League Development Officer, Gary Langley gives us an update on the latest goings on with regards to the Development Plan and explains how the process of submitting the plan has gone in this key week. Last Wednesday marked the official deadline of submissions to the FA for League Development Plans, up and down the country Development Officers stress levels raise as the clamour to get the documentation in place hots up.
“Yes, it’s safe to say it has been a hectic couple of weeks. I have been working on the Development Plan since the start of June and arguably since before that with some preparation going in for the schemes.
It all started with an initial template, we have to formulate a Development plan of items that then go to the FA, we have a meeting somewhere on the parish and they decide based on our plan how much Development Funding that we get. These things are not a gimmie, you have to make a solid case for the funding and justify every penny that you are asking for so you need to be ambitious but realistic in what you can achieve.
I got together an initial plan which I then spoke to a few people in the game about, we have a new format in the plan this year, the FA have seven specific categories:
- Developing the League
- Sustain & Increase Participation
- Player Development (Environment)
- Player Development (Coaching)
- The Football Workforce
- Improved Playing & Training facilities
- County FA Support
Under these categories there are a number of slots for schemes, Developments and initiatives that we as a League state we are willing to do or commit to, so it’s essential that when we look at a plan for the future, that we are clear about what options we have, what we can do and that all of course depends on funding. I wouldn’t describe it as a vicious circle but obviously in order to spend money you need it in the first place!
Without revealing too many items we have a number of initiatives we are looking at. We are looking to assist clubs with Grant awareness, so we will be looking at workshops hosted by us and the County FA’s to point clubs in the direction of funding sources. Coaching workshops feature in there as well as the formal creation of the U23 Development League, this for us is one of our big ticket items as we know there is a strong demand for it and we are not going to shy away from our commitment to it.
FA Coaching workshops feature in our plan as well as club administration & media workshops as we are aware of the fact that the Secretary role is akin to a full-time job, so whilst there is no quick fix on that at the moment, we can assist with expertise, tips and support for succession training and backup training in roles.
We will continue to support clubs with supplementing the cost of ground grading visits, as well as working with The Fan Experience Company to enter more clubs into the Grow Your Club initiative which has received positive feedback from clubs whom have already participated in it.
We are committed to continuing the Division One Play-offs as well as doing a feasibility study into splitting or regionalising the Division. That is only a commitment to looking at the logistics of it at this early stage not a nod to do it!
We have been keen advocates of the FA’s Respect Campaign and of course our commitment to that continues and is strengthened so we look forward to a number of schemes continuing and starting under that banner.
They are just a few selected items, hopefully there will be something for everyone.
The Draft Development Plan was then circulated around the League Committee and the Clubs for feedback and input. The plan is a live document so if a club felt passionately about a specific scheme we are open to ideas and would insert it. We received feedback from a small number of clubs, which is appreciated and the Management Committee also debated the plan at great length.
The final say goes to the County FA as their support is vital to us, especially given the number of co-operation items that we are looking to do with the County FA’s. So this week I have been running around in person as well as sending a large amount of emails to get that in place.
The FA’s have been very supportive of our plans and for this we are grateful, I would like to think that they can see what we are trying to do and with their support and with a, hopefully successful funding application we can build on the work we have been carrying out in recent years.
What happens next is we will get a date for later in the month and then we will go and have our chat with the FA, then when the dust settles, we will get tucked into the plan agenda.”
Development Plan Update