This week marks an important next step towards the return of sport in communities across the country with indoor sports facilities and swimming pools now able to re-open in line with the latest Scottish Government public health guidance.
The Scottish Sports Governing Bodies Forum welcomes Monday’s communication from Stewart Harris, CEO, sportscotland announcing the release of a £1.5m COVID Support Fund to support Scotland’s sporting system (Sportscotland set up £1.5m COVID support fund for governing bodies). This timely statement recognises that whilst progress has been made with the re-opening of sports facilities across Scotland, this does not mean a full restart of sport as we know it and that many sports, particularly those reliant on accessing indoor sports facilities for Club training and competition, face a much slower return as local Trusts and leisure operators take a cautious and phased approach to the re-opening of their facilities.
We want to see more progress made in line with the latest public health guidance at all levels of sport, to ensure that clubs and local communities have access to facilities. The SGB Forum continues working with partners across the sporting system including sportscotland, the Scottish Government and Local Authorities and Local Trusts to bring about the safe return of sport, and is committed to ensuring that all of Scotland’s sports club members, volunteers and communities can access critical and much loved sporting and physical activity opportunities as soon as possible.
However, whilst there is a clear desire from all partners to re-open facilities and get our sports into these facilities as quickly as is safely possible, the ongoing difficulties presented by COVID-19, including facility staff on furlough, training requirements and venue remodelling to comply with social distancing measures, means that it is unlikely that all venues will be able to re-open fully for some time to come.
In the meantime, as a sector, we need the support, understanding and backing of all our Clubs and Members now more than ever as we work to protect the rich sporting fabric of our nation and strive to bring sporting activity back to being at the heart of our Scottish communities once more.
The Scottish Governing Bodies Forum
Supplementary Statement by STS
In terms of shooting, STS is in the process of finalising updated guidance which has taken a little longer to prepare due to the considerations required when re-opening indoor ranges. We plan to release this in the next 48 hours and will contact members directly when it is ready.
To supplement the statement above, prepared by all Scottish Governing Bodies of Sport, we understand that shooting clubs do not face the access problems that many of our colleagues and friends in other sports face, but there are still challenges around opening due to the unique and varied layouts of ranges across the country. We will do all we can to help clubs tackle these challenges by providing guidance, advice and templates to support the re-opening of clubs but keep in touch and let us know what more we can do.
We also continue to stress that many clubs may feel uncomfortable about re-opening and while we appreciate the financial pressures faced by clubs, we also stress that if clubs and their members are reticent about re-opening, then they should go through this process at a speed they feel comfortable with to ensure the health and wellbeing of their members. The fact that clubs can open does not mean that clubs need to open and for some, delaying re-opening will be the preferred option. If clubs have questions and/or concerns then please contact us and we will do our best to support you and get you the answers you need so we can all get through this together.
Scottish Target Shooting