COACH EDUCATION - INSPIRE TO PLAY GRANTS - CALL IT OUT

Date: 3rd May 2022

Message from Lancashire Cricket Foundation

We attach below some important up-to-date information from John Murphy, Clubs and Leagues Director at the Lancashire Cricket Foundation.

With particular regard to the information on Coach Education, both the LCF and our League, and indeed all the Leagues, are well aware of the current increasing demand for coaching courses, fuelled primarily by the overall increase in participation at Junior and Women’s and Girls level. We will be working closely with the LCF and where appropriate, continuing to financially support in part, those courses ultimately benefitting our clubs. With the knowledge that virtually every club could do with more qualified coaches, we will do our level best to ensure an equal and appropriate distribution of the resources available, particularly those that put their skills and knowledge back into their own clubs and also to the League on a wider basis through the Inter League programme,

We also endorse the statement under Inspire to play Grants relating to coaches delivering summer play schemes and, bearing in mind our recent experience, extend the message to any club engaging coaches as individuals or from from any outside Cricket Coaching Organisation.

In addition we publish an extract from the recently published ECB Clubmark User Guide “If you employ the services of an outside coaching company for junior training, you still have the responsibility of ensuring all coaching, safeguarding and first aid qualifications are up to date for coaches undertaking sessions at your club”.

Please also ensure that the “Call it Out” posters are displayed prominently in your Club. If you need any more please contact any member of the Management Committee.

John Williams

Chair Liverpool Competition on behalf of the L&DCC Management Committee

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From John Murphy

Good afternoon, everyone.

I trust that you are all looking forward to the 2022 season. Ahead of this I have some important updates that I feel would be useful to you and your Clubs around practical issues where I would appreciate your support by reinforcing the messages that will be delivered to Clubs by our Cricket Development Officers:

Coach Education

I know that this area has been hugely challenging for the game as whole due to Covid 19 consequences. Our own situation has been even more of a challenge due to staff changes at LCF. However I have been fortunate enough to secure the temporary services of Mark Aspin to help us through this difficult period. Mark is now fully up and running with full access to the Cvent system which will enable him to answer queries and perhaps more importantly, give him the access to set up courses and I hope we will be fully caught up by the middle of the summer.

To help you and your Clubs I am proposing that we aim to arrange catch up sessions on a League-by-League basis and would therefore appreciate your support in helping to identify the need for courses in your corner of the County. As earlier indicated our own team will be communicating directly with Clubs. It would help us enormously if you could push the message out there that we are now fully open for business. We all understand the importance of having properly qualified Coaches at Club level.

Inspire to Play Grants

Just a further reminder that this grant is now live for applications from Clubs. It presents a great opportunity for Clubs to organise an event to encourage local children to engage with the game especially in the latter part of the summer when they will all be out of school. As a further reminder events should be open to everyone and full details are in the guidance pack that has been sent out and also on the ECB Website https://resources.ecb.co.uk/ecb/document/2021/06/14/e70c2bb5-a8f7-4861-a26a-80a71f41164b/Inspired-to-Play-Guidance-Notes-140621.pdf.

It is important to emphasise to Clubs that any Coaches involved in any activity including Summer Camps must be properly qualified and DBS checked. We have been made aware of several instances across the County where unqualified coaches were engaged by Clubs. As a reminder it is the Clubs responsibility to check that all coaches are suitably qualified and that the appropriate documentation is checked and verified. Our teams will be doing spot checks during the summer and we will be reporting any breaches direct to the appropriate League Executive and advising Clubs that they may find their Clubmark/Safehands status is withdrawn until the situation is remedied.

As detailed above we are proactively able to assist Clubs in having the appropriately qualified Coaches in place

Call it Out Campaign

Following the introduction and distribution of the Call it Out posters that were distributed at our last meeting please can you keep reminding your Clubs to have the posters appropriately displayed; one in each dressing room, one in the umpires changing room, and up to three in each Clubhouse. I have had some more printed and our CDOs will have some in their vehicles to help with the distribution. If you do find that you do not have enough, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will ensure that you will get further supplies.

We recognise the challenge of getting 243 Clubs to make sure that they are permanently on display, however we firmly believe this is one of the most important messages we have in helping us all to drive greater Equality, Inclusion, and Diversity opportunities into the game.

We are organising further support with a social media campaign which will soon hit the airways

Thank you all again for your support, it is very much appreciated. Go well all!

Best Regards

John Murphy