Together for Football 2024 review - One Year On

TOGETHER FOR FOOTBALL

2024 REVIEW ONE YEAR ON

OVERVIEW

INTRODUCTION

In March, the Foundation published its first Equality, Diversity and Inclusion strategy ‘Together for Football’. This annual report provides an update on our progress and highlights the diversity of the team over time.

It’s important to remember that Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) goes beyond just the diversity numbers included within this report. One aim of Together for Football is to become more reflective of the communities we serve.

The other equally important aim, is to create a culture where everyone feels valued, respected, and empowered to contribute their unique perspectives and experiences. We recognise that our teammates will excel and feel like they belong if our culture is welcoming, and the Foundation will reap the rewards of a diverse workforce.

“I’m proud of how the Football Foundation has responded over the last year, since the launch of Together for Football. EDI has become a regular conversation topic and is firmly on our agenda. All teams within the Foundation have played their part in making sure the actions we collectively identified and committed to, have stayed on track.

The initiatives we’ve launched, the training and learning we’ve undertaken and the guidance we’ve produced, have challenged our thinking and changed the way we do things. We know that the work we do on EDI will ensure that we’re a more productive and creative organisation.

I’m determined we will not become complacent, and this work will continue to be a priority for the Foundation.

There is, of course always more we can do to continue to improve our culture and make steps to becoming a more diverse and inclusive organisation. Over the next two years we must continue to innovate and deliver on the commitments we’ve made, ensuring we live up to our Four Corners – the Foundation’s values – and continue to be an organisation that teammates tell us they’re proud to be a part of.

Robert Sullivan CEO

Together for Football covers the period from March 2023 to March 2025. It spans the Foundation as a whole, including actions and commitments for every team, setting out a total of 36 actions.

Action status: On track for 2025

The work conducted across 2023, has set the Foundation in good standing to deliver all actions outlined within the strategy by 2025. However, it is important to note that Together for Football is also designed to be adaptable and flexible, which means that new actions can be agreed and included as we respond to changing needs.

In terms of the Foundation’s workforce, there is a greater degree of diversity when considering the ethnicity and cultural heritage of our team. This is less evident in terms of our gender split, and our teammates that have declared a disability. An evaluation of the Foundation’s end-to-end recruitment practices and policies has been completed. This provides the Foundation with a set of robust recommendations to improve our recruitment processes.

Since the publication of Together for Football, there has been a concerted effort by teammates across the Foundation to work together to both create and get involved with a wide range of EDI initiatives. Examples of initiatives launched since 2022 include:

Conscious Inclusion (the Foundation’s EDI Training programme)

The Foundation procured and launched a 12-month programme of EDI training. Partnering with Inclusive Employers, the programme is bespoke and has been rolled out organisation wide. The programme is mandatory for all teammates and is designed to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to gain a level of understanding of the foundation principles of EDI, conscious inclusion, and how to be a more inclusive teammate, line manager or leader.

Recruitment Review

The Foundation has an ambition to increase the diversity of its workforce, particularly increasing the percentage of the workforce that identify as female, are from minority ethnic and cultural groups, and people with disabilities that are currently underrepresented.

The Recruitment Review forms one action included within the Foundation’s Together for Football strategy. The review has provided recommendations to improve the Foundation’s end-to-end recruitment practices and policies, including job description drafting, advertising, shortlisting, interviewing and onboarding.

Words Matter

Words Matter is an internal document designed to provide teammates with guidance on inclusive language. It pulls together references, drawing on information from expert organisations and individuals, to create a comprehensive reference guide. Words Matter helps teammates to think more carefully about the words they’re using and to steer them towards inclusive terminology. As a result of Words Matter, teammates have reported an increase in confidence when talking about topics related to inclusion and diversity.

Mentoring Scheme

Mentoring can be a powerful tool, and we hope it will allow teammates to share experiences, learn from each other, resulting in valued and supportive partnerships.

In January 2024 the Foundation launched a new internal mentoring programme. The idea of the programme is to formalise the opportunity for teammates to enter into a mentoring relationship with a Foundation colleague. The scheme effectively levels the playing field, ensuring mentoring opportunities are open to all.

Community Engagement Toolkit

In 2023 the Foundation published its Community Engagement Toolkit. The toolkit has been developed to provide practical tips and guidance to our grant applicants, to support them in designing, developing and delivering truly community focused programmes and facilities. To complement our toolkit, we’ve brought teammates together to form a working group, tasked with continuing to improve the toolkit over time. The group has also started to host ‘Community of Learning’ sessions to discuss and share best practices. By sharing experiences, we’re enabling greater collaboration to design facilities and activities that are inclusive for everyone.

