You may be aware that we have recently been updating the England Hockey strategy and have received our 4 year investments from Sport England and UK Sport. The picture is very positive overall for hockey, particularly in light of the broader landscape of NGBs in England.

Since receiving our awards, the Board have reviewed the staffing structure at England Hockey and we are making some relatively minor changes across the organisation to ensure we are structured in the best way to deliver our strategy moving forwards.

What is changing?

The most relevant changes to you relate to the team of Relationship Managers and Administrators in the local offices.

One of the key risks to our sport going forward is pitch availability and development. Hockey has grown significantly since the 2012 Olympics and is due to continue following the gold medal win in Rio. To enable us to increase capacity to support facility development, we have reduced the number of Relationship Managers (RMs) from 12 roles (including 1 job share) to 10. We will be increasing our facilities team from 1 local officer to 3 Facilities RM roles.

These changes mean that we will amend some of the geographical areas covered by the RMs. The 3 Facilities RMs will not be tied to specific areas as we will be looking for them to have national coverage.

The number of Administrators in the regional offices will be reduced from 3 to 2 and we are adding an additional administrator to work on national participation programmes

We are pleased to say that we have not lost any of the current regional team through this process and there is no reduction in head count. The restructure is intended to provide better, more specific support to clubs as we continue to grow participation. This structure was last refreshed in 2011 and we need to adapt to the changing needs of the sport.

What does this mean for your club or association?

Prior to these structural changes we had employed Harriet Tebbs on a short term contract. We are delighted to announce that Harriet has now been offered a permanent role within the team. She is hugely passionate about Hockey in the North East and has made a significant impact in a short amount of time. We hope you will continue to support her.

We also have good news to share in that the Regional team changes (going from 12 RMs to 10) has not impacted the North. There will still be 3 RMs covering the area. We feel that there is significant opportunity in the North and we are keen to invest time into growth over the next 4 to 10 years. We have attached contact details for our team below.

What can the Relationship Manager help you with?

As your Relationship Manager, Harriet is your local contact for England Hockey related matters. She will try to help answer queries or resolve issues. Where this can’t be done, she will look to involve the relevant person within England Hockey to assist you.

We hope that you see your Relationship Manager as a trusted advisor who is able to help you and others maximise both short and long term opportunities. Their success is measured mostly on the growth of people playing hockey (as a sizeable proportion of our funding is from Sport England) and the support they provide. You may be aware of what they do and the team is increasingly focusing on :
1. -> Running club forums where you can find out answers to issues and what other hockey clubs are doing
2. -> Providing clubs with data and insight about their club and local area to help target opportunities
3. -> Supporting club committees in turning their aims and ambitions into club development plans
4. -> Helping clubs with Club School Links to grow sustainable junior sections and raise the club profile locally
5. -> Guiding clubs through the new sleeker Club Mark process
6. -> Partnership working with the Facilities RMs on pitch projects and playing pitch strategies
7. -> Helping clubs make the most out of national campaigns and a big topic will be how your club can benefit from the Women’s World Cup next year.

What do I need to do?

We have sent this email to you as either the Chairperson, Secretary and Development Officer for your club. We would be grateful if you could circulate this wider so that people are aware of the changes. If you have recently changed your role within the committee and this no longer applies, please can you still circulate this and help by updating the club details in the EH Club Portal https://hockeynation.club/. Thank you.

If you have any questions about this, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. We look forward to working with you and to growing our wonderful sport.

Kind regards
Shelley

Shelley Watts
Regional Network Manager