Agenda item

            The Committee considered the undernoted report:

“1.0      Purpose of Report or Summary of main Issues

1.1       To advise Committee of progress with the Stadia Community Benefits Initiative (SCBI) and update on the action plan.

2.0       Recommendations

2.1       The Committee is asked to:

·         Note the content of the report.

3.0       Main report

3.1       The Council has been progressing with the Leisure Transformation Programme to renew and further develop its leisure offering across the City. This programme has been influenced by the partnership opportunities presented by the NI Executive Stadia Programme.

3.2       The Council, Department for Communities (DfC) and the Irish Football Association (IFA) had previously recognised the opportunities presented by the Stadia Programme and had committed to work together to maximise these benefits via the establishment of a Stadium Community Benefits Initiative as part of the Belfast Community Benefits Initiative (‘the Project’) to implement and deliver agreed objectives including promoting equality, tackling poverty, and tackling social exclusion within the Belfast area.

3.3       In March 2016 the Council, DfC and IFA signed an agreement which sets out their respective commitments to the project. As other major stadia are developed in Belfast it is anticipated that other sports governing bodies shall become parties to the agreement. At its April 2018 meeting, People and Communities committee agreed that Council would work with the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) within the Stadia Community Benefits Initiative and recognised their significant planned investment in gaelic games in the city to support their Gaelfast strategy. GAA activities became fully incorporated into the action plan at the start of financial year 2019-2020, with Gaelfast staff imbedded into the governance structure at Communications Board, Delivery Board, Policy and Performance Board. There will be further opportunities for the extension of programme delivery over the next number of years, particularly following recent NI Executive approval for redevelopment of Casement Park.

3.4       The agreement is for a period of ten years with financial commitment from Council and IFA in place to the end of March 2026. Delivery is managed through monthly meetings of the Delivery Board, which reports quarterly to the Policy and Performance Board. Financial and performance reports can be presented to Council and other partners’ Boards as necessary with formal reviews of the agreement planned for years 5 and 10.

3.5       The Policy & Performance Group is responsible for agreeing the Benefits Realisation Plan and associated annual targets. Work was undertaken to ensure the end benefits/outcomes are aligned to partners’ strategies. To measure the progress of this the Council and the IFA have developed a range of indicators/intermediate benefits which are monitored through programme delivery:

a.     Number of coaching sessions provided

b.    Number of coaches engaged in delivering coaching

c.     Number of sessions improving club governance

d.    Number of volunteering opportunities

e.     Participation opportunities for under 16s

f.      Female participation rates

g.    Number of people completing skills development programme

h.    Number of people members of at least one sports club

i.      Number of sessions for under-represented groups

j.      Number of sessions for school and youth groups

k.     Community group usage of stadia

l.      Number of clubs attaining club-mark

m.   Educational opportunities

n.    Number of programmes targeting ASB

o.    Improved collaborative working

p.    Number of disabled participants

q.    Number of older people participating

3.6       Following the completion of a baseline assessment in early 2017, annual work-plans were then developed for years 1, 2 and 3.

3.7       It was agreed that year 3 (2019-2020) would be a transition year, with GAA actively joining the partnership and the first year that GAA was incorporated into programme delivery. The action plan for 2019-2020 included a mixture of sports specific programmes (e.g. National Governing Body specific coach education) and some joint collaborative initiatives delivered by both sporting codes. The IFA and GAA were able to access additional resources to enable them to deliver the joint partnership programmes, for example they collaborated to deliver club development workshops in the areas of social media, strength and conditioning and sports psychology. These club development workshops were attended by both gaelic games and football clubs. In addition, a series of tours of the National Football Stadium at Windsor Park took place, with youth football/soccer teams pairing up with youth GAA teams.

3.8       To improve collaborative working and to increase the community benefits in 2020-2021, a joint planning workshop was held in the National Football Stadium at Windsor Park in Nov 2019. This workshop helped to identify specific themes, which both IFA and GAA agreed to be the focus within the new action plan for the forth-coming year. The SCBI Policy and Performance group approved a joint action plan for 2020-2021, at the February 2020 meeting. This included plans for a joint SCBI conference, which was due to be held in June 2020. Other planned joint initiatives included youth summer camp, disability summer camp and community outreach with the BME communities.

3.9       These initiatives unfortunately had to be postponed due to NI executive Covid-19 restrictions. The majority of IFA staff involved in the delivery of the SCBI programmes were placed on furlough/part-time furlough until September 2020 and all of the Gaelfast staff currently remain on furlough. Both IFA and Gaelfast staff are likely to return to full time working in November 2020 and each organisation is fully committed to developing a revised action plan to maximise programme delivery in Q3 & Q4 and to develop new and creative ways of working/delivering whilst ensuring compliance with any Executive restrictions.

3.10      Programme delivery to date in Year 4 (financial year 2020/2021) has been limited. Given that some IFA staff returned from furlough on a part-time basis in August/September 2020, this enabled some programmes to commence as summarised below:

·         Five club coaches have been able to complete their IFA level 1 via support of Stadium Community Benefits funds.

·         Two IFA Educational Programmes have commenced in September 2020, with two schools and 30 young people currently completing a series of qualifications including: grassroots introduction, futsal intro, referee certificate and show racism the red card.

·         IFA officers are currently working with online developers to try and move some coach education online. It is hoped that grassroots, OCN and part of the NCC (level 1) will be accessible online from November 2020. These courses will then enable aspects of the SCBI educational programme to be delivered online, regardless of further Covid-19 restrictions.

·         SCBI has supported Street Soccer over the summer months. SCBI funding facilitated Golf soccer sessions. This commenced as soon as Covid-19 restrictions lifted in June 2020. This provided much needed socially distanced activity for this group of adults who have experienced homelessness.

·         IFA Walking Football and Shooting Stars programmes were due to commence in Belfast in November 2020. However this has now been put on hold due to the most recent Covid-19 restrictions coming into play.

·         IFA clubmark accreditation system is now online. In 2020, four Belfast clubs have successfully completed the new IFA clubmark accreditation. A further 23 Belfast clubs have registered on the online clubmark platform. These registered clubs are currently being supported by IFA and Belfast City Council Sports Development staff.

·         The IFA club development officer and volunteer development officer have developed a series of online workshops, which have been accessible to Belfast clubs; including online workshops/videos on: Mental Health, Covid-19 Protocols, Covid Officer training.

·         The IFA volunteer development officer worked alongside Volunteer Now to assign IFA volunteer roles during lockdown to help in local foodbanks.

            Financial & Resource Implications

3.10      In accordance with the Council’s obligations under its DfC Funding Agreement for the Olympia Regeneration Project, the Council has committed a sum of £100,000 per annum for a minimum of ten years, so that a minimum of £1,000,000 is contributed in total to the Project. Reduced programme delivery leads to reduced expenditure and discussion will take place as to whether this budget can be carried forward into future work plans.

            Equality and Good Relations implications/Rural Needs Assessment

3.11      There are no additional impacts related to this report.”

            The Committee noted the report.