Skip to main content

Search form

Type your search then hit enter
  • Contact Us
  • Login
  • About usBack
    • About us
    • About Us
    • Meet the Team
    • Meet the Board
    • Our Partners
    • Current Contracts
    • Current VacanciesBack
      • Current Vacancies
      • Head of Business Development
    • Partner with Us
    • Contact Us
    • Governance
  • What We DoBack
    • What We Do
    • Core ServicesBack
      • Core Services
      • Equity
      • Facilities
      • Funding & Support
      • InsightBack
        • Insight
        • Devon receives national investment to help older people get active in nature
      • Marketing & Communications
      • Safeguarding
      • Strategic Networking
      • Volunteer Development
    • ProgrammesBack
      • Programmes
      • Local Programmes
      • Primary Premium
      • Satellite Clubs
      • School Games
      • Workplace Movement
    • SectorsBack
      • Sectors
      • Commercial
      • Community Groups
      • Education – HE & FE
      • Education – Schools
      • Health
      • Local Authorities
      • NGB
  • Latest
  • Active Partnerships
  • Impact
  • Search
  • Login

Search form

  • Contact Us

You are here

  • Home
  • Latest
  • In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity

In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity

Posted on 17th September 2020
A boat riding a big wave with quote “We’re not all in the same boat, we are all in the same storm”
  • Network News

Written by Shay Fenton, Workforce Lead, Leap

In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity

Adapting our workforce support during the Covid-19 pandemic

No nation has escaped the widespread and devastating disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, it has changed the way we all go about our daily lives and has already provided many challenges for individuals and organisations. But as Albert Einstein once said “In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity” and although the physical activity and sport sector has been massively affected by Covid-19, it has also provided us with the opportunity to think, work and behave differently…

To cite Simon Sinek's ‘Golden Circle’, what we do and why we do it has remained the same during the last 6 months or so, how we do it has been forced to change by the situation we find ourselves in. 

The question I've been asking myself and others within my role as Workforce Lead at Leap (The Bucks & MK Sport and Activity Partnership) is what’s another way we can do this?

Initially for us it was around embracing technology to keep in contact regularly with our local workforce, it was important for us to understand how the workforce were feeling and using this insight as well as national data to adapt our offer.  

We set up several online training opportunities that covered a range of topics including delivering activities for the whole family and wellbeing & resilience. We also worked closely with the tutors of these online training opportunities to ensure they were engaging and interactive as this style of training works best for us in a face to face environment, it was important we could replicate this virtually too. In essence we were trying to live by The Coaching Lab (one of our workshop deliverers) motto of Don’t be boring, be exciting! It seemed to be working.

The training opportunities also allowed us to further strengthen relationships with key workforce partners, including Sport England specialist workforce partners Boing and Our Parks. Another key outcome from the regular online training was they created opportunities for local deliverers to continue to have casual collisions - chance encounters and unplanned interactions between each other that often happen when training is delivered face to face. We believe these informal conversations are key to fostering an improvement culture locally across our workforce. From these informal conversations grew small communities of practices where local deliverers shared ideas, challenges and successes. 

“We’re not all in the same boat, we are all in the same storm”

For me, this quote really epitomises the situation for the workforce currently. More so than ever we need to be person centred, everybody’s situation is different, and our support has had to focus more on listening to the individual and connecting them with the most appropriate support.

I'm extremely grateful that I have been able to count on the people around me here at Leap to help with this individualised support for the local workforce, I can think of numerous examples where the Leap team have engaged and supported the workforce during his time. Our project leads used the Sport England workforce evaluation guidance to better understand our project deliverers, what works well for them, there challenges and how we can support them further.

Another colleague developed & delivered physical activity training for Covid-19 volunteers to raise their confidence to have conversations and encourage the people they are supporting to be active. Other examples include funding advice, application support and workforce specific info on our website, it really has been a team effort and further demonstrated that workforce sits across the whole team here at Leap.

