England Athletics operates the Clubmark scheme and encourages athletics clubs to work towards accreditation. Clubmark is a cross-sport quality accreditation for sports clubs.

National governing bodies and county sport partnerships award Clubmark to proven high quality clubs.

The national scheme has been in place since 2002 and there are now more than 4,000 accredited clubs across more than 30 sports.

All organisations involved in accrediting clubs are subject to a licensing process, following the recommendations of the Clubmark Review (March 2006). This highlighted the need for cross sport moderation, robustness and integrity within the system. The licence is designed to ensure that all organisations involved work to a minimum operating framework and can prove it. This will help to establish Clubmark as the mark of high quality clubs.

To become an accredited club we needed to complete the following:

• A club portfolio containing evidence to be assessed against the Clubmark checklist
• Attendance at four short workshops
• Host a site visit for a Clubmark assessor

The award lasts for three years after which a complete re-assessment will be necessary.

As a single, national standard, Clubmark gives sports clubs of all types structure and direction.

Accreditation encourages a club to adopt better, more organised systems and structures, thus helping them to run more effectively and efficiently.