BRITISH WHEELCHAIR BASKETBALL DIVERSITY ACTION PLAN 2017 2021

BRITISH WHEELCHAIR BASKETBALL
    DIVERSITY ACTION PLAN
         2017 - 2021

ABOUT US

British Wheelchair Basketball is the national governing body for the sport in Great Britain. As
the largest provider of regular physical activity for the wheelchair user community we take an
inclusive approach to participation supporting the inactive to become active.

OUR MISSION

British Wheelchair Basketball will create, underpin and deliver a positive culture with quality
life changing opportunities for people to play wheelchair basketball in all corners for the
United Kingdom and to obtain the best possible performance for teams, clubs and each and
every member.

OUR VISION

To establish the United Kingdom in wheelchair basketball as the premier nation in the world.

OUR VALUES

British Wheelchair Basketball is a value driven organisation with a multifaceted role within
the sporting landscape whilst providing opportunities for Disabled people. The values of the
organisation are: Integrity (honesty, transparency, good character, working for the common
good, fair play); Innovation (resourcefulness, taking an idea and making it better, new
ideas); Respect (shared respect for each other and our views, team work, community);
Pursuit of Excellence (aspirational, ambition, pushing the boundaries, world leading);
Inclusivity (full inclusion, equality).

MESSAGE FROM OUR CHAIR
We are proud of the diversity that exists within our Board and will continue to uphold and
enhance these standards in the future. This Diversity Action Plan has been developed and
approved by the Board.
Furthermore, we recognise and value the breadth of thought and ideas that this brings to our
Board in order to best serve our members and attract new people to our sport.
It is essential that we act in a way that makes us accessible to everyone and we role model
behaviours that ensures our inclusivity. This will provide us with the best chance of achieving
our mission and in doing so deliver a great experience for anyone that wants to get involved
in wheelchair basketball. We commit to ensuring there are no barriers to participation or
enjoyment in our sport.
British Wheelchair Basketball (BWB) is committed to diversity; our commitment lies in our
actions as much as our words.
Wheelchair basketball is an inclusive sport. Our members, athletes, trustees, staff,
volunteers and all who support and work together to deliver our vision will do so without
prejudice. Three of our five values directly connect with diversity:

 Integrity

 Respect

 Inclusivity.
We work directly with clubs, officials and partners to ensure these values are upheld by
providing support and advice as well as learning and development opportunities.
As Chair I am committed to diversity within the Board. We recognise the significant
contribution that a diverse Board makes to BWB’s success by providing independence,
skills, experience and creativity. A key role for the Board is to challenge, debate and enable
decisions that will lead the organisation forward.
Our monitoring indicates that currently 36% (four out of 11) Board members are female; two
board members are from the BAME community and three are disabled. Future opportunities
to join the Board and support BWB will be widely and openly publicised and supported by
recruitment and selection process that encourages applications and appointments from, but
not limited to, people from all genders, abilities and BAME groups.
I make this public commitment on behalf of all British Wheelchair Basketball trustees to
continue to uphold a culture of diversity and inclusivity in all that we do.

Key Questions
How does this feed into our broader governance plan?

This plan underpins the mission, vision and values set out in the BWB strategy and in
particular our Governance objective (objective 5) “to provide leadership and good
governance within wheelchair basketball.”
The DAP will support our ambition to continuously develop our policies and procedures,
that will see British Wheelchair Basketball as both compliant and at the forefront of good
practice and an exemplar Para sport (Source: BWB Strategy 2017- 2021)
Within the Strategy our Leadership intervention identifies a key output for the Board to be,
‘a diverse and skilled board and senior leadership team meeting the governance and
commercial needs of the organisation. Effective succession planning.’
In addition, ‘to ensure that the governance and protocols reflect the requirements defined
in A Code for Sports Governance (2016).
Under our Governance intervention we reiterated the importance of ‘robust Board
protocols in place including, but not limited to, recruitment, induction, conflicts of interest,
board meeting / committee management and reporting are understood and upheld.’

Who are the key people responsible for the delivery of this plan?

Chair, Vice Chair and Board lead for Diversity and the Chair of the HR and Remuneration
Committee. Other officers: CEO, Corporate Services Director, Integrity Manager and Head of
Communications and Marketing have significant supporting roles.

How will we measure overall success?

Maintaining a diverse Board that, as a minimum, meets the requirements of the Code; an
increase in the diversity of applications for Board positions and other roles (e.g. advisors to
sub-committees); greater understanding and awareness of the value of diversity in decision
makes by ensuring representation on sub committees reflect the diversity of the board. In
addition, meeting the outputs aligned to the leadership and governance interventions
describe above e.g. ‘a high performing innovative Board providing leadership, challenge and
strategic direction’.

How does your Diversity Action Plan (DAP) cross-reference other parts of the code or
other relevant equality or diversity monitoring standards/framework?

The DAP also relates to: BWB’s Equality Code and Codes of Conduct Other links to Code for
Sports Governance:

 Principle 1: 1.8; 1.10; 1.21

 Principle 2: People – all requirements

 Principle 3: Communications - Requirement 3.1

 Principle 4: standards and conduct – all requirements

 Principle 5: Policies and Processes Requirement 5.5