Friday Finds

Friday Finds is a curated selection of diverse and engaging materials focusing on EDI topics. The aim is to highlight compelling and current content that sparks conversation, broadens perspectives, and deepens understanding of crucial EDI issues. Each week, we present a mixed bag of ‘Finds’ catering to various learning styles and time constraints. Whether teammates have a few minutes to spare or an hour to delve deeper, they’re able to find something to pique their interest. From timely news articles and thought-provoking social media posts, to informative podcasts and insightful book recommendations. Friday Finds has become a valuable resource helping teammates to stay informed, inspired, and knowledgeable on a broad range of topics.

Mental Health Ambassadors

Our Mental Health Ambassador network is a group of teammates from across the Foundation, who have volunteered to come together to support and develop activities to help us all take care of our mental health and wellbeing.

Since the launch of this group, our ambassadors have completed training, hosted ‘share a cuppa’ sessions (where teammates take a short break during the working day to check in with each other), coordinated the Foundation’s ‘RED January’ challenge, which focused on mental wellbeing and movement (teammates collectively clocked up over 884 hours worth of physical activity), and developed ‘The Mental Health Corner’; a central resource with links to materials aimed at increasing awareness and education. The hope is that everyone can gain a better understanding of mental health, potential symptoms, coping strategies and where to seek support. The Ambassadors regularly present at Squad Meet-Ups, ensuring that mental health is firmly on our agenda.

V.I.P Days (Values in Practice)

Our V.I.P Days were born from an all-team initiative centred around volunteering, to do good out in the community. We tasked the team to suggest ideas that would create stronger connections across teams, help build an inclusive culture, and increase communication and interaction. This initiative sparked some lively discussion and ideas, in February 2023, the first V.I.P Day opportunity took place at a school in Oval, South London. Teammates were given the opportunity to take part in a day of gardening to support the school in tidying and planting the seeds for an edible garden.

There are two separate EDI related Key Performance

Indicators

(KPIs), which the Foundation measures on an annual basis. These were both launched in 2022.

*Light Green = below target

EDI KPI 1

The first EDI KPI is an internal inclusion measure. This KPI is designed to be a temperature check, measuring the sense of inclusion, and belonging amongst teammates and is calculated using using data from our annual Squad Survey. The target for this KPI is to achieve a score of 4.4 as a combined average score for eleven EDI related questions, which have been split into two tiers.

The Squad Survey is an all-team survey that teammates are invited to complete annually and share their views on the culture, our work, and how it feels to work at the Foundation.

Tier one questions are those that provide a direct indication of a team member’s sense of inclusion and belonging at the Foundation. Tier two questions also indicate a sense of inclusion and belonging, but more indirectly, and are therefore weighted less heavily than those questions in tier one.

In 2023 the Foundation narrowly missed this target achieving a score of 4.3, however, all scores across both tiers scored positively in 2023, with individual question scores ranging between (3.86 – 4.68). A more detailed breakdown is provided on the next page.

Squad Survey comparison results breakdown 2022—2023

The average score for the EDI related section of the survey was 4.06 (out of 5) in 2022, rising to 4.11 in 2023. This signifies that overall, in the 2023 annual survey there was a more positive response from teammates than in 2022. Over the coming years, it’s a goal of the Foundation to maintain or better this positive result.

For the first time in 2023, the annual survey data was analysed taking into consideration the differences in responses between particular groups. For example cross referencing responses from our male and female teammates. During this process no results of statistical significance were identified between any characteristic or group, meaning that no inequalities were identified based on diversity characteristics.

EDI KPI 2

At the start of 2024, our Grant Assessment team did an analysis of projects awarded since June 2022, to see how they were delivering against their project plan and our Internal Project Assessment Matrix. The plan is a site specific five-year working document illustrating how they’ll hit their KPIs, and the analysis measured four key themes: Management, Multi-sport, Women and Girls and Underrepresented groups (Disability, Lower Socio-Economic Groups, Culturally Diverse Communities).

We’re in the process of developing a new post award assurance programme; as an interim measure and for the first time, this post award assessment measured performance against the site’s preassessment criteria. It highlighted that our EDI KPI, that measures underrepresented groups is significantly below the 75% target, at 60%. This is year one of a five year plan and where required, we’ll continue to support these sites in moving towards and meeting the target. Whilst it’s hoped sites will achieve the target as early as possible, it’s feasible that sites need time to develop into their programme of use and ensure they’re achieving their goals.

SQUAD

2022—2023 COMPARISONS

The questions within KPI 1 are broken down here in order to provide more detailed analysis. When comparing data sets between 2022 and 2023, an important factor to consider, is that the number of teammates completing the survey increased from 59 in 2022 to 81 in 2023, largely driven by an increase in the number of teammates we employ.

The Foundation values and promotes a diversity of thought, knowledge, skills and lived experience.

Squad Survey statement:

The Foundation values and promotes a diversity of thought, knowledge, skills and lived experience.

