Kent was one of 9 counties that piloted the School-Club links strand of the PESSCL strategy. The pilot projects began in Autumn 2003 with 7 National Governing Bodies (NGB) of sport producing implementation plans for a national roll-out. From this base, planning was carried out in the pilot counties by NGB officers and SSCo partnerships, supported by Kent Active Sports and Kent County Council, to affect activity delivery up to April 2004.

The 7 sports involved in the pilot project were:

		Football
		Rugby
		Cricket
		Tennis
		Gymnastics
		Athletics
		Swimming

In Kent the project was piloted through the 4 School Sport Partnerships

• Tunbridge Wells School Sports Partnership (based around The Angley School)
• Tonbridge and Sevenoaks School Sports Partnership (based around The Hayesbrook School)
• East Kent Coastal School Sports Partnership (based around Herne Bay High School)
• Canterbury School Sports Partnership (based around The Canterbury High School)

Working together, the NGB officers and the relevant Partnership Development Managers have made significant progress in developing quality school-club links. The key has been to ensure the work carried out fits with the wider work of both the NGBs and the school sports partnerships in the county.

Following the national pilot, the School-Club links project rolled out fully in September 2004. Still working through School Sports Partnerships a further 15 sports have been added, Badminton, Basketball, Canoeing, Cycling, Golf, Judo, Hockey, Netball, Orienteering, Rowing, Rugby League, Sailing, Squash, Table Tennis and Volleyball.

Clubmark

Clubmark is an audit and accreditation process aimed at the recognition of sports clubs that are committed to providing a safe, effective, child-friendly environment for their players.

Clubmark sets core common criteria for sports clubs to meet in the following categories:

• Duty of care and child protection
• Coaching and competition
• Sports equity and ethics

The criteria have been developed in co-operation with National Governing Bodies (NGBs) and are supported by the Child Protection in Sport Unit and Sports Coach UK.

NGBs incorporate the Clubmark criteria into their own development and acreditation programmes. Clubs gain acreditation through their own NGBs. Therefore, there is only one set of paperwork to complete.

Clubs working towards the accreditation can receive support from their NGB and through other partners involved in Active Sports. Sport England has a Clubmark Resource Pack for clubs to use. Each club that achieves the mark will be recognised and promoted as such and will be placed on the 'sportsearch' database as well as other directories.

Accreditation is renewed annually through a simple self-assessment process. Any clubs wishing to receive support for a Clubmark application or wanting further details on the process should contact the Partnership Development Manager (01580 720840)