The Directors present their report, forming part of the full Director’s Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2024.
Please note this is an excerpt from the full Directors’ Report and Annual Accounts. The full report can be found here (coming soon).
For the year ending March 2024, British Fencing (BF) continued to make progress on our strategic objectives, which we report on below for our members, funding partners and stakeholders.
Our vision is for a strong, successful, and sustainable fencing community with a mission to inspire and enable people to start, stay and succeed in fencing underpinned by our core values of honesty, respect, and excellence.
Our strategic objectives remain:
To deliver our objectives the Board prioritises and monitors, through agreed performance indicators, seven strategic areas:
1. Leadership, Culture and Governance
The Board continue to support the executive team in furthering the BF values of Honesty, Respect and Excellence, on which our culture is built.
Portfolio responsibilities for Board Directors have increased in accordance with the Governance Code, with Directors leading in key areas including Anti-Doping, Safeguarding, Safety and Welfare, Environmental Sustainability and Equality.
Safeguarding, safety and welfare remains a priority and the Board remain committed to supporting the executive team as they ensure clubs and coaches meet minimum mandated standards if they wish to be part of our community. The Board re-iterated it’s commitment to dis-affiliate clubs that are unable to meet the minimum standards that is expected from National Governing Body clubs.
The Board approved a new consolidated Code of Conduct covering all organisations and individuals involved in fencing, with additional codes for athletes representing GBR and their coaches. This was supported by a new Disciplinary Code which sets out how code of conduct breaches will be dealt with.
The Board notes that of the two areas highlighted in 2023 which required action to fully comply with the recently revised UK Code for Sports Governance, the People Plan has been drafted and reviewed, leaving an external Board evaluation to be performed by the incoming Chair.
It remains our aim to be a well-run National Governing Body taking a proportionate, best practice approach to implementation according to this code.
During the year to 1st April 2024 there were the following changes to the BF Board:
Stepped Down
Appointed
2. Sustainability and Core Services
Financial sustainability remains important to us and our aim is to set and meet a broadly balanced budget each year.
The Board authorised a budgeted deficit of (coming soon) for 2023-24 and we achieved a result similar to budget with a deficit of (coming soon) The Board continue to monitor financial management and risk through the AGRC chaired by Jade Clarke.
Commercial revenue increased by (coming soon). As costs continue to materially increase across the organisation in part due to increasing supplier costs and inflation, increasing commercial revenues is vital to fund our core NGB activity of supporting and growing the sport of fencing.
Commercial revenues continue to come from three main sources; coach education, licensing of the BF brand and our We Are Forging Futures programme – a comprehensive programme of inclusive, engaging and immersive learning experiences designed for 4-14 year-olds based on fencing.
3. Membership & Club Support
Membership income is the foundation to build a financially resilient organisation that can deliver better services to members and clubs and by the end of the financial year, membership numbers returned to pre-Covid levels.
Our policy that BF membership is required for all participants in affiliated clubs and licensed events remains in place. Knowing who is participating in our sport and understanding more about them is also vital for us (and competition organisers and club administrators) to deliver appropriate and relevant services to individuals whilst ensuring that everyone participating in fencing in any capacity is covered by insurance.
Membership income for the year came in at (coming soon) (compared to £386,615 in 2022-23). (Coming soon) of this was paid on to the Home Country Associations (compared to £152,918 in 2022-23) leaving (coming soon) available to BF to support delivery of those services.
England Fencing continue to fund a Development Officer for Clubs and Regions and contribute to the cost of safeguarding case management in England.
4. GBR Athlete Support & Development
The GBR Pathway Programme is a six weapon athlete development programme (formally known as the ADP) that exists to support athletes in achieving Olympic and Paralympic success and inspiring others.
It covers athletes from age 15 to 35 (and beyond for those performing at Olympic and Paralympic level) who are moving through a defined development pathway to success at the highest level of fencing.
The GBR Pathway Programme is founded on the strategic principles of fencer-centred, development-driven, competition-supported.
The Wheelchair Fencing World Class Programme is currently operated by UKSI and funded directly by UK Sport, whereas the BF GBR Pathway Programme provides aligned talent pathway activities funded by Sport England. BF and UKSI work together to ensure that the wheelchair fencing athlete pathway experience is joined up.
Funding sources for our GBR Pathway work included England DiSE, Sport England ‘Talent‘ and UK Sport Progression.
Notable Results – The majority of the season’s major championships and the official end of season fall just outside the financial year however the results are the culmination of the hard work that is done throughout the year.
The 2024 Major Championships delivered multiple medals and the following champions:
5. Insight led, participant centred Projects and Programmes
In 2023-24 our portfolio of project and programmes, majority funded by Sport England, saw us continue to work with partners and stakeholders to support deliver of fencing in targeted communities:
Initiatives include the rollout of workforce continuous professional development (CPD) training and increasing the quality and quantity of wheelchair fencing opportunities through loaned equipment and the design of a revolutionary new seated fencing ‘jigsaw’ chair which will make introductory level seated fencing far cheaper and accessible to all with mobility issues.