Commentary:

There was a very slight decrease in terms of how positive the response to this question was, when comparing 2022 results with 2023 results (3.98 in 2022 and 3.89 in 2023).

Squad Survey statement:

The management and leadership teams demonstrate that their commitment to Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) is important through their actions and behaviours.

Commentary:

There was a slight decrease in terms of how positive the response to this question was, when comparing 2022 results with 2023 results (4.02 in 2022 and 3.86 in 2023).

Tackling inequalities, promoting inclusivity, and engaging under-represented groups/communities is central to the Foundation’s mission statement, aims, objectives, and processes.

Squad Survey statement:

Tackling inequalities, promoting inclusivity, and engaging underrepresented groups/communities is central to the Foundation’s mission statement, aims, objectives, and processes.

Commentary:

This question has one of the highest positive response rates within the entire Squad Survey. It’s encouraging to see that this question not only remained positive but that there was a marginal increase in positive responses (4.17 in 2022 to 4.30 in 2023).

Squad

Survey statement:

I feel like I can be myself at the Football Foundation.

Commentary:

The percentage of teammates who responded positively to this question increased by 5% with 93% of the team agreeing that they could be themselves at the Foundation.

In

Squad Survey statement: In your opinion, where do you think the Foundation is on the inclusion maturity model.

Commentary:

This question was not asked in 2022 so a comparison cannot easily be made. However, teammates across the organisation did have the opportunity to plot where they believed the Foundation was on this maturity model prior to Together for Football being published. In 2023, the majority of teammates felt that the Foundation was in the ‘Established’ box.

The Inclusion Maturity Model

Embedded

Inclusion and diversity is seen as a major asset, truly embedded into all areas and considered in decision making. All employees see an inclusive culture as being beneficial and as their responsibility to maintain. Both employees and organisations reap the benefit.

The majority of responses fell within this section of the maturity model. This is positive for the Foundation, however the aim remains to move further along the inclusion maturity model as our work progresses.

Integrated

Inclusion and diversity is seen as a priority business matter. The culture shows clear signs of change. The lived experience for the majority of employees is positive and the actions of leaders and line managers match the corporate message of commitment.

Established

Business case established with support from leadership and champions within the organisation. Processes, systems and policies are in place, a programme of initiatives is designed which results in measurable progress but not all areas of the organisation are implementing established policies / processes effectively.

Inconsistent

Ad hoc programmes and initiatives, often strand* specific and unconnected.

Tick box

Compliance with the law.

Avoidance

No recognition of the need for inclusion and diversion activity.

*Strand specific – this relates to strands of diversity, often the nine protected characteristics of the Equality Act.

ACTION TRACKER

Together for Football is a three-year plan, launched in March 2023 covering the period to March 2025. Some of the actions included within the strategy will repeat year on year, whereas others are one-off actions.

Action Progress

1 Training and Learning

Develop an organisation wide EDI training programme, mandatory for all teammates.

Ensure EDI topics are firmly and consistently on our agenda. Our Squad Meet-Ups (our all-team get-togethers) are an opportunity to discuss and explore EDI related topics and content, ensuring our messages and progress reach every teammate.

Provide tools and learning opportunities for applicants, programme participants and recipients of funding.

2 Improve our recruitment practices

Carry out a full review of our recruitment practices and our employer brand.

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Empower our Culture Champions and EDI Advisory Group

Develop and refresh our employee groups so that they are empowered and equipped to advocate for EDI and act as critical friends to the Foundation.

Set diversity targets across our organisation

Our first task is to fully understand the makeup of the team and then we must work with our funding partners to align targets on EDI.

A report on progress will be made annually.

In December 2023 the Foundation partnered with Inclusive Employers to launch its year long bespoke training programme, mandatory for all teammates.

Since the launch of Together for Football EDI has featured in every Squad Meet-Up event. We’ve heard from a range of speakers covering a wide variety of EDI subject matter. The Foundation has also provided a range of guidance and learning opportunities for teammates to participate in.

✓ Complete Ongoing throughout the duration of Together for Football

An initial recruitment review has been carried out and recommendations for improvements have been made within this report. The HR Team are now working to implement these recommendations. ✓ In progress Likely to be complete within 2024

Both groups now meet regularly and help contribute to EDI related initiatives and policies. ✓ In progress Ongoing throughout the duration of Together for Football

The Foundation is in the process of procuring an applicant tracking system (ATS). This system will help the Foundation to further understand its reach in terms of attracting applicants and enable us to identify any trends within its recruitment processes. This system will be launched in the first half of 2024.

The Foundation also collected diversity monitoring data from its Board, Panel and Committee members for the first time in March 2024.

The Foundation aims to set targets related to EDI in 2025, but will continue to report its diversity data annually.

