LTA Unveils Diversity And Inclusion Strategy
The LTA has published its new inclusion strategy for tennis in Britain, as it looks to ’embed a culture of everyday inclusion’ throughout all aspects of the sport.
The national governing body for tennis in Britain has set out five key areas of work with 25 commitments to drive change, underpinned by 46 priority actions it will take.
It has also appointed two Non-Executive Directors to its Board, with Sanjay Bhandari, Chair of the anti-discrimination charity Kick It Out, and Executive Vice President, Corporate Development at Discovery, Anil Jhingan taking up roles.
The appointments follow the conclusion of an open recruitment process for the roles, and build upon the recent appointment of seven new Board-nominated Councilors to the LTA Council, and the establishment of the LTA’s new IDEA Group (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility), which aims to act as a forum to ‘listen to and engage with diverse representatives from across tennis’.
The LTA’s commitments will include making inclusion ‘core to who we are’; actively seeking out the views of under-represented groups; improving diversity amongst players, coaches, volunteers, officials and colleagues; and delivering increased opportunities for women and girls in particular.
Highlighting tennis’s history of pioneering the way on inclusion and diversity in sport, The LTA says it has compiled a detailed analysis of current diversity data across different roles in tennis, with a commitment to collecting, tracking and publishing new data on an annual basis to provide transparency on progress.
The new inclusion strategy forms part of the LTA’s overall vision to ‘open tennis up’, and follows consultation with ‘leading individuals and organisations’ with expertise on inclusion and diversity.
“I’d like to thank everyone who has contributed to this strategy – it’s an important step in our mission to open tennis up and ensure tennis can be played and enjoyed by anyone, no matter their age, background or ability,” said Scott Lloyd, CEO, LTA.
“We know that we still have further to go in order to reflect the diversity of the communities we represent through all areas of tennis in Britain, however this strategy will help ensure inclusion is kept at the heart of our sport. We want tennis to be a leader in this area, but to make this a reality I encourage every tennis player, coach, official, volunteer, fan and colleague to help us make inclusion something that is just the norm in our sport.
“As the national governing body it is our role to lead the way in driving change, and we were incredibly pleased to be able to bring in high calibre additions to our Board and Council. The new appointments we have announced today with Sanjay and Anil both bring with them tremendous experience and will help ensure we are well placed to continue our progress.”
Rachel Baillache, LTA Board Inclusion & Diversity Champion, added: “The actions we have put in place as part of our vision of tennis opened up over the past few years are already beginning to impact diversity in our sport positively. But we know there is much more to do, and this strategy sets out how we will go about driving the change that is needed across the whole of tennis.
“It is about long-term, cultural change, and we will not be satisfied until we have achieved that. We will hold ourselves to account for constant and consistent progress towards our aim of a sport that reflects our communities, and the Board is looking forward to being able to report against this in the coming years”.
To support the publication of the inclusion strategy, the LTA has launched a new piece of video content (above), ‘Everyday Inclusion – It’s Just Tennis’ featuring contributions from members of the IDEA Group and the wider tennis community, speaking in their own words about inclusion in tennis.
