Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Group

England Hockey is the National Governing Body for the sport of Hockey in England and is responsible for the management and development of the sport from grass roots to elite activities. We:

• Have a membership comprising clubs (750+), counties (42), and Areas (8) that affiliate to us. Approximately 145,000 individuals play in the club system, with an estimated 20,000 playing at university/colleges. C.900,000 children play at school. More than 15,000 coaches, umpires and officials are supported / developed.  
• Have an income/expenditure of average £11m p.a. The Chief Executive is directly responsible for the operational budget but the Board, chaired by the Non-Executive Chair, approves the annual plan and budget.
• Employ 75 staff, and contract with approximately 100 part time consultants mostly in the performance and coaching area. Circa 50 volunteers work at national level to run the sport, with thousands more running the great bulk of grass roots hockey.
• Are currently the ‘nominated country’ on behalf of Great Britain Hockey to qualify and prepare the Great Britain squads for the Olympics. The England Hockey Chief Executive, Performance Director and Head Coaches represent Great Britain as well as England Hockey. There is a Great Britain President to chair the Great Britain board which meets three times a year.
• Have launched a new Strategy for the Sport to 2028 – Creating a Future For Our Game Together.

ED&I Advisory Group Members 

This is an exciting opportunity to support one of the Olympic sports as it embarks on its new strategy.  We are an ambitious, diverse and inclusive sport, priding itself on having gender parity, and an age demographic from as young as 5 through to 85. 

England Hockey is on a journey to build an increased presence in the sporting landscape of the country from the playgrounds and pitches of the grass roots game through to the performance environments developing the Olympians of the future. With a new strategy in place, an enhanced focus on strong leadership, further international success, visible impact, accessibility and relevance, youth and sustainability, we are working closely with our membership to create a long-term future for our game together.

The ED&I Advisory Group brings together a collective of expert representatives to support and advise on the future development, implementation and evaluation of our ED&I work. The terms of the first cohort of Advisory Group members will be ending across 2024 and this is the second, and final, wave of recruitment for the new members. 

During 2021/22 we developed a 3 Year ED&I Framework for the sport, which the existing Advisory Group helped shape and create. 

England Hockey aims to successfully embed ED&I in all that we do. We are also keen to leverage experience from other sectors, sports, and nations as we develop our policies and best practices. The Advisory Group reviews and monitors our emerging strategy, operational and business plans to make suggestions for improvements to delivery. The group collectively support and advise, whilst ensuring that communities across the membership have their voices heard.

We are looking for individuals with the relevant lived experience and skills. People who support our goals and ambitions and who will add to our thinking. This is an amazing time to be part of the sport of hockey as we continue to build on stable foundations and share the love of hockey with our membership and our partners. It is not necessarily required that group members have an in-depth knowledge of hockey.