✓ In progress Likely to be committed to in 2025

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Action Progress

Develop an internal mentoring programme

This new programme will focus on the development of teammates through the sharing of knowledge and experience. Teammates will learn new skills and be exposed to new areas of the Foundation, deepening relationships across the team.

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Refresh our EDI policies and consider all Foundation policies in relation to EDI Ensure our policies are regularly updated, are EDI compliant, use inclusive language and are equitable for all teammates.

7 Capture and share best practice on community engagement

Knowledge about community engagement is shared, utilised and fully embedded across all programmes, ensuring that knowledge and learning of our teammates develops.

In January 2024, the Foundation launched its internal mentoring programme. The idea of the programme is to formalise a mentoring opportunity for teammates who are keen to enter into a mentoring relationship. ✓ Complete N/A

The EDI Lead is consulted on all new people related policies, and as current policies are periodically refreshed. This collaboration ensures inclusive language is used consistently and principles and approaches are reviewed through an EDI lens. Work on the Foundation’s new Teammate Handbook has included the development of an EDI section.

The Grant Assessment Team has collected multiple case studies from recipients detailing best practice examples of community engagement.

A community engagement working group has been set up to ensure community engagement learning opportunities are available for teammates to attend. Teammates are offered the opportunity to join frequent community of learning workshops to hear from recipients across the country.

The Foundation has developed and launched a Community Engagement Toolkit which is available for all applicants to access.

✓ In progress Ongoing throughout the duration of Together for Football

✓ Complete Some aspects of this work are complete and some will continue throughout the duration of Together for Football

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Action Progress

Develop Partnerships with external EDI experts and organisations

Review different accreditations to benchmark, learn, improve and inform our thinking and further understand our positioning as an organisation.

The Foundation has developed a partnership with Inclusive Employers and Inclusive Sport as part of a membership arrangement. The Foundation team benefits from access to various webinars and guidance documents.

The Foundation has also developed a relationship with AKD Solutions, which provide the Foundation with support and guidance in relation to ongoing delivery and further development of our Together for Football strategy.

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Develop a line manager charter

Line managers play a key role in ensuring teammates feel valued and that they can be themselves. A line manager charter will provide a quick reference guide to how to line manage inclusively.

Incorporate EDI content at Squad Meet-Ups

As an organisation which has a proportion of remote teammates it’s important that EDI is firmly on the agenda when teammates come together.

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Develop guidance resources for applicants/ consultants and recipients

Improve consultant knowledge on EDI related topics and community engagement through guidance and support.

This action is included within the Business Service Team’s business plan. Work is due to be completed in 2024.

Since the launch of Together for Football EDI has featured in every Squad Meet-Up event, EDI will continue to be on the agenda for these events and also for all-team calls.

The Foundation has produced guidance as part of its Community Engagement Toolkit. This Toolkit is publicly available to all potential applicants and consultants.

Our Technical Team has also produced guidance on subjects such as a short guide to disability sport on 3G pitches.

✓ In progress Some aspects of this work are complete and some will continue throughout the duration of Together for Football

✓ Not started (this action is still due to be delivered on time) Work is due to be completed on this action in 2024

✓ In progress Ongoing throughout the duration of Together for Football

✓ In progress Ongoing throughout the duration of Together for Football

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Action Progress

Local Football Facility Plans (LFFP) template reviewed

Reviewing our LFFP template annually to ensure that the context provided is an accurate and full picture of each Local Authority and that EDI and community engagement is embedded into the template.

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Research our impact

Develop formalised research with a university partner in collaboration with partners, to benefit our understanding of our impact.

The LFFP template has been updated to ensure the language used is inclusive. During 2024, the Foundation will review the template further, to ensure the template is using inclusive language, as well as stressing the importance of community engagement for all projects.

The Foundation has been collaborating with Leeds Beckett University, to produce a research study into the effectiveness of the Foundation’s approach to community engagement within our Active Through Football Programme. The aim is to use the findings of this programme and feedback from a consortium of partners to enable the Foundation to inform future programmes.

The Foundation is also currently looking to bring in a research partner to analyse the impact of the Foundation’s PlayZone sites, once operational.

✓ In progress Ongoing throughout the duration of Together for Football

✓ In progress Ongoing throughout the duration of Together for Football

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Data insight and development

By responding to what our research tells us, we’ll improve the data we collect to inform the allocation of funding, linked to need and seldom heard groups and users. Undertake a review of our current data, exploring a comparison between our intended outcomes vs actual outcomes and target sitebased project evaluation.

Develop an EDI evaluation framework

A small sample-based evaluation framework will be developed to assess the impact of Foundation facilities and programmes, which can inform best practice.

A new project is underway to review how the Foundation engages with our applicants after a grant award has been made, with the aim of gaining better insight into how sites are being used, and how sites are performing against the commitments made within the grant applications.

