ANNUAL REPORT 2020 / 21 01 CONTENTS CHAIR FOREWORD Chair Foreword 01 The global COVID-19 pandemic has continued to darken the door of the wonderful sport of netball for a second season. We collectively send our Welsh Netball Board 02 deepest condolences to all that have suffered loss in our netball family Annual Report 2020 / 21 COVID-19 Impact 03 during this truly awful time. CEO Summary 04 Welsh Netball has battled with reduced funding caused by the impact of the pandemic which led to the reduction of our staffing levels and it was with a Community 08 very heavy heart that we had to lose colleagues from the National Governing Body at this incredibly difficult time. Elsewhere, our international squads Workforce Development 10 have been starved of competition. Our athletes and management teams Performance Summary 12 are working hard to ensure that we maintain our World Ranking position for the forthcoming Commonwealth Games qualification deadline, and are Wales Seniors 14 ready for the World Netball Cup qualifiers thereafter. The Superleague has Celtic Dragons 16 been a challenging time for the Celtic Dragons who have fought hard this season and left everything out there on the court. I would like to say a big Communications 18 thank you to Tania Hoffman who returns home to New Zealand at the end Acknowledgements & Partners 20 of the season. Wales’ elite umpires have also done a fantastic job on the Superleague court, showing what they can offer, with great strength and depth now coming through in their ranks. We are slowly emerging out of the darkness of COVID-19 and the community game is ready to bounce back. We must continue to support netball in all our regions to ensure that the facilities that we fought so hard to retain are kept and developed further. COVID-19 is a huge threat to netball in Wales as participation in sport is impacted by this global health crisis and women have felt the impact significantly. It will be for Welsh Netball, led by our CEO Sarah Jones, to work together to survive this crisis and help the game emerge into a prosperous future. Finally, I would like to wish a heartfelt thank you to everyone in the netball family in Wales from our Board of Directors through to the grassroots volunteers keeping our wonderful game going in such difficult times. Catherine Lewis, Chair Welsh Netball www.welshnetball.com 02 COVID-19 IMPACT 03 WELSH NETBALL BOARD 2020/21 45.7 65 DECREASE IN DECREASE IN MEMBERS MEMBERSHIP INCOME President Merle Hamilton Vice-President Sheila Cooksley 3 Annual Report 2020 / 21 Vice-President Wendy Pressdee BEM COVID-19 Chair Catherine Lewis LOCKDOWNS Vice-Chair Cath Hares STAFF TEAM DECREASE Elected Director (Performance) Julia Longville WELSH Elected Director (Development) Melanie Hellerman GOVERNMENT COVID-19 Elected Director (Compliance and Engagement) Carol Anthony 22 REVIEW 1,400 PERIODS Appointed Director (Finance and Risk) Mike Bobbett Appointed Director (Commercial) Kerry McDonald 14 Appointed Director (Policy & Governance) Rhian Edwards INTRODUCTION OF REGULAR ATTENDEES 6 Appointed Director (HR) Zoe Grainger LEAGUE IN ONLINE MEETINGS AND ENGAGEMENT SESSIONS Appointed Director (Legal) Vacant CLUB FORUMS Appointed Director (IT & Digital) Vacant Appointed Director (Communications & Marketing) Lowri Williams CANCELLATION OF 2021 NETBALL 14 WORLD YOUTH CUP MONTHS TELEVISED/ WITHOUT STREAMED CELTIC COMPETITIVE DRAGONS GRASSROOTS GAMES NETBALL www.welshnetball.com 04 05 CEO SUMMARY CEO SUMMARY Welsh Netball has seen its share of highs and over the last year. Despite not always having has had to absorb a significant financial cost We have had to review and consider changing lows in its 76-year history, but this year has access to their elite training environments, over the last year. Being unable to play the sport government guidelines, analyse medical data, been one like no other. What began as a news they have nevertheless maintained the highest we love has been a challenge for us all, and so engage with the wider sport sector and ensure Annual Report 2020 / 21 story about a new virus confined to one corner standards and remained dedicated to the pursuit the focus of our year centred around ‘protect, robust and transparent practices and risk of China quickly developed into one of this of netball excellence. Finally, I would like to prepare and prevail’, ensuring that we stay mitigations over the last year. We have also century’s most significant and impactful events. thank the Welsh Netball staff and Board team. safe, follow the guidelines and come out of the undertaken extensive training with our members The global Coronavirus pandemic has touched The work of our people has placed netball in pandemic in a strong place, ready to take the to ensure knowledge and support was