Overcoming Health Barriers for Girls and Women in Sports
CIMSPA reaffirms its commitment to developing the experiences of female athletes and participants.
Earlier this week the House of Commons Women and Equalities Committee published its report, Health barriers for girls and women in sport.
The report explores a number of themes in relation to participation of women and girls, barriers through different life stages, and the role of coaches in addressing these challenges to ensure that more women and girls feel confident and comfortable to take part in sport and physical activity.
We welcome the Health barriers for girls and women in sport report and in particular the spotlight that it places on the importance of coach knowledge in relation to female health.
Recommendation 15 in the report states:
We recommend that UK Sport, Sport England, UK Coaching, the Chartered Institute for the Management of Sport and Physical Activity (CIMSPA) and the national governing bodies come together to convene a female health in coach education working group.
It should draw on emerging best practice from programmes such as NETBALLHer to develop a strategy to better educate coaches at all levels in female health, including, where appropriate, through mandatory qualifications, alongside an action plan setting out how this will be achieved. The strategy and action plan should be published within six months.
We are delighted to be participating in this working group to deliver on this recommendation as part of our wider commitment to support professionals across the workforce to enhance participation throughout the population. We are already working with coaches and other practitioners, employers and education providers to ensure that they are able to develop their skillset and provision to address a number of the barriers outlined in the report.
Last year we released the Professional Standard for Working with Women and Girls, which is being used by education providers to enable coaches, instructors, trainers and other professionals to develop their skillset and knowledge to enhance their ability to support women and girls’ wellbeing and performance through the lens of female anatomy, physiology, psychology, and behaviour.
We are proud to be working with a number of partners including The Well HQ to make CPD and qualifications that better equip coaches, instructors and trainers to support female athletes and participants, available to current and future sector professionals. Our current pilot project with around 20 Further Education Colleges is helping education providers embed female health with their course delivery teams. This will ensure that more future coaches will have the opportunity to learn about female health as part of their entry to the profession. You can find out more about this here.
The Committee’s report also firmly acknowledges the need for those supporting women’s participation to address barriers which become apparent during different life stages. Our partner, Menopause Movement, is providing dedicated training and support to professionals and employers which is helping coaches to develop their knowledge and confidence to better support women during perimenopause, menopause and post-menopause. You can find out more about this work here.
The report also highlights the impact that poor coaching practice can have on athletes and participants and the fact that in some cases this has disproportionately affected women and girls. Through our work with the Professional Standard, and with governing bodies as part of the Workforce Governance and National Registration Scheme pilot project, we are committed to supporting coaches to ensure that their practice allows everyone taking part in sport and physical activity to enjoy safe and high-quality experiences, and to be supported in achieving their goals in a positive environment.
Tara Dillon, CEO of CIMSPA said
“Coaches, instructors, trainers and other professionals working in our sector have an absolutely critical role in shaping the experiences of female athletes and participants. This report really shows that we need greater support for those working in the sector to enable them to address the health challenges faced by girls and women to create a more inclusive and supportive participation environment.
We are proud of the work that we have led alongside our education and employer partners, to develop the Professional Standard which is helping to ensure that more of the training and qualifications that current and aspiring professionals are undertaking, has a focus on the female body, female wellbeing and the specific barriers which impact at different stages of life.
We are pleased to be working with our partners, including national governing bodies, to explore how we can support positive coaching practice and ensure that our committed workforce have access to education and training, at scale, which breaks down barriers and empowers women and girls, paving the way for more inclusive and supportive sport and physical activity for future generations.”