✓ In Progress Current target is to be implemented during FY25

We’re currently in the process of selecting a research partner to undertake a study that will interview applicants, users, and surrounding communities about projects we’ve invested in so we can better understand the benefits and impact we’ve had at an individual level.

✓ In Progress Appointment by by May 2024, with delivery in the following year

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Action Progress

Embed tackling inequalities measures into our performance framework

Begin to benchmark and monitor progress on our EDI/tackling inequalities measures. Define clear Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and methodologies.

All projects are assessed on how they will have engaged with local communities and how the project might serve underrepresented groups.

The Post Award Team for the first time in 2023, assess facilities against a similar criteria to measure how the site is performing against these commitments.

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New programme development

Develop an EDI framework for new programmes to ensure that they align to the Foundation’s EDI KPIs. This includes the application process development, programme criteria and assessment.

New Programme Development

Improve our understanding of recreational football and community led football programmes, including multi-sport and small sided provision. Identify the trends, patterns of engagement and need. Share best practice from this work and explore how it fits into core Foundation funds.

Work is due to start on this action during 2024.

19 Develop our procurement process

Embed EDI into our procurement process, assessing the selection of partner organisations and suppliers with significant contract value. Collate and access EDI documentation and information we receive from the procurement process or our existing suppliers.

The Foundation has made good strides with this particular action thanks to the work conducted as part of its Active Through Football Programme (ATF). ATF has created a community of learning which is sharing best practice from across different regional projects, and also sharing this learning with teammates to increase knowledge internally. Our ‘ATF playbook’ is designed to be a vital resource on how to replicate ATF delivery in other areas. Over the next twelve months, as we open our first PlayZone sites, we’ll also be able to gather further insights, feedback and learning about how these sites are being utilised and by local communities.

The Foundation will launch a pilot using a software solution in 2024. During this pilot the Foundation will start to assess its own procurement process to further understand where we are in terms of EDI before potentially extending this tool to our supply chain. The tool is designed to help organisations measure and manage sustainability against five themes - Climate, Environment, Social, Economic and Diversity and Inclusion.

✓ Complete Tackling inequalities measures are now in place within the performance framework

✓ Not started (this action is still due to be delivered on time)

Work is due to start on this action in 2024

✓ In Progress Ongoing throughout the duration of Together for Football

✓ In Progress Ongoing throughout the duration of Together for Football

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Action Progress

Build strong and mutually beneficial relations

Build relations with partner organisations and the banks we partner with to ensure these align with our own EDI strategy and work with them to improve our own knowledge and processes.

Our Finance Team has been in contact with HSBC and Barclays to discuss a number of topics including their position, plans and policies around EDI. Following these discussions both Barclays and HSBC have shared guidance documents with the Foundation so that we can further understand their approach to EDI and to learn from and advance our own approach where possible.

✓ In progress Ongoing throughout the duration of Together for Football

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Project development and assessment

▶ Update our project assessment matrix. Include detailed inclusivity questions based on measurable outcomes and tackling inequalities performance framework.

▶ Identify specific points in the end-to-end process in which to scrutinise EDI and tackling inequalities parameters.

▶ Review the terms and conditions of grant awards to stipulate clear EDI and governance related requirements and targets throughout the lifetime of a project. Update the project selection process to include targeted project-based EDI and tackling inequalities outputs and outcomes.

There is a strong working relationship between the Delivery Team and the Grant Assessment Team to ensure there is a strong focus to challenge and check how sites approach both community engagement and the performance of sites once they are operational.

A Delivery Manager and Grant Assessment Manager will attend a Pre-Opening Meeting with an applicant to provide a handover to the post award phase and to go through the expected outcomes and outputs relating to EDI and underrepresented groups.

The Grant Assessment Managers will then meet the site’s post opening within a 6-12 month period post opening and discuss a sites delivery of the outcomes and outputs and re-score how the project is delivering against this, which enables an evaluation and understanding of any changes. Any sites which have been identified as underperforming against the pre agreed measures, would then go into a phase of intervention and support.

The Foundation has looked to identify sites which can provide specific examples of best practice around the delivery of EDI and underrepresented groups to identify potential case studies, used to highlight the valuable work which can be achieved, sharing these examples with other applicants.

✓ In progress Ongoing throughout the duration of Together for Football

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Action ss

Development of our post award review process

Our post award review process makes sure that applicants and facilities are meeting their grant award objectives and bringing about measurable change. The process will be developed to ensure that EDI is at the heart of this process.

EDI is a topic covered as part of post award meetings with grant recipients. Sites are scored against a matrix to measure the impact they are having. Our Grant Assessment Team encourage recipients to continue community engagement once the site is operational. A full review of the Foundation’s post award function and process is currently underway and EDI considerations are currently being discussed as part of this review.

✓ In progress Ongoing throughout the duration of Together for Football

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Support grantees to understand inclusivity outcomes of facilitybased investment

Ensure occupational structures at facilities are inclusive and accessible.

