What Makes a Great County

• The County has a realistic Development Plan looking at key actions for the future which is reviewed by the committee.
• The County has adopted (signed & dated) the England Hockey template constitution and it should be freely available for all members. 
• The County has adopted England Hockey’s Safeguard Policy and Procedures, Equality Policy and Code of Conduct.  These policies need to be adopted at a committee meeting and recorded in the signed minutes.  All appropriate policies and procedures should be visible on the County website. 
• The County is governed by a committee who face regular election, following which they meet regularly, with decision making recorded and communicated to members.  Meeting minutes should be made freely available to all members. 
• The County has an inclusive and accessible membership offer, with evidence of who the County’s members and volunteers are. Storage of data should be GDPR compliant. 
• The County delivers county hockey activity through sessions in a safe environment that complies with legal requirements including insurance, session risk assessments, the provision of first aid, accident reporting and injury management.
• The County is a member of their Area and England Hockey and are committed to working in partnership with their Area, providing County representation at Area level where required for example the Area junior Competitions Committee.
• The County has an appropriate level of insurance - Insurance to include personal accident insurance is required. All members should be made aware of the level of insurance cover provided by their County. Copy of insurance certificate for current season.
• The County committee is structured based on the requirements, skills and diversity of the County. At least 3 members are unrelated and not from the same club. Evidence of open elections of committee members with open communication of positions to the member clubs. Conflicts of interests are recognised, managed and recorded by the chair.
• The County has a specific bank account with two independent signatories or suitable online banking requirements. Accounts are independently reviewed annually and made available to members. County accounts are suitably protected, controlled and accessed by authorised personnel with transactional information shared at committee meetings and with member clubs annually.  
• The county AGM is a meeting of all voting and non-voting members and is responsible for electing officers and committee members and setting fees and subscriptions, together with receiving reports on the past season and considering any other matter that has been properly raised. The County Constitution will confirm the voting requirements, quorum and notice that is required. Conducting proceedings at the AGM include it take place annually not more than 18 months after the previous AGM and it can be held in person or virtually. There will be a required number of voting members required to attend before the meeting can be considered quorate which is often 10 members clubs or 50% of member clubs. 
• The committee structure for the county will include Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary, Treasurer, Welfare Officer, Masters Coordinator, Junior Hockey Chair, Adult Competition Coordinator, Administrator. The committee should ensure that a Succession Plan is in place. Once a year the county should undertake a skills analysis to ensure that all required skills are represented on the committee, and that training needs are addressed. 

Resources 

Click on the links below to access our resources and support to help your county. 

England Hockey Safe Hockey page 

England Hockey Insurance page

England Hockey Membership Page

England Hockey Equality, Diversity and Inclusion pages

England Hockey 8 Areas

Don’t forget to also access Sport England’s Buddle for more generic help and support running your county.

• Coaching provision reviewed against England Hockey guidance on appropriate coaching workforce. All coached sessions (Development & County Teams) should be led by appropriately skilled people taking into account the ratios, age of participants, space available and activity. 
• The County are following England Hockey safe recruitment guidance, is registered and using England Hockey’s Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS). The County has a process in place, led by a named Club Welfare Officer/DBS Officer, to ensure all relevant people are processed through the online DBS system. 
• All people that work regularly with young people on behalf of the County have completed appropriate safeguarding training and update this training at recommended intervals in line with England Hockey Safeguarding Education & Training Guidance. The County collates all safeguarding qualifications and training with action plan/tracking system relating to ongoing training and evidence how training is monitored. 
• Induction for new workforce (coaches & volunteers) around policies and procedures.  Evidence of the process of communicating key responsibilities and policies to anyone taking on a task or role within the County.
• The County is committed to developing all people within the member clubs as appropriate, including players, coaches, umpires, leaders and volunteers. Awareness of development opportunities and pathways available being shared with members, with possible financial support. 

Resources 

Click on the links below to access our resources and support to help your county. 

