Today British Orienteering has learnt of the outcome to our ‘Talent’ funding submission to Sport England.

After meeting with Sport England contacts throughout the summer and early autumn, British Orienteering were invited in October to make a submission to Sport England for funding through the period 2017/21. We have recently learnt that Sport England has deferred their decision about ‘Core’ funding for orienteering and the announcement made this morning by Sport England provides information about our ‘Talent’ funding which is provided through the National Lottery sports fund.

In an ‘invitation to submit for funding’, Sport England agreed that British Orienteering should make a submission for funding in two areas of work: ‘Core’ funding to strengthen the work we do to retain members and regular participants, and ‘Talent’ funding to further develop our talent programme.

Unfortunately, late last week we were informed that during the financial assessment of our bid the following were flagged as risks:

'A 50% reduction in its annual income from Sport England which has included £138k contribution towards back office; [and]

Concern around the ability of the NGB to deliver its income generation growth strategy’

This was underpinned by:

‘(a) implementing without appropriate resources e.g. no Commercial Manager and;

(b) the projected growth of 12% is not enough. The NGB is not able to reduce its cost base further without restricting its ability to deliver outcomes.'

The communication went on to say:

‘Both at peer review and in a portfolio review by the exec, there was significant concerns about this, with concerns about the sustainability of the NGB should projected growth fail to materialise and income not be generated to meet the reduction in other areas of income. The decision was taken to defer a decision to the board to February. This will give all involved the time to resolve the issue and give the reassurances required. The board are looking closely at NGB finances as part of these funding decision, so [those] giving the right levels of reassurance get approval.’

The Sport England Board agreed that the decision regarding ‘Core’ funding should be deferred until February and that ‘Talent’ should receive a low level of funding to allow British Orienteering to transition into a position where Sport England will no longer fund the talent programme.

The reasons provided in a phone call for this decision to cease funding the orienteering talent programme were:

1. Orienteering is not an Olympic, Paralympic or Commonwealth Games sport

2. The participation base is small in scale

The National Lottery funding agreed by Sport England to be made to British Orienteering for talent is £266,658 and the conditions attached to the funding will be confirmed shortly.

In this round of funding decisions, £88m is committed to supporting National Governing Bodies and it is disappointing that the commitment to support the talent programme is low at £266,658 which is a third of the funding for the last 4-year funding cycling. Even more concerning is the fact that Sport England intend to end their support for the talent programme.

On the positive side, we are hopeful that the perceived problems with our financial position can be resolved quickly and that we are awarded substantial ‘Core’ funding for the 2017/21 period.

Further information can be found here.

Item posted by Scott Parker, Administrator, on behalf of Mike Hamilton, Chief Executive.