Female Hockey Development Plan “The Girls Project”

Introducton

Female has seen huge growth over recent years with initatves such as Sport England’s 'This Girl Can’ campaign, which clearly show an opportunity to expand female sports in the UK.

Internatonally, female partcipaton numbers have seen a huge increase. Between 2007 and 2018 the number of registered female players worldwide grew from 153,665 to 205,674. Women’s hockey is on the rise in almost every part of the world and there are teams in North America, Europe, Asia, Oceania, Africa and Latn America.

Top level spectator fgures in the United Kingdom () increased again during the 2019/20 season with a 6.8% increase on the previous season, with the average atendance ranking 8th in Europe.

Despite the upwards trend in female hockey globally, female partcipaton in a large number of Britsh sports and the increased spectator numbers, female ice hockey partcipaton in the United Kingdom has remained constant.

This ambitous plan outlines the current state of female hockey within the United Kingdom along with changes needed to capitalise on exponental growth across the female game, helping the sport to grow and become sustainable.

Where are we now?

The female hockey pathway is currently delivered across three natonal governing bodies, the Internatonal Ice Hockey Federaton (IIHF), Ice Hockey UK (IHUK) and the English Ice Hockey Associaton (EIHA). The IIHF have overall responsibility for delivery of World Championships and Olympic Competton for ice hockey. They have also launched a series of development initatves for female hockey across the globe including: High Performance Camps, the World Girls Ice Hockey Weekend and the Girls Global Game.

Ice Hockey UK are responsible for the female Great Britain programme which includes a Great Britain Senior Team and a Great Britain U18’s team.

The English Ice Hockey Associaton is responsible for all (six) female domestc leagues for both seniors and juniors, which consists of 35 teams from 21 female clubs. The EIHA are also responsible for the inital stages of the performance programme, including team England, Conference programmes and the Power of 10 initatve. As part of the associaton’s development agenda, it looks afer recreatonal and university hockey as well as providing educaton for coaches, volunteers and on-ice ofcials.

During the 2019/20 there was 1,490 registered females across the sport. This includes the registraton data for WNIHL league players, junior players, university players, on-ice ofcials and educaton programme registratons. The numbers for recreatonal hockey are not currently included.

The breakdown of female registratons is as follows: Secton WNIHL & Junior University Educaton On-Ice Ofcials Recreatonal No. registered 918 307 310 31 TBC *There are 76 duplicate registratons across multple sectons. Where do we want to be? The English Ice Hockey Associaton aims to provide world leading female hockey programmes, raising the profle of the female game, increasing partcipaton, driving the female game forwards and providing opportunites for females to achieve their potental across the female hockey pathway. Initally, we will look to collaborate with Ice Hockey UK, Scotsh Ice Hockey UK, Britsh Universites Ice Hockey Associaton and EIHA Rec ensuring our vision for female hockey is replicated natonwide. We will then look to develop partnerships with the Internatonal Ice Hockey Federaton, Sport England’s ‘This Girl Can’ campaign, Women in Sport and other key stakeholders in female sport. Through increased partcipaton and additonal opportunites for female players, competton across the female hockey pathway will be increase ensuring players, volunteers and on-ice ofcials can achieve their potental. Finally, the project will aim to ensure long term sustainable growth, providing all clubs with the knowledge and skills to create development plans, fnancial plans as well as supportng them to improve their stability. The four main aims of the ‘GIRLS Project’ are: 1. Ensure all areas of the female hockey pathway are working collaboratvely to achieve a shared vision 2. Raise awareness of female hockey throughout the United Kingdom. 3. Increase female partcipaton across all areas of Ice Hockey, this includes but not limited to: a. Players b. Ofcials c. Coaches d. Manager e. Support Staf f. Media g. Volunteers 4. Improve the stability and succession planning across the female pathway. The main objectves: GROW - Increase awareness of female ice hockey across the United Kingdom 1. Increase WNIHL twiter following to 2,500 followers by the end of 2021/22 2. Introduce a WNIHL Facebook page, with 2,500 likes by end of 2021/22 3. Design, create and implement social media training for clubs

INSPIRE - Inspire females of all ages, skill sets and knowledge to partcipate in ice hockey 1. Publish weekly inspiratonal stories around people involved in ice hockey 2. Create an ice hockey myth buster to remove barriers to partcipaton 3. Launch a UK wide group of 50 role models from all areas of the sport

RECRUIT - Increase the number of females involved across all areas of ice hockey 1. Launch an annual ‘Female Hockey Development Day’ 2. Launch a ‘volunteer' programme, with online training and discussions 3. Each region (North, Midlands, South East & South West) to deliver 5 recruitment initatves annually.

LEAD - Equip clubs with the skills and knowledge to deliver the GIRLS message 1. Launch a ‘GIRLS’ champion initatve 2. Create online guidance for clubs to deliver the GIRLS message 3. Deliver online planning workshops for club leaders to develop sustainable plans

SUCCEED - Provide opportunites for females to achieve their potental across the sport 1. Simplify the female pathway to cover all aspects of the sport, to include Coaches, Managers, Ofcials, Players, Of-Ice Staf, Commitee Members 2. Develop additonal compettons across the player pathway, to include development cup, 3 v 3, U16’s natonal competton. 3. Celebrate the collaboraton, growth and development of female hockey across the UK. Object Acton Plan Due Date Responsibili KPI’s ve ty

Establish a GIRLS secton on the EIHA website - Create page Secton of the EIHA designs website established All - Develop content - Publish page Bring together a project team across all areas of the sport, led Project team All by the WNIHL league management group formalised Present project plan to EIHA board for approval Board presentaton All completed & proposal approved