Co-design principles firmly included within local community and users’ engagement

Ensuring safety, accessibility and an inclusive environment for all.

Develop engagement with user groups and potential applicants to further understand barriers to funding and participation.

Engage a diverse range of communities and seldom heard groups in the application process. Understand the current data and insight on applicant type.

Guidance has been developed to provide a snapshot of key considerations an applicant should be thinking about for their project. The Foundation has also produced specific guidance for Disability Football on 3G Football Turf Pitches and internal guidance for our team to use in discussions on creating Female Friendly Facilities.

Our Community Engagement Toolkit has been updated, housed digitally on our website and publicly available to anyone developing a Foundation application or operating sites. It helps to explain the principles of codesign and support applicants to undertake community engagement.

The Toolkit is focused on diversifying proposed users and/ or partners of a facility, rather than those directly receiving our investment.

An internal community of practice has been established to try and help build knowledge and understanding of good community engagement within the Foundations Grant Management team.

✓ In progress Some aspects of this work are complete and some will continue throughout the duration of Together for Football

✓ In progress Some aspects of this work are complete and some will continue throughout the duration of Together for Football

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Action Progress

Review the impact of the PlayZone Programme

Identify lessons from the programme and measure if the target audiences access the facilities.

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Review Sport England’s tackling inequalities impact from the multi-sport pitch capital programme

Identify any lessons that could be built into our grass pitch programme. Ensure our volunteer groundskeeper plan has inclusivity objectives included within it.

The Foundation is currently looking to bring in a research partner to analyse the impact of the first set of PlayZones.

✓ In progress Work is likely to be undertaken in 2024.

Work with and support the National Football Trust (NFT) and Leisure United (LU) to further align our approach to embedding EDI within the hubs programme. Align LU and NFT to the Code for Sports Governance and EDI principles. Ensure onsite teammates, users and any local steering groups reflect the communities the hubs serve. Ensure hubs EOI phase and site selections embrace community engagement from the outset.

Our aim has been to improve the quality of grass pitches in communities that are in most need and where the outcomes are greatest. Our approach has been twofold:

▶ Boost return to play post covid if there is evidence provided of lapsed participation in the locality and the development plan addresses this need.

▶ Increasing opportunities for at least one of the four Football Foundation priority audiences (women and girls, lower socioeconomic groups, people with disabilities and ethnically diverse communities)

Any applicant who now applies to our Grass Pitch Maintenance Fund (applicants will either be Rugby Union or Rugby League clubs) will have to demonstrate how they increase opportunities for our priority groups.

Discussions are underway between the Foundation and LU and work will continue throughout 2024-2025.

✓ In progress

Ongoing throughout the duration of Together for Football

✓ In progress

Work is likely to be undertaken in 2024.

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Action Progress

Identify gaps in applicant engagement

Create a digital strategy to target seldom heard groups and under represented areas, aiming to increase website engagement and applicants.

29 Share updates and progress on our EDI journey

Produce case studies and content achievements from EDI action plan externally. This will promote diversity and opportunities.

As part of our Public Affairs campaign which launched in December 2023, we’re targeting MPs across England and Local Authorities in the most deprived areas in England to highlight what opportunities are available in their area through their Local Plans.

Our Let’s Go 2024! Campaign highlighting all the funds available to clubs/orgs launched in January 2024. As part of this, we’re running a paid social campaign targeting seldom heard groups and underrepresented areas informing them what funding is available.

Teammates from the Grant Assessment Team have identified 30 potential case study leads. From the 177 sites visited in 2023, approximately 19% responded that the site had a possible case study to share.

Our Communications team have created 17 case studies this financial year, which covers all the diverse work we do and focuses on different communities in different areas across the country.

✓ In progress Ongoing throughout the duration of Together for Football

✓ In progress Ongoing throughout the duration of Together for Football

Action Progress

30 Improve engagement with events and campaigns Covering a wide range of EDI related topics, to raise awareness and ensure there are opportunities for teammates to engage internally as well as the external engagement.

The Foundation is a member of Inclusive Employers and as such gains access for teammates to a calendar of events and webinars for teammates to attend. Several of our teammates have embraced this opportunity for their personal learning and development and have attended these webinars and shared their insights with the wider team.

EDI is firmly on the agenda during all-team calls and gettogethers and we’ve seen new initiatives well supported –such as a new mentoring programme and volunteer days.

31 Focus on developing the charity element of our brand Compliance with Charity Commission and wider third sector recommendations on EDI. We have:

Increased number of charity titles on media list for coverage and campaign and secured coverage in these outlets.

Created an EDI page on our website where Together for Football is publicly available. Created a EDI film which has also been published on our website.

More collaborations with funding partners than ever before on external social channels for campaigns to ensure audiences know the Foundation’s status as their charity partner.

