Advocacy and policy
In policy, advocacy is the process of engaging policymakers, such as Members of the Scottish Parliament and civil servants, on behalf of a particular cause or sector. The benefits of advocacy work are to ensure that policymakers understand our sector, the benefits that we collectively bring and outcomes we contribute towards, and recognise the challenges that we face. When it’s done well, this means that partners in national and local government are supportive of our ambitions and want to take decisions that will benefit the sector, or at least avoid negative consequences where possible.
Advocacy is often a long term process, based upon building strong relationships and partnerships across the policy landscape to ensure that we can continue to drive ongoing improvements to the operating environment to the benefit of the SSA’s member organisations.
The Scottish Sports Association is the independent membership body for Scottish Governing Bodies of Sport. As such, we are able to advocate across political parties and to the Scottish Government with our sole driver being to achieve the best outcome for our Members. Sometimes that means engaging with civil servants, sometimes it is through holding the Government to account via opposition parties. While we work closely with partners across Scottish sport, our unique position allows us to engage in this way where others cannot.
The membership fees we receive from our Member SGBs directly fund our advocacy work and a significant proportion of our wider Member services to ensure we are able to maintain our independence and remain entirely accountable to our Members. All of our advocacy work is driven by a central objective - how can we achieve the best outcomes for our Members. Funding we receive from other sources, for example the funding we receive from Scottish Government, is for specific projects, none of which are related to our advocacy work.
Our role as the independent body for SGBs is also clearly understood across the Scottish Parliament; this identity and our work in representing the voice of our Members is respected by both the Parliament and all political parties and remains why our input and advice is routinely sought from all parties and across the Parliament.
In practice, the SSA’s advocacy work is extremely varied and includes activities such as responding to consultations, providing briefings to MSPs, holding events with parliamentarians and party researchers and engaging across Government and Parliament. Sometimes this work is tied to achieving a specific outcome with a piece of legislation; often it is about influencing to positively position sport and secure future commitments and improvements. Our role is ongoing and we are continually working to ensure that policymakers understand sport and the role of governing bodies, how sport relates to other policy areas, such as health, and to promote investment in and engagement with sports.
