Case Study – Lead the Change
Organisation name: Yorkshire Sport Foundation
Contact name: Tahir Akram
Role / job title: Development Manager
Partnership / collaborators involved: Louise Walker (Leeds City Council), Louise will be presenting this.
Synopsis:
‘Lead the Change’ is an initiative to support more ethnically diverse people into leadership roles in the sport and physical activity sector. It all began in 2022 and launches in January 2025, it was created as part of our Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan where we identified that there was a clear and urgent need to diversify our workforce. We believe the biggest impact we can make is to give individuals from ethnically diverse backgrounds greater confidence and resilience in applying for leadership positions.
The Story:
A Perrett Laver report (2020) found that the proportion of board members from ethnically diverse backgrounds in sports organisations was less than half the national average (7.9% vs 18%), and served as a stark call to action. Working alongside local partners Yorkshire Cricket, Huddersfield Town AFC and West Riding County FA, we were determined to deliver something which has lasting impact. We commissioned AKD Solutions, Equity Coach and Sporting Equals – all with expertise in delivering leadership programmes for ethnically diverse talent.
We did a lot of work before day one of cohort one to ensure we had done our research, this included stakeholder mapping, what partners were doing? Learning from other leadership programmes as well as lived experiences from individuals who had been on similar programmes. We were unique in the we worked with local partners and national deliverers who hadn’t worked together previously.
After cohort one we had three individuals move into leadership positions, we never put a target on the number of individuals we wanted to get into leadership positions. It was all built on developing the group to be more confident, resilient and build on their peer network. Alongside this we invited leaders from across the sector to attend our senior leaders anti racism workshop to ensure they understood the role they must play to change the diversity of our leaders. Lead the Change has been copied by other Active Partnerships and NGBs have been in touch asking for leaders for board positions, this was always the intention as we wanted to lead the change not just for the individuals but for the sector too.
Learning and Relevance
The data as well as our eyes show us that lack of diversity in leadership positions, this matters because its action. For too long we expected events and summits to change the system, although they do play a part, we felt this was the most progressive way for us to make meaningful change.
We won’t get it right first or even second time around but it’s a start and we can improve year on year.
Changing the system takes time, one programme of Lead the Change isn’t going to change it. But it absolutely is the start of something meaningful, something which has action at the heart of it and is committed to creating leaders filled with confidence and resilience across our patch. Our work is starting to be recognised, with Connect Sport recently reporting on cohort one’s completion of the course. As mentioned above we are impacting other AP’s and NGB’s. We will continue to work with Sport England at a national level as part of the Leading the Movement co-design group, ensuring the voice and needs of a diverse range of sector leaders remain at the heart of the programme.