insport is a Disability Sport Wales project delivered with the support of Sport Wales, which aims to support the physical activity, sport, and leisure sectors delivering inclusively of disabled people.
The insport NGB programme is part of this broader insport project and has a number of standards progressing from Ribbon, through to Bronze, Silver and Gold. The WRU successfully achieved Gold in May 2022 and post-Gold there is an 18 month review process to ensure standards are maintained and organisations continue to work inclusively to continue to extend and enhance their offer for disabled children and adults. This process involves working towards recommendations made by a panel of individuals who represent DSW and the wider sector.
Achievement of the insport NGB Gold standard means that an inclusive approach to communities of disabled people is embedded within WRU strategies and programmes, commitments and thinking. Gold is never the end of an organisation’s inclusion journey, and this review process ensures that standards and commitment levels continue, with areas of focus identified to ensure further progress.
Donna Bullivant-Evans, insport Senior Officer, for Disability Sport Wales commented that:
“The WRU have shown progress in areas that were recommended and prioritised, including growing their inclusion focussed workforce, providing support and leadership to enable to consistency of rugby delivery across Wales through regional partners, HUB staff, Inclusive Community Clubs (ICC), school delivery, and community clubs. It is fantastic to see that over 100 Hub Officers are now in place with inclusion being a significant part of their role across Wales.”
“Significant improvements have been made to data and insight that is collected around disabled participants which will help to inform future direction and delivery. Retaining insport NGB Gold gives the WRU a great opportunity to elevate and enhance the visibility of disability rugby across all areas of the organisation”.
Darren Carew is the WRU’s National Inclusion Manager, and has been involved with their insport journey from Ribbon to Gold. He has welcomed the opportunities they have had through insport, commenting that:
"The insport process as a whole really provided us with a roadmap to making our sport more inclusive to all, invaluable to us as an NGB, particularly when we were taking the first steps on that journey. After reaching gold standard, the review gave us a timescale to work on the recommendations that came out of that, ensuring that we do not rest on our laurels, but rightfully continue to improve and remain worthy of that standard.”
“Personally, it was great to present to the review panel on our work post gold, it was a challenge to compress so much great work into an hour, but it did provide an opportunity to reflect on the further progress made by the Welsh Rugby Union and our fantastic regional partners in this space. I welcome the next set of recommendations from the review and will work with all within our organisation and our partners, to ensure we once again meet and exceed them for the betterment of inclusive rugby in Wales".
Fiona Reid, CEO for Disability Sport Wales reflected on the journey the WRU have had over the past 6 years:
“The work started with several enthusiastic and passionate members of the WRU and DSW teams and has now evolved into something which sits in all HUB officer’s role descriptions, is embedded within showcase events like the Road to Principality, and has forged strong partnerships with organisations like Great Britain Wheelchair Rugby.”
“There is absolutely more WRU can do to ensure that the inclusion of disabled people is reflected through all areas of their provision and priority, that is the purpose of us continuing to work together; but it is great to be able to recognise the differences they have, and are making as well. The recommendations the panel have made for the next 18 months are intended to challenge and focus ongoing improvement, and we look forward to continuing to support their change.”
Notes:
insport is a Disability Sport Wales project which aims to support the physical activity, sport, and leisure sectors delivering inclusively of disabled people.
Disability Sport Wales have developed toolkits to support Clubs, National Governing Bodies (NGBs) and Local Authorities to deliver excellent standards of inclusion for disabled people in sport and physical activity. These are separated into individual programmes: insport Club, insport NGB, and insport Partnerships.
Each insport programme comprises four insport Standards: insport Ribbon, insport Bronze, insport Silver and insport Gold.