Working more closely with The FA internal comms team to highlight internally that we’re their charity.

We’ve entered our Active Through Football programme in the Tessa Jowell Social Impact Sport Industry Award. This award is for an organisation using sport as a vehicle to drive community change/development, diversity and inclusion through sport. We’ll continue to enter awards showcasing our work.

✓ In progress Ongoing throughout the duration of Together for Football

✓ In progress Ongoing throughout the duration of Together for Football

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Action Progress

Review content partnerships Work with our content partners to ensure our communications are inclusive, accessible and reflect the diverse communities we support.

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Develop and refresh the ‘Supporter programme’ to represent users and the wider work of the Football Foundation. Include facility managers, groundskeepers, coaches.

We’ve worked closely with Sported on the Community Engagement Toolkit to ensure the information reflects the diverse communities we support.

We’re implementing the information from our ‘Words Matter’- guidance document across our content to ensure we’re talking to people in an informed and engaging way.

A review is underway of our disability football offering that takes place across Football Foundation sites and we’ll be approaching potential supporters to develop authentic partnerships.

Throughout 2023, we have worked closely with the Lionesses to showcase the Foundation’s funding of facilities that support the women and girls game through our ‘Here to Play’ campaign and Lioness pitch openings.

We’ve deepened our relationship with groundskeeper supporters, developing campaigns that centre on the work they do.

✓ In progress

✓ In progress

Ongoing throughout the duration of Together for Football

Ongoing throughout the duration of Together for Football

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Action Progress

Promote our applicant/ scheme guidance documents widely Seek to understand what other guidance could be useful to applicants.

35 Review the website from an EDI perspective

Ensure the website is as accessible and userfriendly as possible.

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Create an EDI glossary of terms

This will be a quick reference guide for teammates to look up various terms related to EDI, to enable teammates to be confident in their use of language and terminology.

We’ve created the first set of automated applicant emails linking to guidance and ensuring everyone gets the same information. We’re currently working with our Finance Insight and Technology team to implement this first set of automated emails and we’ll continue to develop the next set of emails.

To support applicants in undertaking community engagement as part of their grant application, we’ve launched a Community Engagement Toolkit. The Toolkit is designed to help transform connections and relationships, enabling greater collaboration between facilities and local people. We’ve created a website news story informing people about the Toolkit and will continue to push this message on our social channels through specific posts and through strong Community Engagement case studies.

The new Support and Guidance section on our website is in development to launch Spring 2024.

We’re working with our website agency to review our website accessibility and will then look to implement any recommendations as a result.

Words Matter was published internally for the use of Foundation teammates in August 2023. This guide is designed to help teammates think more about the words we use and to steer us towards inclusive terminology.

✓ In progress Ongoing throughout the duration of Together for Football

✓ In progress Ongoing throughout the duration of Together for Football

✓ Complete N/A

FOOTBALL FOUNDATION TEAM DIVERSITY DATA

The Football Foundation is committed to improving the diversity of our workforce. We believe that diverse organisations are more likely to perform highly, in terms of resilience, creativity, problem solving and productivity. We want to be accountable, so the Foundation will report annually on our progress.

Our understanding of diversity goes beyond the nine protected characteristics, so as part of Together for Football we will commit to collecting data related to socio-economic background and caring responsibilities by March 2025.

‘The following data sets are snapshots in time accurate as of Oct 2022 and Oct 2023.

AGE

Age

The majority of teammates fall in the 27-37 age category with 38-48 being the second largest category. The smallest category is 60+. The Foundation is potentially underrepresented in terms of older workers (those over 50) when compared to the overall UK workforce which has 34.6% represented in the over 50 category, up from 21% in the early 1990s.

FOOTBALL FOUNDATION TEAM DIVERSITY

DATA

Ethnicity and cultural heritage

People from Black, Asian, Mixed and other Ethnic backgrounds

White Background

ETHNICITY AND CULTURAL HERITAGE

Overall, the data suggests that the Foundation is making positive strides towards greater ethnic and cultural diversity in its workforce. While there’s still room for further improvement, the increasing representation of minority groups is a commendable step towards creating a more inclusive and equitable work environment.

Recent data from the Chartered Management Institute’s Labour Force Survey shows that diverse ethnic groups make up 13% of the UK working population and 12% of UK managers, so the Foundation is broadly in line in terms of UK representation. However, more work will need to be carried out to understand whether teammates from diverse ethnic backgrounds are progressing through the Foundation at the same rate as their white counterparts.

The data shows: an increase in representation from Black, Asian, Mixed, and Other Ethnic Backgrounds: The percentage of teammates from these backgrounds grew to 12% from 6% doubling the percentage population over the course of a year.

