Table Tennis England welcomes the new four-year cycle which commenced on April 1 2017 and runs until 31 March 2021.

Our funding settlement from Sport England is £8.863 million over that period.

This amount will be split between what are referred to as our ‘core’ and ‘mass’ activities, plus the England talent set-up, and a lesser amount to support our head office and other administrative functions. A separate ring-fenced amount was also included for two technology projects aimed at providing a better experience for clubs and players.

A significant proportion will go towards supporting our ‘core’ market – that is to say members, clubs and leagues, coaches, officials, schools and our national competitions structure.

We will also be sharing in the coming weeks more details on how we will be supporting clubs to develop.

The ‘mass’ market covers participation initiatives including Ping! and Loop, which are specifically funded by Sport England to support the Government’s Active Nation strategy.

The ‘talent’ award supports the talent pathway, including our network of Talent Development Centres.

In the light of these changes, the Table Tennis England Board is currently working on realigning the priorities in our Mission 2025 document, which sets out our vision for the sport, from the grassroots to the elite, for the 10 years from 2015. This work will be completed in the summer and the outcome shared with our members and other stakeholders.

Table Tennis England did not receive any elite performance funding from UK Sport for the four-year cycle through to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics but the Sport England funding includes £133,000 support for the Commonwealth Games 2018 preparation.

The Sport England funding was less than we received for the previous four-year cycle. This is in common with the vast majority of sports, as cuts to the general funding of sport in the UK have been made across the board. We have received a proportionately better settlement than most sports, a reflection in Sport England’s confidence in Table Tennis England following changes in our governance structure and performance in recent years.

However, the settlement means Table Tennis England had to review its staffing and structure, and has made some changes.

The Development and Workforce departments have been reorganised into Development & Volunteering and Mass Participation departments headed by Greg Yarnall and Emily St John respectively.

The former will focus on supporting our membership and grassroots and will work geographically in two Area teams, headed by Martin Ireland (North) and Chris Brown (South). It will also include a smaller national office function covering coach and workforce education, club support, schools and young people, disability and volunteering. The Mass Participation department will focus on the Ping! and Loop projects and other participation initiatives.

The restructure means we have lost four members of staff – John Andrews, Kieron Pelling, Helen Lower and Luke Smith. They have all made a big contribution to Table Tennis England and we would like to place on record our sincere thanks to all four and wish them every success with all future endeavours.

Click here to view the updated staff structure.

Table Tennis England Chief Executive Sara Sutcliffe said: “It has been an uncertain time in the sporting landscape of the UK as National Governing Bodies have waited to find out what the funding situation would be.

“Against this difficult background, we are heartened to have received what we regard as a solid settlement which means we are now in a position to move forward and deliver much of what we wanted to, across our core and mass markets.

“Our dual mission remains to exceed the expectations of our members and to introduce new players to the sport and we look forward to letting everyone know more about how we plan to do that over the new four-year funding cycle.

“I would like to add my personal thanks to all our staff members, particularly those who are no longer part of the organisation, for the passion and dedication they continue to show for the sport.”