Developed by Sporting Equals, which promotes ethnic diversity across sport and physical activity, and the Sport Monitoring Advisory Panel and funded by Sport England, the RRI seeks to understand ethnically diverse representation within national governing bodies of sport (NGBs).
BE, which was named the Sporting Equals Sports Organisation of the Year for 2023, was ranked third out of 58 Sport England/UK Sport-funded NGBs who responded to the survey for 2023. The British Basketball Federation (BBF) and EMD UK, the national governing body for group exercise, received A grades.
The RRI evaluates data against the census and across a criterion for Board, Senior Leadership/Management Teams, Senior Coaches, Players/Athletes and, for the first time in 2023, Officials.
BE was graded ‘A’ for Board, Coaches and Athletes, ‘B’ for Officials and ‘C’ for Senior Leadership, well above average for all categories, leading to an overall 'B' rating. BE was given a 'A' rating in 2022 when the Officials category wasn't assessed.
Basketball England CEO Stewart Kellett said: “We are pleased to be in the top three of almost 60 governing bodies rated for race representation. We continue to stand by our pledge and with our players, coaches and the whole community against racism, and in opposing hate.
“The rating, while positive and a result of the work we have done and commitments we have made in recent years, it illustrates there is more work to do in certain areas of our game to be better and more representative of the sport.
“We will continue to strive to create a culture within English basketball that is safe, welcoming, fun and inclusive for everyone.”
Brandie Deignan, BE board member and chair of the ED&I Commitee, said: “We are tremendously proud of our achievements thus far, but we are also mindful that the progress we can achieve is not finite.
“At BE we aim to continue to foster an atmosphere of respect where our collective differences and similarities relentlessly inspire and empower everyone and will actively continue to do so.”
In recent years, BE has made progress on racial diversity across areas of policy, strategy, workforce, coaching and elite talent.
BE’s recruitment practices have also been revised to be stronger, safer and more inclusive, including increasing the range of platforms used to advertise employment opportunities and bringing together ethnically diverse selection panels.
This has seen major shifts in the diversity of BE’s workforce and the gathering of more insight on the barriers and motivations to playing, coaching, officiating, employment and top level of management for ethnically diverse communities.
BE’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (ED&I) Committee and ED&I manager have helped BE take a stronger approach to tackling discrimination and promoting fairness and respect across basketball.
The 2023 Sporting Equals Race Representation Index (RRI) has seen the highest engagement rate ever, hitting 92% of NGBs. This is up from 75% in the first year and 86% in the second year.
As well as hitting the highest ever engagement rate, the 2023 RRI welcomed four first time submissions from NGBs; The Football Association (the FA), GB Boxing, British Handball and British Volleyball.
The RRI was commissioned by Sporting Equals following the Black Lives Matter protests over the murder of US citizen George Floyd in 2020.
It aims to hold NGBs to account for pledges made and provide a baseline on racial diversity in sport, tracking year on year.
