What is the CIMSPA code of conduct?
The CIMSPA Member Code of Conduct is a cornerstone of your membership and of your professional status.
Blog by Danielle Peel, Head of Organisation, Design and Development at CIMSPA.
It sets out the standards that clients, customers, participants, peers, colleagues and employers can expect to experience from a CIMSPA member, regardless of their category or status.
In recent months we’ve listened to our members to understand how you feel about the Code of Conduct, and that feedback has helped to shape the new Code, with the intention of making it more usable and useful to you.
The new Code of Conduct is now in effect alongside our new membership portal.
In this post, we’ll go through what the code of conduct changes means for you.
What is the code of conduct?
The Code is advice on to work in sport and physical activity properly, regardless of membership level, category, or status.
The Member Code of Conduct has been made for CIMSPA members and partners who engage with the people who do sport and physical activity.
The new Code is your chance to refresh your knowledge and make sure you are up to date.
What’s changed?
All of the changes and amendments that we have made following consultation have been informed by members.
It was abundantly clear from the consultation that the approach of our code of conduct needed a shift. The original code, written back in 2019, had a delivery focus on the language and was written quite like a rule book so suited some membership categories better than others. But from listening to feedback, it highlighted that actually, the sector doesn’t want a code purely focused on compliance now. 61% said what will help best as members is to have a combination of rules and principles that influence best practice and that’s how the revised code has been developed. The revised code is now based around four fundamental principles: Be safe, Be an advocate, Be recognised and Be responsible. These outlines are based off feedback of what it means to be a CIMSPA member and what best practice looks like.
We worked through the existing code, mapped it across to these principles but also looked at how we can ensure that the language used was understood, applicable to all membership categories and the principles resonated with the sector so that you can use them to inform practice. Another really key part for us was to learn from experiences and ensure that the evolution of what constitutes best practice in the sector is reflected in the changes we made to the code.
With the code being built around these four key principles, it is now much more than just a compliance document. It is comprised of practice points that have been shaped by feedback and that help support in embedding the principles in everyday practice for which members hold CIMSPA professional recognition and shouts about the exemplar conduct that can be expected by people when interacting with our members.
What is a code of conduct supposed to do?
When we look at the code and why we have it CIMSPA are unable to achieve the vision of creating that recognised and respected sport and physical activity sector without you and so the code is designed to be integral in supporting you display best practice.
It outlines the standard of conduct that is expected of you as a member and helps communicate to clients, employers, stakeholders and the public the exemplar level of conduct that they can expect when engaging with you.
How we consulted members
When revising the code our aim from day one was to have the changes lead by members, to create a code for the members that’s informed by the members.
We saw a great level of engagement from members wanting to get involved in focus groups.
When conducting the focus groups, we targeted different membership categories and demographics to ensure that our focus groups gave us a sample that is representative of our entire membership and the value this bought was brilliant, being able to listen to lived experiences, thoughts and discussions and let these inform the code.
The insight that we received in these focus groups changed our process. Because of the quality of the feedback that we received in these sessions we made amends to the code prior to sending it out for mass survey consultation so that our member’s voice could be reflected from as early as possible in the process.
Draft two, informed by the focus groups, was then sent out to our entire membership base for mass survey consultation and through this process we were better able to understand what was liked and what wasn’t, what language resonated and could be translated to the environments in which members work and how we could make the code of conduct a document that is understood and works in informing best practice.
This allowed us to make amends for a third draft that was then shared with our committees that use the code in their role – the disciplinary committee, appeals committee and the youth panel – before final amendments were made and sent to the board for sign off.
To learn more about the code of conduct, watch our webinar series:
Session 1
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Session 2
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Session 3
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