Work also continues to support ongoing demand for fencing inclusion in Scout groups with the Scouts Association.
These projects continue to make a measurable difference to a range of communities. These underpin our belief that fencing can and should be a sport that is accessible to all, increasing exposure of more people to the benefits of sport and physical activity as well as improved mental wellbeing.
In addition to the above the BF team continue to work with schools and clubs to help them access local and national funding opportunities to support delivery of fencing to under-represented communities. This includes supporting schools to access funding to deliver the We Are Forging Futures programme. As at 31st March, 36 schools across England are delivering this programme, 33 (92%) of which are state schools and 13 (36%) are in the top third most deprived areas of England.
6. Events, Competitions and Calendars
As in 2022-23, the events portfolio continued to face challenges due to the impact of cost increases and inflation throughout 2023-24. Accommodation, travel, catering and venue costs continued to rise significantly, as forecasted in early 2023. The shortage of suitable venues for our larger competitions shows no signs changing and is an issue affecting indoor sports as a whole. Adapting to a continually moving international calendar is also a challenge and finding available venues on suitable dates that work for all eligible competitors is a near impossible task. The result of all these factors is a set of compromises and in many cases limited choice and options.
The BF Board remain committed to delivering a financially sustainable portfolio of British Championships delivering a high quality experience with internationally qualified referees, high quality equipment, armourers,
The BF Entry Fee Support Scheme continues to support fencers from lower socio economic groups (LSEG) free entry to BF run events.
British Fencing retains it’s stated ambition to run international events, provided they are affordable and do not result in unsustainable financial losses for the organisation.
With the support of UK Sport, the National Lottery, Sport Wales, Welsh Government along with Disability Sport Wales and Welsh Fencing, the first BF run Wheelchair Fencing World Cup took place in Cardiff, Wales. It saw over 180 athletes from 30 countries come together in Cardiff for four days of intense competition at the very highest level, helping to secure qualification slots for our GBR Paralympic squad.
7. Coaching & Workforce Development
Coach learning, development and education continues to be supported and delivered through a combination of BF led delivery and licensed education partners.
Course delivery numbers were broadly in line with prior year.
Our second annual Learning Week was delivered through a series of webinars on several subjects across the coaching domains, Community, Development, and Performance; feedback included a desire for more informal continuous opportunities which will be explored through 2024-25 season.
Continuous build and improvement of our on-line content continues; it is anticipated that this will enhance and link to our formal course offer and include bespoke content to support our Licensed Partners. We continue to invest in upgrading courses and creating new tools to support existing coaches working in different environments, using the insight and feedback from our projects and programmes.
Demand for training from community projects and partners continues to grow rapidly, requiring a larger workforce to train up people to coach, train and deliver fencing in their local communities. This demand is being addressed through the creation of a new Fencing Development Team in 2024-25 which will work across all areas of the sport, including affiliated clubs.
British Fencing took a leading role in establishing ‘Combat Club’ which saw 50+ coaches from across 4 combat sports come together to share learning. The ability of this programme to create improved connectedness of the coaching community across combat sports will help our coaching community to grow stronger and has also been well received by other NGBs and UK Sport as an example of cross sector working.
In Closing
Overall, the Board is pleased with progress this year and would like to thank all the staff at BF for their hard work. We also thank all those that work with us across the sport and the wider sector including our funding partners, helping us to grow the sport and deliver opportunities for people to start, stay and succeed in fencing.
As always a massive thanks must go to all the volunteers in fencing for their ongoing commitment in support of our sport.
As at 31.03.2024, 45% of the occupied Director positions are women (5 of 11) and 55% are men.
As at 31.03.2024, 27% of the occupied Director positions are ethnically diverse (3 of 11) and 18% are Black (2 of 11).
The Board met its targets in respect of gender diversity (minimum 30% of either gender) and other identified protected diversity characteristics. The Board continues to work towards maintaining gender diversity and increasing ethnic diversity, representation from young people, and people with disabilities.
As at 31st March 2024, 2/4 members (50%) of the BF Senior Executive Team with senior leadership responsibilities were women.
The Code for Sports Governance sets out the levels of transparency, diversity and inclusion, accountability and integrity that are required from those organisations who seek – and are in receipt of – UK Government and National Lottery funding from Sport England and/or UK Sport.
In 2022 an external appointed auditor completed a governance review on behalf of Sport England and UK Sport confirming BF compliance to the Code.
The Board regularly reviews compliance status against the Tier 3 requirements. Much of the work to remain compliant is embedded into the work programme of the Board and policies and activities are reviewed and performed in accordance with the annual Board work programme.
Further to the 2022 audit, the Code for Sports Governance has been updated and there remains one outstanding area for the organisation to address:
4.3 The Board shall undertake an externally facilitated evaluation of the Board at least every four years, or at the request of UK Sport/Sport England
With regards to the cost of this evaluation and a new Chair to be appointed in 2024 it was felt that this review would be of most value once the new Chair was in role.
Click here for the full 2023-24 Annual Report.
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