In order to determine the impact that Covid-19 was having on the Hastings and Rother sports coaches and physical activity instructors, a survey was sent out in May 2020 to local coaches through the Hastings and Rother coach networks.
The intention of the questionnaire was to:
(1) Understand any difficulty that coaches and instructors are facing or are likely to face during this unprecedented period
(2) Understand what support coaches and instructors would like from Active Hastings, Active Rother or Active Sussex
(3) Understand if any coaches or instructors would be interested in using this period to develop their coaching/instructing and their business.
This work forms part of our sport and physical activity sector workforce development programme, one of the Active Rother key workstreams for 2020/21. This programme is being run in partnership with Active Sussex.
Response and key findings
37 coaches and instructors responded to the survey.
The key issues and areas of support identified were as follows:
- Concern over viability of classes once they can restart if numbers able to attend restricted.
- Information on any funding that becomes available.
- Provision of training on how to promote classes especially via social media.
- Support for training of coaches to make sessions more inclusive.
- Assistance with promoting sessions once we can restart.
- Grants to help cover costs of running sessions and to keep prices low for residents.
Social media training
As social media training was identified as one of the main areas of support required, Active Rother worked with Active Hastings to jointly commission two on-line training sessions, one on Instagram and the other on Facebook. The learning was focused on how to set up, creating effective messages and reaching target audiences. The sessions took place in June and 51 individuals attended at least one of the sessions. Both sessions were well evaluated with positive feedback received. The recordings of the two sessions are now available at:
- Facebook https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HE4KLXHazFw
- Instagram https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tM1uF5HpeSA
The Active Rother programme will be working with providers over the coming months to help promote sport and physical activity sessions available in the Rother area, as the lifting of lockdown restrictions makes availability more feasible, providing they can be delivered safely based on the latest coronavirus guidelines.
For further information on the survey and/or the training, please contact Stuart Ramsbottom at stuart.ramsbottom@rother.gov.uk