EQUITABLE ACCESS AND USAGE POLICY 

Supported by procedure: TRAINING: Resources & Scheduling Procedure

Created	28th June 2024
By Who	NBSC Policy development committee
Review Date	31st October 2024

 

CONTENT

• Purpose  
• Background 
• Statement of Intent
• Principles  
• Policy  
• Scope 
• Compliance & Monitoring  
• Review Date  
• Attachments  
• Acknowledgements  

Purpose
The Policy provides a management framework for North Bankstown Football Club to address barriers experienced by women and girls in accessing and using community sport infrastructure. The purpose is to ensure all voices, concerns, and experiences, are an integral dimension of the design, implementation, monitoring of policies and programs.  The Policy aims to ensure North Bankstown Football Club complies with all current legislation and government and football related policies and plans and seeks to strengthen sports participation, wellbeing and connectivity in football. The Policy aims to progressively build capacity and capability at North Bankstown Football Club in identification and elimination of systemic causes of gender inequality in policy, program development and delivery, communication and delivery of football training and competition at all levels. North Bankstown Football Club will influence, support, design and deliver in collaboration with partners and stakeholders’ gender inclusive and accessible, welcoming, safe and fit-for-purpose community football facilities.  North Bankstown Football Club will engage and consult throughout the design phase of any new, upgraded or repurposed football facility and field of play and other relevant community sport infrastructure. North Bankstown Football Club will engage and consult as a key stage in the development of policy and design of programs and/or services offered by the Club. North Bankstown Football Club acknowledges that it’s important to consider and prioritise all current and future planning, policy, service delivery and practice as they relate to community sports infrastructure. North Bankstown Football Club aims to:

• Ensure women and girls have equitable access to sport and recreation facilities.
• Foster positive sport and recreation participation experiences for women and girls. 
• Increase utilisation of sport and recreation facilities by women and girls.

 

Background

Sport and active recreation are an important part of our communities. Sport provides the opportunity for enriching our communities through the promotion of respect and fair mindedness for all people, while also supporting the physical and mental wellbeing of all in our community. Sport reaches across age, gender, cultural background and demographic groups.  Football, at a grassroots or elite level can be a vehicle for community identity and pride and can strengthen social networks and builds a sense of belonging for participants.  The success of the Matilda’s at the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup captured the heart of the Australian community. The World Cup also emphasised the need for an improved experience for our female footballers at a community level. North Bankstown Football Club wants to leverage the momentum of the World Cup and the success of the Matilda’s.  North Bankstown Football Club wants to increase the opportunities and participation rates for women and girls in football as part of an overall strategy to grow the game for everyone.  However, North Bankstown Football Club understands women and girls across NSW do not currently have equal access to community sport and recreation and unfortunately, it is still common for facilities to be poorly designed to meet the expectation of women and girls and men and boys are often given the best and most popular training times as well as being allocated to the best and newest facilities.

North Bankstown Football Club wants to ensure sport and active recreation facilities are welcoming, equitably accessible, safe and inclusive for all, and any barriers are removed to ensure women and girls feel included and participation for women and girls in football increases.  North Bankstown Football Club will engage fairly with the club’s workforce, members, other user groups and the community.  North Bankstown Football Club is well positioned to design and implement place-based, actions in the Action Plan that progress gender equity in community sport. 

 

Statement of Intent

This Statement of Intent establishes the expectation that gender equality is considered and prioritised in all current and future planning, policy, service delivery and practice as they relate to community sports infrastructure. North Bankstown Football Club recognises that gender equality is:

• the attainment of equal rights, responsibilities, and opportunities of women, men, trans and gender diverse people. Equality does not mean that women, men, trans and gender diverse people will become the same but that their rights, responsibilities, and opportunities will not depend on their gender.
• the provision of fairness and justice in the distribution of benefits and responsibilities based on gender. The concept recognises that people may have different needs and power related to their gender and these differences should be identified and addressed in a manner that rectifies gender related imbalances.

 

Principles

The Equitable Access and Use Policy has six principles that guide and provide clear direction for change. The Equitable Access and Use Policy and any related action plan are based on these six principles of inclusivity, full participation, equal representation, encouraging and supporting user groups, and prioritising user groups committed to equality.

