Q. What is the funding period of the Sports System Investment?
A. The total funding period is 2023-2028 broken down into the following investment periods, 2023-24; 2024-25; 2025-26; 2026-27; 2027-28. The current investment period is 2024-25, all sports were issued their Indicative Planning Figure in December 2023.
Q. Will there be information sessions and where can I access the presentation?
A. All information can be access via our website here.
Q. Is the £9 million lottery budget per annum or over 5-6 years?
A. Northern Ireland receives 2.6% of the total good cause funding for sport across the UK, which equates to approximately £9m per annum. This is for all of Sport NI National Lottery work and not just the Sports Systems Investment – Governing Bodies.
Q. Should submissions by made by email or hard copy?
A. Submissions can only be accepted via email, and should be received by 12noon on Friday 16th February 2024 to sportssystems@sportni.net
Q. How will the FSCA ratings (robust/adequate/fcs) relate to the release of funds within this investment?
A. The Rating will determine the level of vouching undertaken by Sport Northern Ireland and the timing of the release of funds.
Q. What are the Monitoring, Evaluation and Claims requirements?
A. There will be monitoring and evaluation including financial monitoring as part of the investment. This will be outlined by Sport NI project lead with individual sports at their initiation meetings.
Q. On the Engagement and Planning Document, do we need to include a breakdown of the costs associated with a post?
A. Posts can be listed as a tactic with the associated resources required (financial). The individual tactic which relates to the posts should be detailed separately with additional costs (or no cost if delivery is free).
Q. What data (if any), would Sport NI like us to collect in or will this just be kept flexible?
A. Sports will still be required to collect and report on data similar to that circulated in 2024-25 Data Projections document issued with the Indicative Planning Figure.
Q. Will sports be supported in the transition to an Outcomes Based Accountability model of monitoring and evaluation?
A. Yes, the monitoring and evaluation aspects of the investment are still in development, but it is the intention of Sport Northern Ireland to support governing bodies of sport through learning and development (where needed)opportunities to create Outcomes Based Accountability monitoring and evaluation methodologies within their sport.
Q. If sports have both a short and long version of its strategic plan, which should we submit?
A. Sport Northern Ireland would be happy to receive both versions of the strategic plan.
Q. If a sport receives funding through other funders does Sport Northern Ireland want to know about this within the submission template?
A. This information should be cited and included if there is room for it within the submission template word counts and if it adds value to a sports submission.
Q. Is there a minimum amount or threshold that sports should apply for in the priority investment areas?
A. Investment requested against the two priority investment areas will be based on the need and impact that can be achieved within each sport, therefore there is no minimum amount that needs to be requested in an area.
Q. Is there any possibility of an extension to the deadline if a sport requires it?
A. If in exceptional circumstances the deadline cannot be met, please contact Sport NI as soon as possible by emailing sportssystems@sportni.net Please note that where the deadline is not achieved, this will impact the ability to issue a letter of offer in April 2024.
Q. Can sports request more than the indicative planning figure for the 2024-25 period?
A. Yes, sports can request more than their indicative planning figure. Please refer to Guidance Notes for investment levels.
Q. Can Sport NI clarify the comments on flexibility – does this include flexibility to re-allocate funding between posts or programmes and between priority investment areas?
A. It is Sport NI’s intention to provide sports with the flexibility to deliver the ‘Power of Sport’, both making changes in year if the need arises and across years should it be necessary. Sports will also have flexibility to move investment between priority areas.
Q. Can sports allocate part of their investment into centralised costs i.e. a centralised data management system or posts such as a Finance Admin/Manager?
A. As this is National Lottery funding, investment should represent additionality to existing resources and, in particular, to existing or planned investment. It should not be used to replace existing running costs or posts. Improvements/developments and/or additional duties may be eligible and investment requested would need to be proportionate to Northern Ireland-related outcomes/benefits.
Q. Can sports allocate part of their investment into posts and programme that have a wider remit than just Northern Ireland i.e. Coach Education post based in Dublin with a 50% remit in Northern Ireland?
As this is National Lottery funding, investment should represent additionality to existing resources and in particular to existing or planned investment. It should not be used to replace existing programmes or posts. If these are additional and sports can demonstrate a need and impact within Northern Ireland, proportionate investment requests will be considered.
Q. Can a sport apply for more than their initial capped control point?
A. If in exceptional circumstances a sport requests investment above a control point, additional information will be required. This will be managed on an individual basis with sports.
Q. How will Athlete Awards be administered?
A. Athlete Awards will continue to sit separately from the Governing Body Investment process and will be administered in a similar way to previous years. All information relating to Athlete Awards is available in due course.
Q. Is there any distinction between Lottery and Exchequer funding and is there an Exchequer fund available?
A. The major investment into Governing Bodies of Sport from Sport NI is Lottery investment, there is currently no equivalent investment from Exchequer.
Q. Are facilities improvements included within the investment?
A. There is no infrastructure investment included in this programme.
Q. How can sports manage the recruitment of new posts when there is only an initial indicative planning figure for one year?
A. Each sport will have their own risk and human resource process which they should consider and apply in instances such as this.
Q. Is there a cross-sport set of pay scales available?
A. No, Sport Northern Ireland will not set fixed pay scales for governing bodies of sport. Governing bodies of sport should work through their own Human Resource processes to identify appropriate pay scales for their sport/organisation.