Present project plan to key stakeholders across the sport: - Informaton delivered Educaton Programme to all sectons and - Ofcials feedback collated All - University - Recreaton - Performance Programme (Conference, ENTP & Team GB) - JLMC Present the project plan to WNIHL clubs and collate feedback WNIHL clubs sign All agreement to support initatve

Design and Implement female partcipaton surveys: - Female Survey data All partcipants presented - Female clubs/teams

Outline reportng and monitoring procedure: - Social media Reportng procedures tracking (weekly report) established - Partcipaton numbers (Quarterly) Reports completed All - Budget & fnancial reportng (Quarterly) - Survey data (Annual) - ‘Odd Balls’ Player of the month partcipaton (Monthly) Establish partnerships with key stakeholders: - Sport England - Formal partnerships This Girl Can formed with key stakeholders - Women in Sport All - IIHF - IHUK - SIH-UK Write and implement a UK-wide female ice hockey social Twiter = 2.5k media strategy: Facebook = 2.5k Grow - To include a shared annual calendar with all stakeholders - Allow clubs the opportunity to add to the calendar - Develop project branding guidelines Embed the GIRLS message in the EIHA & IHUK media and GIRLS message communicatons strategy embedded in the Grow EIHA communicaton plan Create set of standards for female clubs (Gold, Silver & WNIHL media Grow Bronze) - Review annually with new social media standards produced developments Object Acton Plan Due Date Responsibili KPI’s ve ty Design and create a club social media training-programme/ Training programme guidance: developed • Writng a match report Grow • Creatng basic graphics • The use of hash tags • Linking to the GIRLS message and WNIHL media Deliver online social media training to clubs Successful delivery - Grow • Queston & Answer Sessions 20 Sign up. • Overview of expectatons Create a shared space for teams/clubs to upload photo and Shared space Grow video content for other clubs to use launched with restricted access Create a media contact list for all female clubs Contact list Grow established & distributed Increase entries for the player of the Develop the ‘OddBalls’ player of the month scheme: month scheme 1. Online entry form for fans, players and clubs Grow 2. Shortlist by WLMG Increased Online vote to pick the winner engagement on social media Weekly ‘Team in Grow Launch a ‘Team in focus’ campaign across the season Focus’ across all WNIHL platorms Launch an annual publicity campaign, linking to the IIHF Grow World Girls Ice Hockey Weekend, Girls Global Game and Annual publicity stunt Internatonal Women’s Day Create a female hockey ambassador scheme across the UK, Online registraton atractng females from all areas of the game to get involved: process established • Set up an online registraton form 52 ambassadors • Create ambassador profles online (EIHA website) signed up by end of Inspire • Launch a weekly ‘Ambassador in Focus’ post year 1 Lead Weekly ‘Ambassador in Focus’ posts across all WNIHL media channels Create a ‘Guide to Female Hockey’, informing people of the range of opportunites for females throughout the game: Detailed guide Inspire • Detailed female hockey pathway created and published • Performance pathway explained online • Hockey for life (exit routes highlighted) ‘Myth buster’ created Create a female hockey ‘myth buster’ available to view online: and published online • Complete a survey of players, families and friends to Weekly ‘Myth busted’ Inspire fnd out ‘myths’ posts across all • Publish all myths on the EIHA website (GIRLS - pages) WNIHL media • Weekly social pushes on myths being busted! channels Object Acton Plan Due Date Responsibili KPI’s ve ty Partnership Create a partnership with all sectons to develop inspiraton established with all stories around female success: areas of the female • ENTP, Team GB, GBU, BUIHA, EIHA Rec, IHUK game, agreement Inspire Ofcials, EIHA Educaton Programme (Plus others) signed • Create a procedure for easily sharing the Simple informaton informaton (Online form) sharing procedure established Launch a female hockey development day Female hockey day • Girls hockey taster session launched Recruit • Skills development session 300 partcipants in Lead Ofciatng course total across the • Coaching course diferent initatves • Club ofcial development Deliver four annual ‘Girls Hockey Day’ events - North, South Four annual events Recruit East, South West & Midlands delivered Design and develop a series of club-led recruitment Recruitment initatves: initatves delivered Recruit • Game day experience by ten clubs (50% • Ball hockey tasters approx..) • Girls Hockey Day Guidance produced Recruit Create support and guidance for clubs on actvely recruitng and shared on the Lead new partcipants and promotng their clubs EIHA website Guidance & forum Recruit Provide a guidance and support area for clubs to access established shared Lead informaton and share ideas online Increase of IIHF World Girls Ice Hockey Ensure a collaboratve approach across the country on IIHF Recruit weekend events to World Girls Ice Hockey Weekend ten clubs (50% of WNIHL clubs) ‘Leaders in Female Establish a ‘Leaders in Female Hockey’ network to share best Lead Hockey’ network practce established Deliver six (bi-monthly) online workshops on female hockey Lead Workshops delivered development, utlising experts from around the world Regular updates sent Provide regular updates (via newsleter) to ‘Leaders in Female to ‘Leaders in Female Lead Hockey’ about best practces, updated guidance as well as Hockey’ network on a support and funding available monthly basis Complete a High-Performance Athlete Review; fnding the Succee gaps in current programmes and looking to address these Review completed d shortalls Contnued success of Succee Contnue and grow the WNIHL development cup the WNIHL d development cup Establish a female hockey ‘showcase’ event, to raise the Succee Annual female hockey profle of female hockey (potental links to GB women in the d showcase event U20’s cup) Object Acton Plan Due Date Responsibili KPI’s ve ty Succee Establish an annual female only 3v3 cross-ice mixed team Launch of 3 v 3 d competton tournament Work with Team GB and the ENTP to deliver ‘Female Hockey Succee Launch of the ‘Female Skills day’ with emphasis on skills development following the d Hockey Skills Day’ ‘High Performance Athlete Review’