Director of Development, George Cull, will be leaving North Yorkshire Sport at the end of August. In this blog, George reflects on 17 years with North Yorkshire Sport, the changes he has seen, and some of the highlights and memorable moments along the way:
The North Yorkshire Sport of today is so different from the organisation I walked into 17 years ago. Only three members of staff know a version of North Yorkshire Sport without me being employed, so it is safe to say that there is a lot of me in the organisation and my fingerprints are everywhere.
Moving to another job will be a big change for me and for the team, who will no doubt find it a bit weird at first, but will very quickly move onwards and upwards.
Now feels like a really good time to be going. The charity is in a great place and there are exciting things happening locally and nationally. That makes the conditions right for fresh brains (and fresher faces!) to come in and move things on to the next level. North Yorkshire Sport are assembling a talented and diverse management structure that will provide a greater depth and breadth of leadership, and I am really excited to see the charity continuing to evolve and grow.
As I have been drafting my handover notes and tying up loose ends, it has given me the opportunity to think about the conditions we have created over the years, the things that have helped North Yorkshire Sport evolve, and what I have learned from my time here.
Creating the conditions for change
I think one of our strengths has been the stability and continuity of our senior leadership team. For many years, that has been me, David Watson and Damien Smith. We have challenged the hell out of each other over the years, and done it in the right spirit. That working dynamic has been really important and I have hugely valued working alongside these two for so long (although I don’t know if they would say the same!).
Whilst the leadership team will benefit from new blood, I think that stability and challenge have been key ingredients in how we have developed our staff team and established our place in the local system.
Talking about the team, I am really proud of the staff team I am leaving behind.
I have seen many talented members of staff come and go over the years, but the team we have today is, from a background, life experience and professional experience perspective, our most diverse, inclusive and welcoming since I started. This is reflected in our staff Net Promoter Score (NPS), which is at its highest at 57, demonstrating how positively people feel about working at North Yorkshire Sport
Our most recent appointments have commented on how easy it has been to integrate into the team and It feels like people have been here for much longer than they actually have because of that seamless integration. That is something the organisation should be incredibly proud of. I was really pleased to oversee a review of our recruitment policy last year, and that is part of it, but everyone has to do their bit to make new staff feel welcome – and this lot sure do that!
Our Board has also evolved massively over the years. We moved from essentially having an advisory board while we were hosted, to having a fully accountable and diverse group of trustees who provide the right balance of challenge and support.
North Yorkshire Sport should be really proud of its governance. Good governance takes time, effort and energy, and Damien has done a sterling job overseeing that. That investment is now reaping its rewards.
A major part of that journey was the launch of North Yorkshire Sport as an independent charity in 2014. Up until then we had been hosted by Harrogate Borough Council. Under the leadership of our Chair, John Crowther, we explored the options for our future hosting and took the decision to launch as an independent charity.
That was probably the single most significant moment in North Yorkshire Sport’s history.
Becoming an independent charity enabled us to attract more investment into York and North Yorkshire and launch fundraising activities. It also allowed us to sit as a recognised voluntary sector anchor organisation and have a level of independence when speaking to the local authorities, the Mayoral Combined Authority and health partners.
Our support to North Yorkshire Council during the reorganisation of local government was valued because we could bring a stable, independent and neutral voice to the conversation. That role would have been much harder to play without the independence we had created.
From delivering programmes to changing systems
Our relationship with partners has also changed significantly.
In the early days, our partners were predominantly National Governing Bodies of Sport and Sports Development Officers, and our main focus was programmes and projects. Over the years that has evolved. Our partners now come from across the VCSE sector, health, transport, neighbourhoods and place, as well as sport and leisure.
That required a significant shift in mindset.
We moved from asking, “How do we deliver this national programme?” towards asking, “What are the challenges facing our communities and our partners, and what role can movement, activity and sport play in tackling them?”
That change in mindset has been fundamental to the development of North Yorkshire Sport, and probably represents the biggest change in how we see ourselves as an organisation.
The evidence that our partners value this approach is really encouraging. This year our partner NPS reached another high point at 86. The people we work with trust us, value us and see us as an important part of the system.
Our relationships nationally have evolved in a similar way.
With Sport England, it feels much more like we are working together, rather than the parent/child relationship that symbolised much of the programme focused work in the early days.
With Active Partnerships National Organisation, there is now much greater support for and championing of the Active Partnership network. It is helping to cement our role as the localised network working in places across England who are connecting, convening and creating the conditions for movement, activity and sport.
That shift from being primarily a delivery organisation to being a local system partner is probably one of the things I am most proud of.
Being a caring organisation
Another part of the culture that makes me proud is that North Yorkshire Sport is a caring employer and organisation.
Over the years, we have had colleagues experience bereavements and other difficult circumstances, and I have been proud of the way we have supported people as individuals and tried to give them what they needed.
I experienced that care myself after losing my mother. I also felt it after having a seizure while on holiday in 2023. When I eventually made it home, I was itching to get back to work, but was told to take more time and make sure I was fully fit and well.
That care and compassion is not commonplace in every organisation. It is definitely one of the things that makes me proud to have been associated with North Yorkshire Sport.
The moments that shaped us
When you spend 17 years somewhere, there are inevitably certain moments that stick in the mind. Some were significant for North Yorkshire Sport; others were significant for me personally. There are far too many to mention, but a few stand out.
