Van Willerton

Experience

• 

  Shropshire Council

  Jan 1997 - Jun 1999

  Youth Sport Development Officer

  Sport & Recreation ServicesKey Achievements• County-wide delivery of the Youth Sports Trust ‘TOPs’ programme, including both curriculum and community programmes (x6 local authorities), as part of the National Junior Sports programme.• Strategic management of sports coaching and development programmes across Shropshire (6 local authorities), resulting in major growth in juniors participating in community sports programmes.• Procured over £2.5million of grant aid, including lottery funds to support programmes for young people. Show less

• 

  Sandwell Council

  Apr 1999 - Jun 2004

  Key Achievements• Responsible for managing the delivery of sport & leisure operations and sports development within a defined territory in Sandwell (Tipton & Rowley Regis), including budget responsibility with revenue targets.• Management of 3 major leisure facilities (Tipton Sports Academy - Community Indoor Tennis Centre, Haden Hill Leisure Centre, Tipton Swimming Centre and 7 facility managers.• Successful lobbying of policy makers and cabinet members, which secured the long-term future of sport and physical activity within the Council and Leisure Trust by outlying the core benefits. Show less Boroughwide Tennis Development Officer and Tennis Manager at Tipton Sports Academy (ITI)Key Achievements• Voted ‘Local Authority of the Year’ by the LTA 1999 for ‘innovative efforts in helping people from diverse backgrounds who would not normally get the opportunity to play tennis’.• Heading the tennis strategy known as ‘Sandwell Focus For Tennis’, which involved leading the team to success by measuring performance against targets, with a budget responsibility of 75K.• Selling concepts, ideas and benefits of participating in tennis through Sandwell Focus For Tennis Steering Group to all agencies, resulting in increased membership growth (600 per week). Show less

  • Assistant Area Manager

    Sept 2002 - Jun 2004

  • Tennis Development Officer (Sport & Leisure Managment)

    Apr 1999 - Sept 2002
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  LTA

  Jul 2004 - Mar 2024

  Directing the LTAs ‘Participation Strategy’ across the tennis landscape at a regional level. Leading the deployment and delivery of strategies and plans to the grass roots of the sport across the club network, park and community tennis venues and educational institutions. Performing project management and evaluation, stakeholder collaboration and account management responsibilities. Engaging and influencing multiple partners to ultimately drive measurable adult and junior participation growth.Key Achievements• Created and implemented ‘11’ local authority tennis business strategies known as ‘Area Plans’, designed to land local projects successfully. Concept being to prepare local authorities for LTA Parks investment and to integrate a network of partners and stakeholders to implement wider community tennis initiatives, tracked by performance metrics and evaluated against agreed strategic priorities.• Scaled the delivery of tennis opportunities within educational institutions across a region, including primary, secondary and higher education. Management of 5 LTA Universities tennis programmes; mobilising 26 ‘Schools Games Organisers’ across 4 ‘Active Partnerships’ to deliver the LTA schools offer. Delivery plans that trained 3,000 of teachers, which relates to over 200,000 pupils participating.• Created online venue support networks for 70 prioritised clubs falling within 9 sub-regional networks. Directed tennis and/or padel facilities to ‘self-service’ online resources across a range of areas and offered bespoke business management interventions when mutually beneficial. Principle being to drive overall club health; to open tennis up to diversifying player bases and to improve long-term sustainability. Show less Engaged with and built strategic relationships with partners and key stakeholders to increase the number of people playing tennis by working across a range of sectors. These included: local authorities, clubs, commercial operators, parks, indoor centres, schools, colleges and universities, as well as Sport England, Youth Sport trust, Active partnerships, and County Associations.Reviewed and evolved strategic and operational plans; project managed LTA facility investment funds; designed and implemented annual competition programmes; and managed allocated budgets to maximise investment through effective partnership work.Key Achievements• Influenced a commercial tennis operator (Wolverhampton LTSC) to take responsibility for establishing and coordinating the Wolverhampton Community Tennis Network. A self-sustainable network of multiple partners that coordinate growth in disability and inclusive tennis participation• Collaborated with a national charitable trust (Tennis for Free) to explore the mutual agenda of growing the number of free parks sites across the Midlands region. Coordinated a regional team that established 20 new sites in 2018 reaching 30 in total, with a 78% growth in the number of unique players.• Created, delivered, and evaluated a digital marketing plan that coordinated assets and promoted the Halloween ‘Tennis Spooktacular’. Analysis demonstrated FB Ads were the most cost-effective platform for ‘pay per click’. Evidence influenced roll out of the LTA’s national ‘Monster Smash’ campaign. Show less Key Achievements• Mobilised 46 County Sports Partnerships (CSPs) to deliver tennis marketing in a joined-up plan. Sourced the CSPs budget streams and secured 100K+ from the CSP Network to complement the LTAs mass participation events known as the ‘Great British Tennis Weekends’. • Influenced two LAs (Telford & Wrekin & Birmingham) to implement new operating models for Community Indoor Tennis Centre’s that were performing below expectations. Facilitated tender processes and supported operators (GLL & Serco) to programme growth which secured tennis for the long term.• Facilitated a change management process and visioning plan for a County Association (Berkshire LTA). This resulted in organisational rationalisation and modernisation, improved business planning processes and more ambitious goal setting for the future. Show less Key Achievements• Headed the delivery of the LTAs Participation Strategy across the Midlands and lead the team (23 staff) to deliver a new way of working to achieve participation and membership growth at key facilities. Holding budget responsibility for the plan, including financial scrutiny of 9 County Association budgets (£1 million+).• Delivered a successful change management process, which established a more efficient and effective staffing resource and network of appropriate sub-regional offices (nine county to 2 sub-regional offices) that was fit for purpose to service tennis across the Midlands region.• Invested £5 million of LTAs Capital Investment programme during five ‘Whole Sport Plan’ (WSP) years. This included, evaluating funding applications, assisting colleagues and applicants with bids, providing business planning support, managing funding providers relationships and monitoring return on investment. Show less Key Achievements • Design and delivery of a County-wide strategic tennis plan that identified priority areas of work, concentrating efforts on a network of ‘key clubs’, where quality was measured key performance indicators. Incentives and rewards were offered for outstanding performance with budget of responsibility (£50K).• Successful project management of multiple facility development projects including a 630K indoor tennis centre project; a 500k Club refurbishment and a 120K floodlighting and kids zone project, as well as monitoring return of this investment.• Implementation of successful staff rationalisation and re-structuring process to promote more efficient and effective response to the demands of the business. Show less

  • Participation Development Partner

    Jan 2019 - Mar 2024

  • Regional Tennis Participation Manager

    Sept 2015 - Dec 2018

  • Strategic Projects Manager & National CSP Lead

    Jul 2014 - Sept 2015

  • Tennis Operations Manager (Midlands Region)

    Oct 2007 - Jul 2014

  • Club Development Officer (Herefordshire & Worcestershire)

    Jul 2004 - Oct 2007