Job Descriptions for a number of roles your county Leadership team may have

England Hockey Volunteers Webpages for Recruiting, Retaining, Rewarding Volunteers  

England Hockey coaching webpages to help Recruit and Develop Coaches 

England Hockey Hockey Hub, home for Coaching / Officiating Resources / Guidance / Learning Opportunities 

England Hockey Young Leaders page

Buddle – Getting Help from People

• The County has an appropriate form of communication to its member clubs. Regular communication including a robust website, email communications/newsletters, social media and club meetings / Forums.
• A County Website is a key shop window and there are a number of free or local cost solution online. Many Counties also use the England Hockey Talent Platform provided by Club Buzz as their website solution. A website should be easy to navigate with clear categories and the homepage should be up to date and attractive.
• A key objective for your organisation is to stay connected with your members, volunteers and coaches. There are several social media channels available that provide excellent platforms to support this including Facebook, X and Instagram. Before you start there are important things to consider, including safety online, encouraging contributors, asking for help and picking the best platforms to use and the needs of your audience.
• Regularly communications to your clubs is important to ensure an ongoing presence to your clubs.  These communications can be via a regular email newsletter or even online meetings. This is the opportunity to have a significant and positive impact on your member clubs from a development and promotion aspect.  It’s important that these communications are regular and consistent, and they will provide the opportunity to promote events, provide information and gather feedback.
• Marketing is how you raise awareness and encourage new people to get involved with your County. There is a much bigger emphasis on digital marketing nowadays, but that doesn’t mean that the more traditional channels, like an advert in the flyers in Hockey Clubs, aren’t useful. In fact, many organisations can find that using a mix of marketing channels is the best choice for them.

Resources

Click on the links below to access our resources and support to help your county.

Creating a Website

Social Media

Marketing and Communications

• The County provides a variety of playing and competitive opportunities for its member clubs. Evidence of relevant playing and competitive opportunities offered to member clubs and players. To include County Junior Hockey, Masters Teams, Junior Competitions and Adult Competition if demand. 
• Counties are encouraged to run a fun one day U14 State School Festival that is 7 aside. The festival should be aimed at hockey players who have a limited amount of experience and are of a recreational standard.  The festival will give the players the chance to represent their school in a friendly competition and compete against other State Schools.
• Counties that are considering running festivals to widen participation/involvement in hockey are advised to look at the dedicated England Hockey School Competition and Festival Guidance website pages. 
• The main junior club competitions with a county focus are the Under 10 and Under 12 in2hockey competitions.  Older junior age groups can enter England Hockey Championships and Area Leagues. 
• The EH Schools Championships U14 Tier 2, U16 Tier 3 and U18 Tier 3 see one qualifier per Area play at the national finals. Areas may have direct entry into their qualifying tournament or, where numbers demand, may require a County (or two Counties combined)  to run a qualifying round. A similar structure exists for the Indoors Super 6s Championships – separate competitions for Clubs and Schools at U16 and U18 age groups.  
• The Adult County Championships were the first national domestic hockey competitions. Over the years their importance was diminished  as club hockey rose to the fore. A men's competition still continues but the women’s competition ended in 2009. The Men's competition is split into different Divisions and played over two weekends in May. You can find all the fixtures and results for the Men's Division A and Division B County Championships at England Hockey Adult Club Championships. There will be a person from a member club who will take on responsibility for managing a team, but it does need county authorisation and relevant insurance cover put in place. 
• The Over 65s England Hockey Masters Championships competition will be for County teams or, where approved by the Area Masters Committee, teams made up of two or more Counties. Players must represent the County that their Saturday adult league club play in. Counties will be able to field more than one team. This reflects that few clubs could field an Over 65s team made up of players from their adult Saturday league teams but ensures that there is a structure for selection. It also reflects that there is increasing Masters’ county activity. 

Resources 

Click on the links below to access our resources and support to help your county. 

School Competition and Festival Guidance 

Centralised Calendar  

England Hockey Masters Club Championships/masters-club-championships   

For further information on Talent and Junior Hockey please follow the link below to other pages on our England Hockey Website

Junior County Hockey and Talent Page