Recommendation 14

HM Government Accepted

The Government accepts this recommendation. Sport England is in the process of finalising an award to Women in Sport to act as a facilitating agent for the Women in Coaching Taskforce. The taskforce is a Collective Action Group, made up of individuals from across the sector who have been convened by Sport England over the past three years. The taskforce will address the stubborn, cultural, and systemic challenges that prevent women from entering and progressing in the coaching workforce. The taskforce features a number of National Governing Bodies and a broad cross section of individuals from across the sector who are all committed to tackling the lack of women in coaching. Sport England is also working with Exercise, Movement and Dance (EMD) UK to develop a This Girl Can inspired training course for all group exercise instructors so they have more information to engage previously inactive women. In addition, Sport England is taking forward a £100,000 action learning project that will be managed by Women in Sport and delivered by The Well HQ. The project will educate parents, teachers, and other sports leaders to educate them in female health and support women and girls to participate through puberty and the menopause. The format of the programme will be based on both research, and insight from those across the school sport landscape (students, teachers, parents, leaders). The programme aims to: • Empower and equip teachers and coaches through training and development, and tools and resources to support action. • Educate and empower female PE teachers through important life stages. Support senior leadership to curate a workplace where women want to be, across their lives. • Ensure parents also receive education about the ambitions of the programme and how to support it at home. • Activate girls within schools, to raise their awareness and expectations of what the sporting environment could look and feel like so that it works well for them. Furthermore, UK Sport is working to address the current under-representation of female coaches at all levels of the talent pathway. The aim is to increase the number of coaches in the UK’s high performance sport community by 25%. Initiatives that are working toward this target include: ‘Supporting coaching in high performance sport’ which is a programme designed to equip coach-development practitioners with the knowledge, skills, and experience needed to support World Class Coaching. Of the coaches that have taken part in the programme so far, 62% have been women. UK Coaching is also working across the country alongside local partners to help develop coaches within local communities. In 2022, the group received £10 million of Government and national lottery funding through Sport England to provide support for coaches, enhanced learning and development, and to ensure that coaches are able to deliver more inclusive sessions for all groups including women. As mentioned previously, the Board of Women’s Sport is currently focusing on the theme of physical health and welfare. In the first meeting of the Board of Women’s Sport, there was extensive discussion around education about female health, both for female athletes as well as coaches.