BMABA CIC is a CIMSPA Training Provider Partner!

Hi there,

We are very pleased to share that BMABA CIC has been formally approved as a CIMSPA Training Provider Partner, recognised by the Chartered Institute for the Management of Sport and Physical Activity.

The contract has been signed, the partnership is live, and we wanted to take a moment to explain what this actually means for our members, clubs, and the wider martial arts community.

CIMSPA is the professional development body for the UK's sport and physical activity sector. It is incorporated by Royal Charter, funded in part by Sport England, and sits at the heart of how the UK develops, standards-checks, and recognises the workforce across all sport and physical activity disciplines. This is the same body that works alongside UK Coaching, Sport England, local authorities, and national governing bodies to set the standards that define what good coaching, education, and workforce development look like in this country. Until now, martial arts has sat largely outside that ecosystem. That changes today.

What does being a CIMSPA Training Provider Partner actually mean?

It means BMABA has been formally reviewed, assessed, and approved as an organisation capable of developing and delivering professional education that meets the standards expected within the UK sport and physical activity sector. Our policies, quality assurance processes, safeguarding provision, complaints procedures, equality and diversity commitments, and scheme of work were all submitted and reviewed by CIMSPA's education team before approval was granted. Nothing about this was automatic.

It is important to be transparent about one distinction. Being a CIMSPA Training Provider Partner means we are now inside the system and are recognised as a credible education provider. It does not automatically mean that every course we run is CIMSPA endorsed from day one. Endorsement is a separate, course-by-course process. Each programme we submit goes through a formal review, must map to a relevant CIMSPA professional standard, and receives written confirmation of endorsement once approved. We will be working through that process course by course, and we will announce each endorsement clearly as it happens.

What this means for our CPD and education output

For some time, we have been developing a substantial library of CPD content that has been sitting in readiness. We made a deliberate decision not to release much of it until we were inside the CIMSPA framework, precisely so that we would not have to release, withdraw, remap, and re-release it. That was the right call, and the time is now.

Over the coming months, members and clubs can expect a significant release of new CPD across a wide range of areas. This will include coaching practice and methodology, safeguarding and child protection, first aid and emergency response, professional standards and ethics, officiating and refereeing, event management, business and club development, and sector specialist topics directly relevant to martial arts. All of it will be built against CIMSPA professional standards from the ground up, and each piece will be submitted for formal endorsement as it is completed.

This is not a rush job. We have been preparing for this moment for a long time, and the content going out will reflect that.

Why this matters beyond the badge

The CIMSPA partnership does something that goes beyond any logo or marketing benefit. It formally places BMABA inside the national sport workforce development system. That matters for several reasons.

Instructors who complete BMABA CPD that carries CIMSPA endorsement will be building a professional development record that sits within a nationally recognised framework. When they are applying for roles in sport, education, community development, or public health, the organisations they are applying to will understand what CIMSPA means. That recognition does not exist in a vacuum. It is the same framework used by swimming coaches, personal trainers, football coaches, and fitness professionals across the country.

For clubs, it means the professional development of their coaches and instructors can be evidenced against recognised national standards. That has implications for funding applications, local authority relationships, school partnerships, and insurance requirements. Funders like Sport England, the DCMS, and local sports development teams understand CIMSPA fluently. It is a language they already speak.

For BMABA as an organisation, it reinforces what we have been building towards for several years. Our work on RegulationReady, our safeguarding framework, our qualifications structure, and our governance standards have all been pointing in the same direction. This partnership is a formal acknowledgement from outside the martial arts sector that what we are doing meets a serious standard.

What happens next

We are currently working to activate our CIMSPA Partner Portal, finalise our endorsement submissions for the first cohort of CPD products, and update our website and member communications to reflect the partnership correctly. The CIMSPA partner logo will be appearing across the site, and you will begin to see CPD pages updated to show which programmes are mapped to CIMSPA standards and which have been formally endorsed.

We will keep members updated as endorsements are confirmed. Each announcement will be clear about what the status of each product is, so there is never any ambiguity.

If you have questions about the partnership, what it means for your own CPD or professional development pathway, or how it affects your membership, please get in touch with the team. This is a significant moment for BMABA, and it is equally significant for every instructor and club that has been part of building what we have become.