*The Foundation recognises that particularly in terms of ethnicity and cultural heritage, that there is a breadth of cultural difference within the grouping. The category ‘People from Black, Asian, Mixed, Other ethnic background’ includes people from Asian, Asian British, Black, Black British, Caribbean, African, Mixed or Multi-ethnic backgrounds and people who selected the ‘any other ethnic group’ category.

‘The following

2022

People from Black, Asian, Mixed and other Ethnic backgrounds

White Background

We’re wholly committed to improving our diversity. We firmly believe that organisations with diverse workforces are more likely to perform highly in terms of resilience, creativity, and productivity. We want to be accountable, so we’ll report our progress annually and with full transparency.

Disability/Long-term health condition

Do you have a disability (as described under the Equality Act 2010 definition)?

DISABILITY / LONG

HEALTH CONDITION

The percentage of teammates choosing to disclose that they have a disability or long-term health condition has remained broadly the same in comparison to the previous year.

According to the 2021 UK census data, 23% of working-age adults reported having a disability in 2020-2021. This means that the Foundation is currently underrepresented in terms of teammates with disabilities. As part of the Foundation’s recent recruitment review, several actions have been identified and committed to, which aim to increase the number of candidates with a disability or impairment applying for roles at the Foundation, and also to make the recruitment process more inclusive and accessible to disabled candidates specifically.

The Foundation asks teammates to define their disability status based on the Equality Act 2010 definition

Please note: Due to rounding, some totals may not correspond with the sum of the separate figures

Yes Do you have a disability (as described under the Equality Act 2010 definition)?

FOOTBALL FOUNDATION TEAM

DIVERSITY DATA

Gender

In real terms, these charts represent a relatively small number change as a twopercentage point shift is not significant when considering the small data set. In summary, the gender make-up of the Foundation hasn’t changed significantly between Oct 2022 and Oct 2023.

GENDER

The data shows:

▶ Marginal increase in male teammates (+2%) from 63% to 65% representation.

▶ Slight decrease in female teammates (-2%) from 37% to 35% representation.

▶ Overall, the change in terms of gender representation within the Foundation is minimal, and due to the Foundation’s relatively small size the change itself represents a small number of people leaving and joining the organisation within the duration of a year.

Female Male

Prefer to identify any other way = 0%

‘The following data sets are snapshots in time accurate as of Oct 2022 and Oct 2023.

Male

Female

Prefer to identify any other way = 0%

FOOTBALL FOUNDATION TEAM DIVERSITY DATA

Sexual orientation

Heterosexual

Prefer not to say LGB

Please note: Due to rounding, some totals may not correspond with the sum of the separate figures

The two data sets are almost identical in real terms. There is little, to no change in terms of the total number of teammates within each group.

According to 2021 census data:

▶ The population of 92.5% of respondents aged 16 or over answered the census question related to sexual orientation, while the remaining 7.5% chose not to.

SEXUAL ORIENTATION

▶ 89.4% of respondents identified as straight or heterosexual.

▶ Around 1.5 million people (3.2%) identified as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or another sexual orientation (LGB+).

▶ A further 0.3% (165,000) people identified with a different sexual orientation.

▶ The most common ‘other’ orientations given in the write-in box were: pansexual (112,000 people), asexual (28,000 people), and queer (15,000 people)3.

Unfortunately, The Office for National Statistics (ONS) does not directly provide data on the percentage of economically active people in the UK who identify as LGB (lesbian, gay, or bisexual). This is because the economic activity question (employed, unemployed, economically inactive) in the UK census is not linked to the voluntary question on sexual orientation. This means that we cannot make a direct comparison with UK working age/economically active population sizes to the Foundation data sizes.

The data shows:

▶ Minimal to no shift between 2022 and 2023 data sets.

▶ The percentage of people within the Foundation’s LGB grouping (12%) is higher than the UK 2021 population census data (3.2%).

▶ The number of teammates who preferred not to say is lower than 10 individuals.

*Due to rounding, the 2022 total did not correspond to the sum of the separate figures, meaning the total was 99% as opposed to 100%.

*The Foundation is aware of the diversity of the LGB group and the differences in experiences between groups. i.e. gay men and gay women and aims to report groups separately when individual group sizes are large enough in terms of people to report whilst protecting anonymity (more than ten individuals per group).

3: ‘2021 census: What do we know about the LGBT+ population?’ – House of Commons Library 2023

Heterosexual

Prefer not to say LGB

The Foundation has committed to collecting data on its Board and Panel members by March 2025. Currently the Foundation collects and reports leadership data for members of our Senior Management Team and the Management Group. This group is currently under representative of the UK census population data in all diversity categories measured.

LONG TERM HEALTH CONDITIONS

LEADERSHIP GENDER

LEADERSHIP SEXUAL ORIENTATION Leadership

White Background

People from Black, Asian, Mixed and other Ethnic backgrounds

White Background

People from Black, Asian, Mixed and other Ethnic backgrounds