We are delighted to announce the fantastic news that at the end of last year, St Albans Hockey Club achieved ClubMark accreditation. We are now one of a select number of hockey clubs across England to have been awarded this accreditation.  
 
ClubMark is a cross-sport accreditation scheme for community clubs that has raised the standards of delivery, welfare and programmes within clubs.
 
Achieving ClubMark is an important step in ensuring our club operates to a set of core criteria and has good practices in place, so we can deliver quality hockey in a sustainable and positive club environment.
 
The Leadership and Management team started to implement plans for this accreditation in early 2020 (we were hindered in our process due to COVID-19).  John Garner, Head of Club Hockey and Becky Turner, CEO are delighted that everyone’s hard work, dedication and focus to achieve ClubMark has been recognised. The club also benefits from having a robust leadership and management structure and policies and processes for us to build on. A very special thanks goes to Anne Hoitink who, on behalf of the club, has led on us achieving the accreditation and worked closely with England Hockey and key members of the Management Team and Board to provide the supporting evidence required. 
 
Club Mark is awarded for three years and we will continue to monitor and develop to ensure we are prepared for reaccreditation.  
 
The benefits of a hockey club completing ClubMark include:
·  providing a clear focus and vision
·  ensuring a safe environment for all club members
·  opportunity to grow club membership through adoption of club development plan
·  a pre-requisite to becoming an England Hockey accredited talent centre
·  opportunities to tap into wider benefits.
 
Achieving ClubMark is a requirement for us to gain Talent Centre accreditation which we intend to achieve by the end of this year. Talent Centre accreditation recognises the quality of a club’s talent development environment, provision, structure and design. The accreditation focuses on each club player’s development: it starts with our youth players aged 12-15, follows their transition into adult hockey, and encompasses our adult players’ environment too. It will be a very positive step if we can achieve it.  We are extremely proud of the coaching and development that we provide in our club and are grateful to Lucy Briscoe and Julia Hutchinson, who are leading on this project.  If you would like to get involved in the work to achieve this, we would be very grateful for your support and time as we are keen to achieve this within the required timescales.

More information about ClubMark and Talent Centre accreditation can be found here:
 
https://www.englandhockey.co.uk/deliver/running-a-club/clubmark
 
https://www.englandhockey.co.uk/play/talent-system/talent-centres
 
If you would like to get involved in any of the activities mentioned in this article or would like to volunteer for any small or large role in the club, please contact the CEO: https://www.stalbanshc.co.uk/contact
 
Once again a very big thank you to everyone who has been involved in ensuring that we achieve this accreditation and enabling us to work towards the Talent Centre Accreditation.