimed at sports-development

units in local authorities, governing bodies
and voluntary organisations. Sports-
development organisations can either a
self-assessment/improvement programme
or submit themselves for an independent
external assessment in their pursuit.
• The administration of the scheme is overseen by
an independent consultancy to ensure it is fair.
• Quest operates a grading system based on the
following scores:
• To be registered, a score of above 60 per cent is
needed
• To achieve highly commended, the score needs
to be between 75 per cent and 84 per cent
• An excellent score is 85 per cent and above.
• The assessment is based on criteria such
as:
• Objectives and the actions targeted at
achieving these
• Timekeeping, workmanship and coaching
• Quality of equipment
• Problem-solving techniques
• Organisational culture – elements of pride,
professionalism and standards.
 Club Mark

• Club mark was introduced in 2002 by sport

England. It is a cross-sport quality award
for clubs with junior selections. The
scheme demonstrates to partners, parents
and young people that club mark
accredited clubs are:
• Active – getting the best out of young
people.