The future of sports volunteering in Wales, by James Owens

In charge of strategic development of the coaching and volunteering workforce in his work at Sport Wales, and recently appointed to the Sport Wales Advisory Group (SWAG), James Owens is well placed to provide a view on the next steps needed towards the ideal volunteer picture.

Here, he gives his take on the next key steps for sport in Wales.

If there is one thing that is certain about sports volunteering in Wales, it’s that we won’t truly be a world leading nation until everyone takes responsibility for their role in making it a success.

We’ve made such significant strides forward. The proportion of volunteers in Wales has doubled from 5% in 2008/09 to 10% in 2012. That’s around 125,000 more people getting involved in coaching, officiating, washing the kit, administration, and a whole range of other jobs.

Volunteers are committing slightly less hours than they have in the past. But that’s not a negative because we don’t want a situation where person leaving the club can have a drastic negative impact. The ideal for us is a volunteering family where the workload is shared, everyone is clear on their roles and how they contribute, they are supported to do their role and get something back from the time and effort they put in.

But when I say that everyone needs to take responsibility, what do I mean?

Firstly, the public need to take responsibility for the role they can play. We know that parents of school-age children, sport participants and young people – particularly students – are amongst the groups most likely to volunteer. You’re also more likely to volunteer if you’re from a higher social grade.

But the public need to remember that sport doesn’t happen by chance. The huge majority of sporting opportunities are provided at the grassroots by volunteers. If we want young people to have opportunities, it is up to us to provide them. It shouldn’t be acceptable to take a child along to a club not contribute yourself.

Of course, circumstances differ and many people have limited free time. But there is a role that everyone can play and we need to develop a ‘must do’ culture. The days of sitting on the sidelines and letting others take responsibility are gone. Why would you want to stand shivering on the sidelines anyway??

But those of us in the sports sector must take responsibility too because a change in culture doesn’t happen by chance. We have to give our volunteers the support they need to make it as easy as possible for them. We have to champion them, put in place schemes and programmes to reward volunteers for all the work they do, and show them new and innovative ways to be successful.

For too long volunteers were not given enough importance in future planning. Now they are a key ingredient and, certainly from a Sport Wales viewpoint, with the organisations we work with there is an expectation that workforce planning is at their forefront of their work and is being done successfully.

The culture of volunteering was one of the first two projects identified by the independent Sport Wales Advisory Group (SWAG), emphasising its importance.

Linked to that, at Sport Wales we are developing tools and resources to support for volunteers and looking at how we can simplify the roles that we want people to take up.

Wider than that, we need to look who else can contribute. The annual week-long disability sport festival in Neath Port Talbot draws on volunteers from insurance giant Admiral. The sport team get a capable group of volunteers while the business gets disability awareness training and experience for its staff. Sport and business can be such a good fit – be that as a one-off or a healthy marriage of convenience.

And do we truly value and champion our volunteers? They are never going to get the headlines our elite sportspeople enjoy but, surely, we can hold them up as being the people who contribute more than others to community life.

Without our volunteers our towns and villages would be much poorer places to live. We have to keep championing they work they do and inspiring others to follow them in the volunteering family.

In the run up to the Wales Sport Awards I think it’s worth remembering that even a simple thank you can make a difference.

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