By Clare Dunn, Associate Director of Business Engagement, CIMSPA
Let’s talk business.
If you’re leading an organisation in the sport and physical activity sector, you’ll know that your success relies on one thing – your people.
They are absolutely your biggest asset and your biggest differentiator. Whether you’re growing your community reach, bidding for new contracts, expanding your services or just trying to retain existing customers, the quality of your workforce is make-or-break for your business success.
That’s why CIMSPA’s forthcoming introduction of professional status is more than just a workforce initiative.
It is a business opportunity which I believe all employers in our sector should take very seriously.
What is professional status and why does it matter to your business?
Professional status is a national framework for recognising the skills and knowledge of sport and physical activity professionals. It reflects what people can actually do, not just what qualifications they hold.
Professional status isn’t a new concept. It’s already well established in sectors like healthcare, education, engineering and accountancy. In these professions, employers rely on recognised statuses such as “Chartered Engineer” or “Registered Nurse” to quickly understand an individual’s level of competence, experience and accountability. It streamlines recruitment, supports progression planning, and gives customers and service users confidence in the quality of staff. By embedding professional status into their systems, these sectors have built stronger career pathways, improved workforce retention, and created a shared understanding between employers, educators and professionals, something the sport and physical activity sector can now fully embrace.
Professional status for the sport and physical activity workforce is built around real roles, mapped to national standards created by employers, and verified by accreditation. That means you’ll have a consistent, credible way to:
- Understand your team’s skills.
- Make smarter recruitment decisions.
- Invest in development linked to your business purpose.
- Differentiate your business in a pretty busy and noisy market.
Plus, for all of those employers who have been asking for years for a way to benchmark their people and prove their value, professional status is it.
Stand out from the competition
Let’s be honest, on the surface, many organisations in our sector offer similar services. But what sets you apart is the quality of your staff.
Being able to say, “Our team are CIMSPA-recognised Advanced Practitioners and Chartered Professionals”, sends a strong message to customers, funders, commissioners and community partners. It says:
- We invest in our people and we’re proud of them.
- We have staff that align to nationally recognised standards.
- We have the capability to deliver specialist services and achieve strong outcomes.
That’s a real differentiator and whether you’re bidding for health and wellbeing contracts, working with vulnerable populations, or trying to grow your private customer base, professional status builds trust, credibility and commercial strength.
Win new business and expand your offer
More and more, organisations in our sector are being asked to diversify either to support people with long-term conditions, deliver on social prescribing, or work in health prevention and recovery.
Having staff with recognised professional status gives you the foundation to:
- Bid for and win contracts in health, rehabilitation, and prevention services
- Demonstrate to commissioners that your workforce is qualified, competent and accountable
- Scale up new offers confidently, knowing you have the specialist expertise to back it up
In short, status = capability, and capability = growth.
Boost staff retention and attract top talent
People want to feel valued. They want to see that their employer is investing in them, not just using them. Tara’s recent blog spelled out the financial and wider perils of the endless recruitment hamster-wheel if you don’t invest in recognising your team.
Professional status gives your team a clear path to progression, from their first practitioner role to chartered recognition. That visibility and recognition is a major driver of retention. It tells staff:
“You’re not just here to fill a timetable. You’re a professional. We believe in your growth.”
Equally, it tells potential recruits:
“This is an organisation where I can build a career.”
That matters in a competitive jobs market. If you’re struggling to recruit or losing good people, building a culture around professional recognition is a no-brainer.
Invest in training that actually pays off
A key benefit of professional status is that it brings greater meaning and direction to workforce development.
Instead of scattergun CPD, you can invest in quality-assured, endorsed training that is mapped directly to progression through professional statuses.
So when you support someone to complete a course or gain a new qualification, you know that it contributes to the advancement of their professional status, builds skills you actually need in your business, and increases their value and your organisation’s capacity to deliver more services.
This way you’re not just ticking a training box, you’re developing strategic capability.
Engage communities through professional trust
Professional status also plays a massive role in increasing community and potential customer confidence.
When members of the public, particularly those from underrepresented or vulnerable groups, see that your team is professionally recognised, it builds trust. It says, “You’re in skilled, competent hands.”
This is especially important if you’re working in healthcare, social impact or with groups who’ve historically lacked access to physical activity. It allows you to grow your reach ethically and effectively, knowing your workforce has the skills to deliver specialised services to these cohorts.
A sector-wide movement led by employers like you
We haven’t built professional status in isolation. It’s come from employers across the UK who told us:
“We want to see recognition for our teams.”
“We want to make better workforce decisions.”
“We need training and development to lead somewhere.”
Now, with professional status about to launch, you have that framework.
One of the powerful features of the sector’s new professional status is the introduction of digital credentials. These are secure, shareable ‘badges’ that clearly show an individual’s verified status, not only whether they’re a Practitioner, Advanced professional, or Chartered, but also their specialist skillset and knowledge such as the populations or environments that they are experts in.
For employers, this adds a new level of confidence and efficiency. You can instantly verify someone’s professional status, view the standards they’ve met, and understand the scope of their competence, without relying on paper certificates or self-declared experience. It brings transparency to recruitment, appraisals and workforce planning, and helps you ensure that the people representing your organisation are truly qualified and recognised by the sector.
So here’s my ask – use it.
Five ways to start embedding professional status
- Talk to us and develop an understanding of the different professional statuses – Practitioner, Advanced, Senior, Chartered, and what they mean for different roles within your organisation.
- Review and simplify your recruitment practices. Instead of asking for various qualifications and ‘levels’ in your job advert, ask for an appropriate professional status – it will save you the headache of trying to work out currency and equivalency of hundreds of different qualifications.
- Let us help you map your team. We can work with you to work out what professional status they are entitled to now, who’s ready for progression to a different status and how aligning to professional status can accelerate your business plans.
- Work with quality training providers. The Training Academy for Sport and Physical Activity enables you to easily choose training that contributes directly to status. We’ve been working with learning providers to help them demonstrate what courses enable a learner to meet the accreditation criteria for different professional statuses. You’ll start to see “this course leads to senior practitioner professional status” become common place.
- Celebrate your professionals. It’s time to let your customers, commissioners and communities know what makes your team special. We’re providing resources for employer partners to publicly demonstrate that they are aligned to the sector’s professional recognition framework and to showcase the professional status of their team, and crucially, what it means.
Remember – this is not just good for people, it’s great for business.
Professional status helps people feel valued, supported and proud. However, at its core, it’s a strategic tool that helps you to:
- Grow your services.
- Retain your talent.
- Win new business.
- Diversify your operations.
- Demonstrate credibility.
- Differentiate in a crowded market.
As well as all that, it positions your organisation as one that champions professionalism, invests in people and delivers impact.
This isn’t just the future of workforce development. It is the future of business success in our sector.
The message is clear – professional status is here, it’s backed by the sector, and it’s built to support your business.
It helps you attract and retain talent, grow your services and stand out from the competition.
Now’s the time to invest in your people, embed professional status, and lead the way in a stronger, smarter, professionally recognised sector.