1. Community sports infrastructure and environments are genuinely accessible, welcoming, safe, and inclusive. 
2. Women and girls can fully participate in all aspects of community sport and active recreation, including as a player, coach, administrator, official, volunteer and spectator. 
3. Women and girls will have equitable access to and use of community sport infrastructure: 
   a. of the highest quality available and most convenient  
   b. at the best and most popular competition and training times and locations 
   c. to support existing and new participation opportunities, and a variety of sports. 
4. Women and girls should be equitably represented in the sport sector workforce including in leadership and governance roles.
5. Encourage and support all user groups who access and use community sport infrastructure to understand, adopt and implement gender equitable access and use practices.
6. Prioritise access, use and support to all user groups who demonstrate an ongoing commitment to gender equitable access and use of allocated community sport infrastructure.

 

Policy

North Bankstown Football Club acknowledges: 

• the disadvantaged position some individuals have had in the sport and recreation sector because of their gender,
• that achieving gender equality will require diverse approaches for women and girls to achieve similar outcomes for people of all genders.

North Bankstown Football Club will: 

• acknowledge that achieving equality will require diverse approaches for men, people with disability, First Nations peoples, LGBTQIA+ people and people from culturally and linguistically diverse communities to achieve similar outcomes for all people.
• engage fairly and equitably with council, Football NSW, the club’s sport workforce, participants, other facility user groups and club members regardless of their gender, in a positive, respectful, and constructive manner, 
• engage in the process of Gender Impact Assessments (GIA) to assess the implications for women and girls of any planned action, including policies, programs and communications; and engage with the broader sport club community to assess the implications for men, people with disability, First Nations peoples, LGBTQIA+ people and people from culturally and linguistically diverse of any planned action, including policies, programs and communications.

 

Scope

The scope of the Policy is to support North Bankstown Football Club to take positive action towards achieving gender equity in the access and usage of community sports infrastructure. The Policy applies to the following community sport infrastructure/facilities managed and used by North Bankstown Football Club:

	Facility	Location
	First Facility	Graf Park, 29 George Street, Yagoona NSW
	Second Facility	George Green Oval, 61 Avoca Street, Yagoona NSW
	Third Facility	Graf Mini, positioned between main fields

 

The following community sport infrastructure/facilities are excluded:

	Facility	Location
	First Facility	NIL
	Second Facility	NIL

 

The Policy applies to: 

• Any North Bankstown Football Club, Football NSW policies, programs, communications, and services as they relate to community sports infrastructure. 
• Any North Bankstown Football Club involvement in the design, construction of new and improved and ongoing maintenance of community sport infrastructure. 
• All community sports infrastructure managed and maintained by North Bankstown Football Club

 

Compliance and Monitoring

North Bankstown Football Club commits to undertake a GIA on all current facility and field of play access and use policies and processes, and to consider opportunities to strengthen gender equitable access and use of community sports facilities in line with the principles. 

North Bankstown Football Club commits to developing an Action Plan to remove barriers and improve gender equitable access and use of community sports facilities in alignment with the principles. 

The Action Plan has clear indicators to ensure identified actions can be measured and monitored. Data and feedback collected will continually be used to inform decision making, assess the Action Plan implementation and analyse the effectiveness of the outcomes. Success of outcomes will be measured individually, as a club and will report on any broader societal and cultural change.

The Action Plan monitors metrics as well as qualitative measures of stakeholder or cultural change. The approved North Bankstown Football Club Equitable Access and Usage Policy and Action Plan is a compliance element of funding under the NSW Government’s 2023 Level the Playing Field Program. 

Related Policies and Legislation

• North Bankstown Football Club Strategic Plan
• North Bankstown Football Club Participation Plan
• Football Australia’s Gender Equality Action Plan
• Football Australia’s XI Principles for the future of Australian football’ (XI Principles)
• FA One Football Strategy 2022-2026 Women’s Football Development Guide
• Football NSW Facility Guides
• NSW Football Infrastructure Strategy 2020-2030

 

Review Date:  1 October 2024

Attachments :  Action Plan

 

Acknowledgements

North Bankstown would like to acknowledge the following assistance in the development of this policy.

The Office of Sport would like to acknowledge the work of Office for Women in Sport and Recreation, Sport and Recreation Victoria and VicHealth. The Office of Sport has Equitable Access and Use Policy template has been developed in line with work undertaken as part of Victoria Government’s Fair Access Policy.