Last week (4 May) I went to the House of Commons to report on the granting of chartered status to the Institute for the Management of Sport and Physical Activity. While members of this Institute will rightly celebrate gaining chartered status and the new level of professionalism this gives people working in this sector, I think the move actually heralded a more fundamental reason for celebration - the rationalisation of sports management in this country.
IMSPA was born out of an amalgamation of the Institute of Sport and Recreation Management and the Institute for Sport, Parks and Leisure. These bodies in turn were originally known as ILAM and NASD. Just writing those two sentences made me sweat!
But then look at sports organisation in this country and this sort of mish-mash and duplication is mirrored all over the sporting landscape. Sport England, UK Sport, the Youth Sports Trust, the Sport and Recreation Alliance, the British Olympic Association, County Sports Partnerships etc etc. the list of bodies involved in sport is endless, and in fact each body in its own way does a valuable job BUT there is overlap and confusion. For this reason IMSPA is to be congratulated on putting tribalism and insularity to one side and taking the lead in simplifying its offering to the sector it serves.
The additional news that IMSPA is joining with SkillsActive to develop a single qualification structure for all the levels of workforce in the profession is another step in the drive for simplification.
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