Tim joined ukactive, the trade body for fitness and leisure, in March 2020. As the Lead for EDI, his role at ukactive is to support the industry’s growth and ensure the sector can provide services that are accessible to all members of society, and ensuring that our services and provisions are equally accessed, enjoyed and participated in by all so that the benefits of physical activity are felt across the entire population.
Historical and current ukactive inclusion work has focussed on specific reports, insight, programming or campaigns – for example older adults, children and young people, disability, women and girls (participation, and safety), transgender and single sex provision. To complement this portfolio of assistance for the ukactive membership and encourage a more strategic approach to EDI, Tim developed and launched a self-assessment toolkit. This is open to organisations from across the sector and involves answering 40 questions focused on current practices relating to equality, diversity and inclusion. After completing the assessment (which takes about 15-20 minutes), facilities, providers, and suppliers receive an instant score to show how inclusive they are and signposted to recommendations to help improve EDI practices.
Tim was previously working at Premiership Rugby. During his time at the executive body running professional rugby union in England he developed and delivered an Inclusion Strategy involving campaigns, programming and policy for each of the 9 ‘protected characteristics’. His work included a ‘Commitment to Accessibility’ which was shortlisted for a BT Sport Industry Award in 2018, and the ‘Project Rugby’ programme which was shortlisted for a British Ethnic Diversity Sports Award and was a two-time award winner at the Sport Business Awards.
