7 minute read
Interview: Charlotte Malyon
CHARLOTTE MALYON
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England Netball’s Capital Investment and Facilities Manager talks to SportsNation about her career – and the opportunities and challenges facing the sport’s facilities
Could you outline your personal career journey to date – how have you ended up doing what you do?
Career began in 1994 as a summer intern with Peterborough City Council’s sport and recreation team, helping with everything from allotments to play areas, youth sports projects to leisure centre contract management. It was an interesting time to join the industry with compulsory competitive tendering (CCT) forcing councils to adopt new ways of working. Very few organisations were in the business of tendering for sports facility management contracts and most councils – like Peterborough – were running their facilities through a Direct Service Organisation. I also remember typing pools and secretaries. How things have changed!
In 1996 I joined Eastleigh Borough Council as the client officer for their main leisure centre, which was run by
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Netball is played by all ages in a wide range of different facilities
DC Leisure. It was a refreshing change of culture with our relationship working as a partnership, each bringing different skills to the table. I stayed at Eastleigh for six years, moving into a strategic role that elevated my knowledge and understanding of the planning and development control system, how to access Sport England funding and manage capital projects.
Hoping to build and diversify these skills, I moved to Test Valley Council and wrote its Culture and Play Strategies, which paved the way for the development of The Lights theatre in Andover, and a portfolio of capital and revenue play projects.
My next move was to Hampshire County Council as the lead for physical activity galvanizing the efforts of 13 district councils who, together with the strategic health authority, successfully achieved a stretched target of increasing the number of adults taking part in 30 mins of physical activity 5 times per week. During my time here, public health returned to local authority responsibility, and schemes such as Steady and Strong (falls prevention classes), and
MEND (weight management programmes for families) became mainstream services.
My return to sports management came after a family relocation to Cambridge in 2013 and I joined England Netball after a year working for Rutland Council as its Sport and Recreation Manager. During this year, I fell in love with the area - now the base for our forever family home.
The facilities role at England Netball was an opportunity too exciting to miss, and I’ve loved it ever since.
Could you describe what your current role at England Netball entails?
As facilities lead, I provide advice and technical guidance to anyone who is building a facility and wants to cater for netball – from Bee Netball (5-11year-olds) to Internationals. I also help councils understand what the supply and demand is for netball facilities in their area, and influence investment decisions so that the courts we need are protected, improved and provided.
As a predominantly non asset-owning sport, most of my time is spent liaising with facility operators and helping our network of clubs and leagues to provide a safe and enjoyable participant experience. Surfaces and posts are fundamental components of playing the game and their maintenance is crucial.
We also like to be as flexible as we possibly can be with space and over the past five years, my role has involved investing in a suite of portable assets that has allowed us to take pop up courts to community events and stage world class netball events in arena. The Netball World Cup at the M&S Bank Arena, Liverpool in 2019 was a defining point in our history of staging major events – the overlay was incredible and something we’re continually looking to progress. I’d like to mention Craig Jack from SAPCA member Dynamik, whose support has been invaluable. Dynamik has been instrumental in providing the solutions that has helped take our sport to new levels.
England Netball’s aim is to evolve and create a menu of opportunities for young people to play the sport
Participation in netball has grown across all ages – what do you put that down to?
When England’s Vitality Roses won the Commonwealth Games in 2018, the sport
enjoyed a boom in media interest and highprofile visibility which in turn increased demand. This increased demand combined with having a fantastic club network and programmes such as Back to Netball and Walking Netball enabled the game to grow.
I think campaigns like ‘This Girl Can’ have also played a part in netball’s growth. Encouraging women and girls to have the confidence to get out there and play – without worrying about body image or how good you are - is an important message. I hope it continues as it helps to keep all sport visible and relatable for females.
Are there currently enough facilities to cater for demand? And have you identifi ed particular areas where more facilities are needed?
In terms of quantity, the overall supply of outdoor netball courts in England is good, but access to them isn’t! We found that facilities in the north were more difficult to access post-COVID and issues such as poor quality surfaces and lack of floodlights are consistent challenges throughout. Demand
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Netball is one of a handful of sports which has seen a steady increase in participation
for indoor netball exceeds supply in all areas of the country and often means that our large clubs train out of 3 or 4 different venues.
With our drive to be more visible and increase access to participation in deprived areas, we’re working in partnership with the Football Foundation and Sport England to ensure that where demand exists, the new PlayZones can cater for and provide regular netball activity for the communities they serve.
What are the biggest challenges faced by netball, when it comes to growing the sport?
Tricky to know where to start with this. The impact of rising inflation on facility project costs and hire rates is impossible to ignore when you’re trying to make your sport more accessible, affordable and inclusive. And while its fantastic other women’s sports are enjoying the spotlight after a phenomenal summer, I am wary of how this might impact netball, especially in schools.
As an advocate of multi-sport, I feel it would be a backwards step to see even more 3Gs being built on school sites to
the detriment of providing a balanced curriculum with choice and opportunity for all. GEN2 multi-sport surfaces are a much broader and better option.
Despite these challenges, our super strength as a governing body is a track record of evolving and creating a menu of opportunities and world class experiences that reflect what people want from the game, be it as a player, coach, official, administrator or ticket holder. If we carry on getting this right and being a valuable partner to work with in tackling inequalities in provision and increasing diversity, I am confident we’ll continue to grow.
You were appointed onto the SAPCA board this year – what does your role there entail?
I’m delighted to join the board as the lead for social value. It’s a new area of work for SAPCA, so I’m aiming to increase understanding of how social value in construction can be measured, can help win more business and ultimately create a thriving sector that contributes towards the UN sustainable development goals.
The demand for indoor netball facilities exceeds supply in all areas of the country, as participation has grown
How are England Netball and SAPCA working together to make facilities more safe, accessible and inclusive?
We involve SAPCA’s network of technical experts in the development and communication of surface standards, and try to strike a balance between what the sport needs and what the sector can provide.
An example of this is the need for netball surfaces to achieve a slip resistance value of equal to or greater than 75SRV. Slip resistance is such a crucial safety factor for netball, we really need the support of all SAPCA members to meet this standard when building courts that cater for netball. And a big thank you to everyone who does!!!!!
We’re also planning to work collaboratively with other NGBs, building on the inspirational keynote by Andy Mytom from David Morley Architects, which he delivered at the SAPCA Annual Conference this year.
We want to do whatever we can to inform the design of accessible, welcoming and relevant places and spaces where the population can enjoy being active and play sport in a way that suits their needs in the 21st century. ●
