British Canoeing Response to British Canoeing SRC

---

British Canoeing Response to British Canoeing SRC & MRC Survey British Canoeing is aware that there has been considerable discussion within the canoeing racing community and through social media channels about the role of the British Canoeing Performance Department (PD), the roles of the Sprint and Marathon committees and British Canoeing’s relationship with clubs. British Canoeing is also aware of the recent online survey initiated by members of the Marathon and Sprint Racing Committees seeking feedback about the Performance Department. Whilst British Canoeing acknowledge this, the Performance Team is rightly focused at this important time in the season on preparing athletes for the Slalom World Championships and Olympic qualification along with other Junior/U23 upcoming Championships at this time. As occurs every year there will be a thorough annual review of our performance programme including our systems, processes and our supported athletes, both internally and with our funding partners. British Canoeing is disappointed that two of its sub-committees have chosen to undertake this work without prior discussion with British Canoeing and as a consequence we believe an opportunity has been missed to conduct a survey that asks questions that will help to fully inform strategic decision making going forwards in a balanced way. In particular the discussion and survey have clearly highlighted there is considerable confusion about the role and accountability of the Performance Department, which requires immediate clarification: Governance The British Canoeing Board is accountable for the public money it receives from UK Sport and Sport England for its World Class Programme and England Talent Programmes respectively, via its Accountable Officer (normally the Chief Executive Officer but currently the BC Finance Director), who is a Board member. The Performance Department is accountable to the BC Board via the World Class Management Group. Likewise the SRC and MRC are also accountable to the BC Board via the England Council. Importantly, the Performance Department is not accountable to the SRC. The International Panel is a separate committee to the Performance Department and the Canoe Sprint and Canoe Slalom International Panels are governed and appointed by the BC Board as outlined in the committee regulations which also define their remit. Purpose and remit of the Sprint Racing Committee (SRC) The role of the British Canoeing SRC discipline committee is two-fold, firstly to coordinate and deliver the domestic competition calendar and secondly to develop the grassroots participation in the specific discipline, with financial support from British Canoeing being provided to achieve this.

Purpose and remit of the Performance Department The purpose of the Performance Department to is to develop and manage a high performance programme which will enable athletes to win medals at the Olympics and Paralympics in Canoe Sprint, Canoe Slalom and Paracanoe. Neither its remit nor its funding extends to the non-Olympic Canoeing disciplines or to developing the participation base of the sport. Canoe Sprint has been in the Olympic Programme since 1936 and in the 60 years to 1996 although there were committed athletes and coaches, no medals were won. Since the introduction of the Performance programme in 1997 with specific focus on Sprint British athletes have won 6 Olympic Medals. British Canoeing recognises that Marathon racing can play an important role in developing flatwater paddlers at certain times in the training cycle and that it is important for young paddlers to gain a wide variety of skills, however winning Canoe Sprint medals on the international stage is extremely competitive with tiny margins separating a large number of athletes. The role of the British Canoeing Performance department is to provide athletes with the opportunity to acquire the skills, knowledge and experience to prepare for and then produce their peak performance, under pressure on a specific day in Canoe Sprint and Canoe Slalom. Relationship with clubs and the community The Performance Department recognises the immense work done by large numbers of volunteers around the country and wishes to work in partnership with clubs to provide the best possible opportunities for talented paddlers to progress to the highest competitive levels of the sport if they so choose. Specifically, while there are a number of initiatives already in place where the Performance Department supports and helps to develop volunteer/club coaches, the responsibility for coach education and development rests with the British Canoeing Coaching Department. British Canoeing recognises that there is a demand for greater coach education and development for competition coaches and this is being addressed through the Coaching Steering Group. ACM Motions There have been a number of motions submitted to the SRC Annual Consultative Meeting. As the SRC is a sub-committee of British Canoeing and will report back to the board following the meeting, British Canoeing will engage in an appropriate manner to discuss the issues raised and as such would like to invite the newly elected chair of the SRC and the chair of the MRC to a meeting on 28th September at Bisham Abbey National Sports Centre. This will provide an opportunity for the SRC Chair to report on the issues raised at the ACM in line with the committee constitution in a forum with the British Canoeing Chief Executive Officer, Performance Director and Chair of the World Class Management Group. Peter King CBE British Canoeing Chief Executive Officer 3rd September 2015