2012 – Olympic legacy. Delivering an Olympic legacy programme, including visits from the Olympic mascots, the Olympic Torch Relay, North Yorkshire School Games events and a visit from Lord Coe. We felt such a buzz from doing these events to celebrate a historic home country games.
2014 – Becoming a charity. The launch of North Yorkshire Sport as an independent charity – as I said earlier, the single most significant chapter in our history.
2015 – First Steps with Health. Being referenced in the Healthy Weight Strategy for North Yorkshire, which symbolised a shift towards understanding the role of movement, activity and sport in a health context. It was just a reference in a strategy document, but it started to position us in this space and became a catalyst for how we work now.
2019 – Mental health Fund Launched. I led the creation of a designated fund focused on improving mental health through sport. We have since raised more than £20,000 through sponsored activities and donations.
2020 – COVID-19. Steering the team through the challenges of the pandemic, providing both personal support and professional guidance. It also saw me dressed in our Teddy the Terrier Mascot (and scaring my daughter) filming virtual challenges to share on our social channels.
2021 – Changing how we worked. Restructuring the team to be more focused on working across complex systems, including designing a systems leadership programme for a cohort of leaders across the public and voluntary sector.
2023 – A new North Yorkshire. Vesting Day for the new North Yorkshire Council and the shift to two local authorities.
2023 – New opportunities. Securing the contract to manage a UKSPF sport and physical activity grants programme on behalf of North Yorkshire Council. This further cemented us as an organisation who could manage and invest significant public funds.
2024 – County Durham Sport. Securing a part-time secondment as Managing Director of County Durham Sport and navigating the transfer and close-down of the charity. It was an experience that taught me a huge amount about leadership, change and organisational resilience.
2025 – A new chapter locally. Being a prominent part of the launch of Mayor David Skaith’s Moving Forward programme and North Yorkshire Sport being appointed to manage the Movement, Activity and Sport programme.
Looking back, what strikes me most is that these moments were rarely isolated. They were chapters in a much longer journey of North Yorkshire Sport becoming clearer about who we are, what we are good at and the role we can play in our communities.
The things I wish we’d done differently
Of course, 17 years is a long time, and there are things I wish we had progressed more quickly or opportunities I feel we missed.
Developing our people. Our staff turnover, particularly in the early days, has been relatively low – a sign that people have generally valued the work and the workplace conditions. But I do feel that I could have done more to support staff to develop their skills and experience and progress, for those who wanted to.
Education and school sport. One of my biggest disappointments is that policy around supporting the education sector has not been as effective as I would have liked. We have connected up many parts of the system really well, but education, PE and school sport still feels somewhat outside of that system. I am hopeful that the new DfE PE and School Sport contract provides an opportunity for more leadership and accountability in this area.
York. North Yorkshire Sport enjoys a really strong relationship with North Yorkshire Council, but we have not developed as quickly with City of York Council. We didn’t capitalise on the momentum from producing the York Sport and Physical Activity Strategy. The signs are really promising now, though, and I am looking forward to seeing what emerges from the relationship, with some exciting things already in the pipeline.
Learning to work in the grey. In the early days, the sector felt quite competitive. There was a sense of jostling for position and a pressure to know the answers. Now, the culture is much more geared around being curious, listening to others and figuring things out together. We cannot start with the solutions when we don’t know what problem we are looking to tackle.
I wish I had known this in the early days. It certainly affected my behaviour, but hindsight is a wonderful thing.
Working systemically is a challenge, especially for staff who need to see, touch and feel things. We do need action, but we also need to spend time getting the foundations and conditions right. Otherwise, things won’t land properly, or we risk the classic of hitting the target but missing the point.
I am comfortable in the grey areas, but it has been a challenge working with those who need the tangible. That is probably something I have learned as much about myself as I have about organisational leadership.
So, after 6,331 days…
……….my time at North Yorkshire Sport comes to an end on 30 August.
There have been high points and challenging times. There have been things we got right, things we got wrong, and plenty of things we would probably do differently if we had our time again. But more than anything, there has been an enormous amount of learning, friendship, fun and laughter.
I want to thank David and Damien for being great Leadership Team colleagues and friends; our Board for their support, diligence and challenge; and every member of the team, past and present, for their efforts, their insights, their tea and coffee making, and the fun and laughter we have shared along the way.
I also want to thank the brilliant people across our partner organisations who make York and North Yorkshire such a great place to work. We would not achieve anything without working together, and as one former colleague used to say: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”
I leave knowing that North Yorkshire Sport is in a really good place. There is a talented team, strong relationships, good governance and some exciting opportunities ahead.
I also leave feeling proud that I have played a part in shaping the organisation that it is today. I am proud of what we have achieved, but also proud that I have tried to walk the walk as well as talk the talk.
Over the years I have taken part in marathons, bike rides, football competitions, rounders and even shooting (with one eye blindfolded!), as well as the countless miles I have cycled to and from work. Being active has been part of my life as well as my work, so I was particularly pleased when a colleague from a partner organisation saw me arrive at a meeting with my bike and commented:
“It was encouraging to see you practise what you preach.”
That probably sums up what I have tried to do over the last 17 years – not always perfectly, but always trying to make sure that what I believe in and what I talk about is reflected in how I work and live.
There is a lot of me in North Yorkshire Sport, and my fingerprints are certainly everywhere. But now it is time for a new generation of people to leave their fingerprints too.
Here’s to the next chapter of North Yorkshire Sport.
