How can paralympians champion change?
British Paralympic Association
The ambition
The British Paralympic Association (BPA) is the national governing body for Paralympic sport in the UK. It is responsible for selecting, preparing, and managing the ParalympicsGB team at the Paralympic Games and other international events.
The BPA has a proud history of delivering world-class performance at the Paralympic Games, with ParalympicsGB being the most successful Paralympic team in history.
The BPA also has a vision to use the power of Paralympic sport to challenge and inspire a change in attitudes to disability and ability, and to improve the lives of disabled people across the UK. The BPA believes that Paralympians are not only athletes, but role models and catalysts for change.
The BPA embarked on a strategic review process to develop a new 10-year strategy and theory of change that would align with its vision and mission. The BPA engaged Firetail to support this process.
Our approach
Firetail took a collaborative approach, working closely with the BPA’s executive team and Board throughout changing conditions due to the pandemic. Through workshop facilitation, one-on-one conversations and hands-on support in drafting the strategy, the team worked on key questions including:
Are the vision, mission and values still fit for purpose?
What are the internal and external opportunities and challenges for the organisation?
How should the next strategy emphasise BPA’s dual mission of excellence at the Games and impact on the UK’s society?
What funding, resourcing and ways of working would enable the new strategy?
Firetail worked closely with the BPA staff and trustees to understand the current context, challenges, and opportunities for Paralympic sport and disability inclusion in the UK. Firetail also supported research and consultation with key stakeholders, including trustees, athletes and partners.
It also helped the BPA develop a theory of change that articulated how the BPA’s activities would lead to its intended outcomes and impact. The theory of change showed how the BPA would use its unique position as a world-leading Paralympic team and as a force for change for disabled people to achieve its vision.
Based on this evidence, insight and theory of change, Firetail worked with the BPA staff and trustees to co-create a new strategic framework to guide the BPA’s work over the next decade.
The impact
In March 2021, the BPA launched its new 10-year strategy: Championing Change. The strategy sets out the BPA’s ambition to be more than just a sporting organisation, but also a social movement that champions inclusion, diversity, and equality.
At the launch of the new strategy, Nick Webborn OBE, Chair of the BPA said:
“We know it is the performances of our athletes that challenge and inspire a change in attitudes to disability, and with a new and ambitious 10-year strategy in place, we can look to the future, confident in our ability to help bring about real and sustainable change in the lives of disabled people across the UK.”
“Thinking beyond the four-year Paralympic cycle allows us to raise our ambitions as a world-leading Paralympic team and as a force for change for disabled people across the UK. London 2012 kindled a passion for disability sport and demonstrated the power of the Paralympics to inspire a shift in perceptions of disability and ability. This strategy builds on that through the continued success of ParalympicsGB and by delivering real and sustainable improvements to the lives of disabled people across the UK over the next ten years.”
The strategy is accompanied by a strategy on a page that summarises the BPA’s vision, mission, values, pillars, objectives, and theory of change in a clear and concise way.
As part of its implementation, the BPA has recruited a social impact team. This team will work with internal and external stakeholders to design and deliver programmes and campaigns that will increase the reach and influence of Paralympic sport in creating positive change for disabled people.
In 2022, three-time Paralympian Dave Clarke PLY became the new CEO. He told BBC Sport:
"I've seen Paralympic sport go from sympathy to empathy to acceptance to enjoyment, and now to the public consuming it as sport. What we now need to see is that same level of equity that we have managed to achieve in many parts of the elite sports arena into wider life. As an association, we have two main aims - one is to continue to put the best prepared team into the Summer and Winter Games. But the other is around creating a better world for disabled people and that it is not just on the field that we're representing disabled people - we are also representing them in wider society and ensuring that equity is provided in all walks of life.”
Anna Scott Marshall, Director of Communications and Social Impact at the BPA, said:
“Our aim was to create a longer-term strategy underpinned with a theory of change, both of which were new to the organisation and to much of the sport sector. To do this well we needed to work with our senior team, board, staff and members to co-create a new way of thinking about how we were going to meet the challenge we had given ourselves – To inspire a better world for disabled people. Firetail delivered very positive, challenging and inspiring sessions enabling us to get to the point where we were really happy with our position and energised to start delivering our new strategy with clarity.”
Links:
British Paralympic Association
10 year Strategy: Championing Change
British Paralympic Association chief Dave Clarke wants sport to create impact on and off the field