Basketball England is pleased to announce that after a significant and robust recruitment process, all 10 regions across the country have now appointed both a Regional Chair as well as a Regional Talent Manager.
Basketball England’s new Operating Model for Regions has been taking shape for some time in an effort to help support the sport’s grassroots. The Model focuses on improved collaboration, a single unified approach and better two-way communication between Basketball England and the 10 Regions.
A more defined role for regions with clearly established responsibilities should enable the sport to have a more joined up approach across key activities with consistent communication across the country. In turn, each region will act as an arm of Basketball England, delivering the same objectives and shared goals.
Basketball England’s Senior Relationship and Coordination Manager Jon Stonebridge said, “The new and existing chairs offer a wealth of basketball experience that will help shape and implement Basketball England’s strategies and programmes at a local level. The roles will also provide valuable insight from within their Regions that will help to frame future basketball initiatives. We are very pleased to be working with all the Chairpersons enabling Basketball England to helping drive the sport forwards with together.”
Basketball England’s Programme & Pathway Integration Manager Charlie Ford said, “The Regional Talent Managers have an important role in landing the soon to be launched ‘Player Development Framework’. They will primarily be involved in mentoring coaches within the Talent Pathway and clubs but also coordinating all local Talent programme activity and integrating with the existing England Development Programmes.”
Back in January, the first two Regional Chairs were selected in the East and West Midlands to kick off the new wave of appointments. With the recruitment process now complete, there are 4 returning Chairs who successfully reapplied for their roles and 4 new appointments who are now in place.
With the ten Chairs helping to pull together the efforts of clubs, coaches and volunteers in each region, Talent Managers will primarily support Basketball England talent plans on a local level. This will involve helping with the implementation of the Player Development Framework and the programmes within the Talent Pathway.
The full list of appointments is as follows:
| Region | Chair | Talent Manager |
| North West | Tom Stansfield | Nick Ibberson |
| [email protected] | [email protected] | |
| North East | Howard Leighton | Ian MacLeod |
| [email protected] | [email protected] | |
| Yorkshire | Andy Harrison-Beaumont | Rob Saipe |
| [email protected] | [email protected] | |
| South | Zach Meekings | Matt Johnson |
| [email protected] | [email protected] | |
| South West | Geoff Steer | Ben Roper |
| [email protected] | [email protected] | |
| South East | Cristina Stanciuca | Adam Davies |
| [email protected] | [email protected] | |
| London | Patricia Fairclough OBE | Steve Bucknall |
| [email protected] | [email protected] | |
| East Midlands | Martin Ford | Martin Ford |
| [email protected] | [email protected] | |
| East | Angela Griffin | Michael Ball |
| [email protected] | [email protected] | |
| West Midlands | Luke Freer | Danny Williams |
| [email protected] | [email protected] |
