Holland FC

County Development Manager, Brendan Walshe, heads-up the Development Team at the Chelmsford office into a new calendar year and he’s highlighted the areas his staff will operate in to improve the experience of grassroots football for all. He’s claimed that Essex’s part in the national strategy is crucial, with local needs contributing to a bigger picture.

He explained: “We’ve devised our own County Plan up until 2015 which fits with the FA National Game Strategy. The NGS sets the vision and direction of where The FA wants football development to get to and we provide the framework and detail, based on local circumstances, of how we are going to get to those targets in Essex.”

Approximately 25,000 people from the football family were consulted to determine the key FA priorities over the next four years, including the National Game Board, County FAs, schools and the members of the Big Grassroots Survey. Based on the responses, The FA now has a number of key priorities to focus on up until 2015. These include:

o focusing resources on retaining and developing the existing number of affiliated teams
o raising standards of player and spectator behaviour across the grassroots game
o increasing football opportunities and the profile of women and minority groups
o providing flexible formats of football to suit the changing lifestyles of players
o introducing proposed changes to youth football
o maximizing investment into facilities

In 2008, The FA set a number of key targets to achieve in grassroots football and the work delivered by the National Game team and County FAs over the last three years has already resulted in the ability to achieve significant successes in the following areas:

o 74% of all youth teams have achieved the FA Charter Standard
o 2.6 million 5-11-year-olds trained through FA Tesco Skills
o 74% of all youth teams have a qualified coach
o 4,000 more referees than there were in 2008

What’s more, £253 million has been invested into grassroots facilities and this includes all investment by The FA, the Football Foundation, the Premier League and Sport England, along with a whole range of local and regional partners. The FA have created a national database of coaches, referees, clubs and volunteers and The FA Player Pass is being developed.

In terms of participation, the number of men’s adult football teams is still a key focus going forward for The FA, as there is still a decline in the number of players in eleven-a-side football. There are currently 30,355 affiliated teams, but growth is evident in other areas of team participation, which The FA will continue to focus on up until 2015, including:

o increase in the number of adult female teams from 1,250 to 1,437
o increase in the number boys youth teams from 34,300 to 46,968
o increase in the number of girls youth teams from 4,500 to 6,967
o increase in the number of mini-soccer teams from 21,800 to 25,932
o increase in the number of male disability teams from 270 to 978
o creation of 122 new female disability teams

There have also been achievements in Essex between 2008 and 2012, namely:

o £25,202,586 total project cost has been invested in Essex in Facility Development (£11,206,633 direct from the Football Foundation since it was founded in 2001)
o the percentage of Charter Standard youth and mini-soccer has risen from 46% to 68%
o Charter Standard Community Clubs have grown from 12 to 23
o 202,916 playing opportunities have been provided through FA Tesco Skills
o 1,700+ male coaches gained the Level 1 Coaching Certificate, plus over 150 females
o a full coach education programme has been provided, including Level 2 and 3 courses, as well as Safeguarding Children and Emergency Aid workshops and the introduction of the Age Appropriate and Youth Award Modules
o male disability teams have increased from 5-18
o female teams, in both adult female and youth girls, have increased
o the number of referees in the County has increased from 1,398 to 1,475
o network of in-service training and support for coaches, referees and young leaders
o 29 leagues have signed-up to the Respect programme
o every youth club and youth league in Essex has a Welfare Officer
o accrediting five Charter Standard Leagues
o developing a network of primary and secondary school competitions
o embracing small-sided football and Futsal, with more than 1,400 teams

Brendan continued: “We’ve already begun the delivery of the new strategy so grassroots clubs, leagues, players, officials and volunteers, along with our partner organizations such as local authorities, schools, community groups and facility providers, should hopefully all be benefitting directly and indirectly from the work which is taking place.”

“We’ll continue to work within the key pillars of Growth & Retention, Raising Standards, Better Players, Workforce Development and Facility Development. There are key tactics which underpin all of this work, particularly within Growth & Retention. The decline in general sports participation has been well documented but, through new initiatives such as GetIntoFootball and Mars JustPlay, we’re confident we can help to entice people into, or back into, the game.”

FA General Secretary Alex Horne said: “We’re focused on delivering football for everyone, and we’re proud of the success we’ve achieved over the last three seasons since our last strategy. We will continue to be open and transparent on the goals we wish to achieve and have shown that we have a robust framework in place to ensure funding is used to get more people playing the game, to protect facilities and provide a fun and safe football experience.”

Roger Burden, Chair of the National Game Board, commented: “An enormous amount of hard work has been delivered and it’s important that this is acknowledged. There are more boys and girls playing the game than ever before, more coaches and officials are gaining qualifications and behavior on and off the pitch has shown improvement. The next four years will be challenging in the difficult economic times, but we remain committed to achieving all our targets.”

If you would like to see the new National Game Refresh 2011-2015 in an eBook format, or to download a PDF version, visit the Essex County FA website at www.essexfa.com.