May 2015

England Boxing Disability Development Plan

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Context

This document sets out England Boxing’s strategic vision to make boxing more accessible to disabled people, and explains how it aims to improve the boxing offer to disabled people in order to increase disability participation.

Historically the misconception of boxing was that, as a highly competitive contact sport, there was little opportunity for disability inclusion.

As England Boxing entered the 2013-2017 Whole Sport Plan period, we collated more insight about our participants. This insight told us more than ever before about the people taking part in our sport and we began to understand that approximately three quarters of them did not actually compete, but regularly took part in non-contact, fitness-based boxing within a club environment.

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“Boxing has changed my life. That’s what it means to me. Ultimately I would like to get a job in Poseiden and do some coaching. I think I could make a difference in someone’s life then it's job done”

Dan - boxer and coach at Poseidon ABC

Audit (January 2015)

England Boxing began an audit of clubs, collating data on disabled participants within our membership. The Club Support Officer (CSO) team contacted 117 clubs, which represent 8582 members. We found that 347 were disabled. Although not all clubs were audited, we were able to gauge a much needed baseline figure of 4.08%.

Through contacting clubs to do the audit we anecdotally began to hear positive stories of existing good practice.

Recent developments (February 2015)

Following consultation with Sport England, partners met in Loughborough to share the audit findings and report on the inclusion work EB had been delivering and those we discovered via the audit.

Presentations from national disability sport organisations took place and discussions around the best way to grow inclusive opportunities for disabled people resulted in a list of actions.

Immediate action (May 2015)

England Boxing to select a week in May to coincide with the release of Sport England Disability Insight Report to promote existing good practice to our membership and to encourage discussion highlighting the benefits of being more inclusive.

Social media and our website will be used, as well as direct contact from CSOs to celebrate good practice and showcase the great work already taking place.

England Boxing believes more clubs will be receptive to disability inclusion if it doesn’t look too difficult to achieve. Sharing stories of how easy it is to be inclusive will promote a ‘just do it’ ethos and encourage clubs to engage.

Next steps (July 2015)

England Boxing to approach each region and identify a ‘hub club’. The hub club will be supported to establish and develop a system to support other clubs who show interest in initiating their inclusive journey.

Linking with partners (EFDS/CSP/NDSOs) and using existing tools to assist club development, as well as gaining insight into what support our clubs need and developing a boxing specific health check.

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Training materials (August 2015)

To deliver England Boxing’s aim to increase disability participation it is important that our coach workforce is able to access CPD and ongoing support, and is confident delivering to disabled people.

The England Boxing disability lead will consult with the Hampshire Disability Boxing Inclusion Project and Sports Coach UK to develop materials resulting in a three hour boxing specific workshop on inclusive coaching.

In addition, the disability lead will work with the network of regional hub clubs and EFDS to develop a health check document which can be used as a tool kit to assist clubs who show interest during May’s promo week, via CSOs and via the EFDS Inclusion Club Hub tool.

National rollout of inclusion workshop training (September - December 2015)

Each region will host the newly developed workshop utilising the materials developed, with a target of engaging 10 clubs per region. There will be a national target of 90 clubs trained by December 2015.

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“The recent disability coaching session took the fears away [about disability] … and actually it’s just plain speaking, we can make it inclusive - just talk and communicate”

Lucy - Coach, Poseidon ABC

Evaluation (January 2015)

England Boxing’s disability lead will work with the network of Hub Clubs, partners and participants to measure impact on training coaches, impact on their clubs, the wider community and on increased disability participation.

Sustaining the work (2016 and beyond)

England Boxing will work with Sports Coach UK to train a pool of England Boxing tutor trainers to continue to run the three hour workshops in each region. By creating a sustainable network of educators we can be more responsive to need.

England Boxing will develop a section of its website for further information. The Hub Club network will be shared on the website. The health check and links to EFDS Inclusion Hub Club Tool will be available via our website.

Sport England’s Disability Insight Pack will be made available on our website as well as links to NDSOs and any other appropriate information.

England Boxing will continue to develop and maintain the network of Inclusive ‘Hub clubs’ nationally who can educate, support and share good practice with developing clubs.

Donna Brady

England Boxing Disability Lead

May 2015

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