provided all of our lives and had an impact on every facet an excellent position to emerge all the stronger sport forward as restrictions are lifted. to all that needed it. The challenge of doing of our society. Netball has been no exception from the pandemic. Our small team has adapted this in a very uncertain environment was real, The restrictions in our sport resulted in and the economic, social and technological well to changing circumstances and has used the but every decision we made was with the significant losses in revenue with income from consequences of the pandemic will continue to pandemic to innovate and develop opportunities best interests of our participants at heart. membership alone reducing by 65%. Commercial be felt by our sport in years to come. For now, for growth. As an organisation, we will be in a This has remained at the core thread of our revenue streams were ceased and commercial it is time to reflect on the year past and celebrate better place to serve our members and grow decision-making as we navigated our way contracts have been renegotiated significantly our sport’s resilience in the face of a true our sport than ever before as we look to live by through the pandemic. impacting our self-generated income streams. existential threat. The story of the pandemic’s our new values of ‘inspire, aspire, respect and As an organisation we took bold steps to try to Understandably, our number of affiliated effect on netball has not yet been fully told, but connect.’ These values will underpin our new absorb as much as we could and to mitigate members has been reduced this year, but we we can certainly reflect on its opening chapters. strategic direction when it is launched. risk and reduce our operating costs, and we are extremely grateful to those who have I would like to begin by paying tribute to those Before providing an overview of our activity achieved this by reducing these costs to the bare continued with their membership of Welsh who have helped our sport survive this testing over the last year, it is important that I detail the minimum and through utilising the government’s Netball during the pandemic. Our ‘Membership year. First of all, I would like to extend my thanks impact that COVID-19 has had on our sport. Our Job Retention Scheme. We wanted to ensure Matters’ and UK-wide #TogetherWeAreNetball to the netball community. The last year has seen community game has been severely affected and when we asked for additional support, we were campaigns were integral to this as we sought us miss out on opportunities to be with our loved with the exception of some limited netball last only asking for what was absolutely necessary. to showcase how our members help netball to ones and to enjoy our team sport, which thrives summer, it has only been the last few months Through the help of Sport Wales and Welsh grow, thrive and touch the lives of women and on us being together. The netball community has that have seen netball clubs return to court Government, additional funding was received girls across the country. I also am proud to say made great use of technology to keep connected once again. The same goes for our international via the Sport Resilience Fund, Sport and Leisure that Welsh Netball has used the profile and and has been hugely patient as we have adapted teams who have missed out on opportunities for Recovery Fund and the Winter Spectator power of our sport to support important to ever-changing rules to get back on court. We elite competition. As a result, our membership Sports Fund which in conjunction with our own social campaigns over the last year, including are also grateful for club engagement with our numbers for the last twelve months have seen mitigations, covered our financial losses and Black History Month. It is important we Return to Play processes and the mass adoption a substantial decrease, with 5,117 members protected our reserves as much as possible. play a prominent role in social campaigns of our #NetsGetReady accreditation. This has being affiliated to Welsh Netball this year. This We have also been able to carry forward the as we look to represent the entirety allowed our sport to return in as safe a way as marks a 45.7% decrease on our numbers from funding of our performance programme so that of our netball community. possible. Secondly, I would like to pay tribute to 2019/20. This, along with reduced commercial we can immediately resume our programmes as the work of our dedicated athletes and coaches opportunities has meant that our organisation soon as we are able. www.welshnetball.com 06 07 CEO SUMMARY CEO SUMMARY We have worked hard to serve the netball association and league meetings, which have disappointed upon learning it will not be taking go on to flourish.