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SPORT ENGLAND'S RESPONSE  MAY 6 2011

 

Further to our meeting on 28 January 2011 we contacted the British Judo Association (‘BJA’) and obtained information we consider addresses your queries:

 

1.                 Confirmation that Sport England considers Judo a martial art?

 

At our meeting you showed us a copy of a letter that you had received from Sport England in the late nineties. That letter said that Sport England did not consider Judo a Martial Art, but rather a Sport. Given that we have not seen the letter to which the Sport England reply was given, we have been unable to ascertain in what context that statement was made by Sport England.

 

We do however consider that the issue of whether Judo is or is not a Martial Art to be irrelevant for our funding purposes.  The fundamental issue for funding purposes is whether an activity is a recognised Sport. As you know, Judo is a recognised Sport. Whilst we do not use the category of “Martial Art” in our processes, we can confirm that simply because a discipline might be generally known as a Martial Art, does not prevent it from being classified as a Sport for our funding purposes.

 

I am not sure if this has addressed your concern and would ask that you come back to me if it has not.

 

2.                 Clarification of whether the £200 fee proposed for pre assessment of non BJA members/affiliates applies per head or, when more than one is assessed at the same time, per group?

 

In the case of a number of independents wishing to be pre assessed at the same time, the BJA has said that fee would not be £200 each (which it would be if only one person was being assessed). The fee would be shared among the participating independents. The BJA have said, however, that there would be a maximum number of independents (around four) that one assessor could assess at any one time. This means therefore that the most the fee per head could be reduced to is around £50.

 

The BJA has said that it will not subsidise the pre assessment for independents, but is prepared to do so for those who become members – one of the various benefits that it offers to members.  Whilst we consider that independents do and should have the right to operate in Sport in England, we support that an NGB for a Sport is entitled to offer benefits to its own members that it may not offer to independents who are not affiliated with it.

 

3.                 Might the BJA be prepared to recognise grades of other non affiliated judo organisations on the basis of an assessment of their syllabi?

 

You will recall that we mentioned during our meeting that the BJA wished to establish an Approved Provider scheme which would potentially see non BJA members receive recognition for the grades they may have obtained in an independent judo organisation.

 

The BJA has informed us that this initiative is still in development and as such cannot make any definitive statements on which or how independent organisations may become an “Approved Provider”. We are confident though that this is an initiative that the BJA is taking seriously and will move ahead positively. We would encourage you to contact the BJA so that they might keep you updated on the progress of this scheme.

 

4.                 Further information on the ‘Approved Provider’ scheme and the six participants involved.

 

As stated above, the programme is still in development. We would urge you to engage with the BJA and ask that it keeps you in the loop with respect to the scheme.

 

5.                 Would the BJA be prepared to recognise existing independent coach awards as equal to old BJA Coach awards to enable assimilation?

 

This is something that will be considered as part of the Approved Provider scheme. However, it is less likely that automatic recognition would apply for coaching qualifications than for grade only recognition. The BJA currently recognises pre-UKCC qualifications that were undertaken through previous BJA coaching schemes. This includes the AJA and BJC as the BJA has a formal relationship with these bodies.

 

6.                 Who owns judo UKCC? 

 

The UK Coaching Certificate is not a qualification in its own right – but it is a development framework that supports the:

• development of NGB coach education programmes
• endorsement of NGB coach education programmes
• continuous improvement of NGB sport coach education programmes.

 

There are four components to the UKCC:

• the learning programme for candidate coaches
• resource materials and guidance notes to support the learning programme ( whether that be direct face to face or remote learning)
• tutor workforce
• the qualification (quality assured and nationally recognised)

 

In terms of the four components:

·        the NGB has responsibility for the development of the learning programme, resources and tutor workforce, however

·        the awarding body is technically responsible for issuing/awarding the qualification.

 

 

There are different awarding bodies connected to coach education qualifications across sports and for Judo it is 1st 4sport. So officially the level 1 award for Judo has the formal title “1st4sport Level 1 Award in Coaching Judo”  (QCF).

 

The UKCC endorsement process is carried out by sportscoach UK via its Coaching Standards Group which is a sub group of their Board.

 

In summary, it is technically the awarding body which owns the qualification however the qualification needs to be developed in partnership with the NGB and the UKCC endorsement is of the NGB learning programme, resources and tutor workforce.

 

We are considering this matter at an end, however, if you have any points of clarification arising from the contents of this letter then please let me know. 

 

 

 

Yours sincerely, 

 

Scott Pugh

Principal In-house Solicitor