Thanks a million!

The last few weeks have allowed time for reflection and we wanted to say thank you to all the local deliverers that have continued to do fantastic work to keep people active and positive during these challenging times by sending them handwritten thank you cards.

I have been truly inspired by all the great people who have continued improving lives through physical activity and sport during these challenging times by getting and keeping people active. As someone reminded me recently, people are the most important asset we have in our sector, we must take care of them, recognise them and celebrate the value of people.

 

Thanks for reading, if you’re interested to find out more about any of the info above please get in touch.

Shay

sfenlon@leapwithus.org.uk @Shay_Fenlon

Related stories

Network News
Systems thinking our way through this together

“A systems lens can help us learn essential lessons.

Read more...
person cycling to deliver prescriptions
Network News
Creating a ‘new normal’

What is the future we would like to see, where do we see our role within it and who do we need to support to get there?

Read more...
Go Back

Filter posts by region

Popular Tags

Technology
Oomph
Greatersport
Conference
Active Black Country
Walking
PHE
inactive
CSP Network
Active Lunch Challenge

Most Popular Posts

Conditions...
London Sport joins councils to research Turkish and Kurdish residents’ physical activity
Making London the Heart of the Sport Tech World

Archives

  • November 2015 (5)
  • December 2015 (4)
  • February 2016 (5)
  • March 2016 (3)
  • April 2016 (4)
  • May 2016 (8)
  • June 2016 (10)
  • July 2016 (10)
  • August 2016 (3)
  • September 2016 (13)
  • October 2016 (9)
  • November 2016 (8)
  • December 2016 (1)
  • January 2017 (8)
  • February 2017 (4)
  • March 2017 (6)
  • April 2017 (8)
  • May 2017 (8)
  • June 2017 (14)
  • July 2017 (9)
  • September 2017 (11)
  • October 2017 (11)
  • November 2017 (5)
  • December 2017 (5)
  • January 2018 (5)
  • February 2018 (4)
  • March 2018 (3)
  • April 2018 (1)
  • May 2018 (9)
  • June 2018 (6)
  • July 2018 (11)
  • August 2018 (1)
  • September 2018 (9)
  • October 2018 (11)
  • November 2018 (5)
  • December 2018 (6)
  • January 2019 (6)
  • February 2019 (5)
  • March 2019 (6)
  • April 2019 (8)
  • May 2019 (7)
  • June 2019 (7)
  • July 2019 (6)
  • August 2019 (2)
  • September 2019 (8)
  • October 2019 (6)
  • November 2019 (7)
  • December 2019 (2)
  • January 2020 (5)
  • February 2020 (7)
  • March 2020 (7)
  • April 2020 (14)
  • May 2020 (4)
  • June 2020 (9)
  • July 2020 (8)
  • August 2020 (2)
  • September 2020 (11)
  • November 2020 (8)
  • January 2021 (1)

@ActivePartners_
Follow us

  • Thank you for your contribution. Your insights and passion were very welcomed by participants across the network.… https://t.co/ctYmXCxgrf
    POSTED ON 21 January
  • Some great discussion today during the first module of the #SystemLeadership programme. Thank you @CollaborateCIC a… https://t.co/eLfTqitb7R
    POSTED ON 21 January
  • RT @hayleylever: @annarandle @ActivePartners_ @CollaborateCIC Loved that mindsets featured in this, Anna. This is the blog I mention… https://t.co/cEZD63DDRr
    POSTED ON 21 January

Follow us

Newsletter Sign-up

Be the first to hear news and opportunities from the Active Partnerships

You may have noticed we have a new brand, and the CSP Network is now known as Active Partnerships

Contact us

Telephone
07788 296161

Email
info@ActivePartnerships.org

Copyright © 2021 Active Partnerships All rights reserved.
  • Site Map
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Cookies
  • Legal
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
Site design by EHD