Scottish Hockey looks to positive future despite reduction in funding

 

Scottish Hockey moved today to confirm that the national governing body for hockey has received a near 11% reduction in sportscotland’s investment into Scottish Governing Bodies of Sport for the Gold Coast 2015-19 four year cycle.
The decrease in overall income, announced today by the national agency for sport, from £3.6m (2011-15) to £3.2m specifically represents a decision by sportscotland to reduce its investment in the performance programme for Scotland Senior Men following a review of the squad’s results in all international competitions over a sustained period of time.
Funding from sportscotland for Scotland Senior Women’s performance programme remains at similar levels to the previous four year cycle.
Commenting on today’s announcement, Scottish Hockey Chief Executive David Sweetman said, “It is naturally disappointing to receive a reduction in funding from sportscotland for our Senior Men’s performance programme. However, we welcome the decision to retain investment in our Senior Women’s performance programme.
“Against the backdrop of reduced funding for our Senior Men’s squad, we have already taken proactive steps to ensure we can provide them with the strongest possible performance programme. This includes securing sponsorship income from Artemis Investment Management and Glynhill Hotel, as well as strengthening our coaching partnership with Edinburgh University.
“We will also continue to source additional funding to ensure this, and all of our performance programmes, are resourced to help support the players, coaches and other staff in preparing for important forthcoming international competitions.
“Furthermore, we have embraced sportscotland’s philosophy to work with sports where challenges exist and it recently supported our ambition and drive to undertake a high performance review with independent consultants. By doing so, we will be able to identify and work on specific areas where hockey can improve in a high performance capacity.”
Despite a reduction in the allocation of funds to the aforementioned Senior Men’s performance programme, Scottish Hockey has successfully achieved funding from sportscotland for the employment of four Regional Development Managers.
The organisation has already demonstrated vindication of this investment by recording membership growth figures of over 8%, exceeding the target set by sportscotland.
Moreover, the organisation’s successful Women in Coaching Programme, which aims to the increase in numbers of female coaches and available mentorship opportunities in hockey, has also resulted in financial support from sportscotland.
“We are delighted with the investment in Regional Development Managers and these individuals are already displaying positive outcomes as a result of working in partnership with our member clubs to retain and grow membership in hockey”, said Sweetman.
“It is also gratifying to note that sportscotland has recognised the value of our Women in Coaching Programme and has allocated investment to increasing the number of female coaches in the sport.
“Our recent research partnership with the University of Stirling has highlighted a gender imbalance at the higher levels of performance coaching and therefore this programme will help to encourage and support more females to work along the pathway to becoming fully qualified coaches via the UKCC coach education framework.”

Scottish Hockey moved today to confirm that the national governing body for hockey has received a near 11% reduction in sportscotland’s investment into Scottish Governing Bodies of Sport for the Gold Coast 2015-19 four year cycle.

The decrease in overall income, announced today by the national agency for sport, from £3.6m (2011-15) to £3.2m specifically represents a decision by sportscotland to reduce its investment in the performance programme for Scotland Senior Men following a review of the squad’s results in all international competitions over a sustained period of time.

Funding from sportscotland for Scotland Senior Women’s performance programme remains at similar levels to the previous four year cycle.

Commenting on today’s announcement, Scottish Hockey Chief Executive David Sweetman said, “It is naturally disappointing to receive a reduction in funding from sportscotland for our Senior Men’s performance programme. However, we welcome the decision to retain investment in our Senior Women’s performance programme.

“Against the backdrop of reduced funding for our Senior Men’s squad, we have already taken proactive steps to ensure we can provide them with the strongest possible performance programme. This includes securing sponsorship income from Artemis Investment Management and Glynhill Hotel, as well as strengthening our coaching partnership with Edinburgh University.

“We will also continue to source additional funding to ensure this, and all of our performance programmes, are resourced to help support the players, coaches and other staff in preparing for important forthcoming international competitions.

“Furthermore, we have embraced sportscotland’s philosophy to work with sports where challenges exist and it recently supported our ambition and drive to undertake a high performance review with independent consultants. By doing so, we will be able to identify and work on specific areas where hockey can improve in a high performance capacity.”

Despite a reduction in the allocation of funds to the aforementioned Senior Men’s performance programme, Scottish Hockey has successfully achieved funding from sportscotland for the employment of four Regional Development Managers.

The organisation has already demonstrated vindication of this investment by recording membership growth figures of over 8%, exceeding the target set by sportscotland.

Moreover, the organisation’s successful Women in Coaching Programme, which aims to the increase in numbers of female coaches and available mentorship opportunities in hockey, has also resulted in financial support from sportscotland.

“We are delighted with the investment in Regional Development Managers and these individuals are already displaying positive outcomes as a result of working in partnership with our member clubs to retain and grow membership in hockey”, said Sweetman.

“It is also gratifying to note that sportscotland has recognised the value of our Women in Coaching Programme and has allocated investment to increasing the number of female coaches in the sport.

“Our recent research partnership with the University of Stirling has highlighted a gender imbalance at the higher levels of performance coaching and therefore this programme will help to encourage and support more females to work along the pathway to becoming fully qualified coaches via the UKCC coach education framework.”

 

Recent posts:

Back to all news
Back to top