This week marks the start of Mental Health Awareness Week which is why STS felt it is important to remind the shooting community about the leaflet shared in March. Visit the articles on the STS website for more information about the leaflet and to download your copy. For this year’s Mental Health Awareness Week, the theme is kindness. To read more about mental health Awareness Week and the importance of kindness, as well as ways of getting involved and donating, visit the Mental Health Foundation website.

To help members during this time of lock down, STS is pleased to announce a programme of online webinars on areas of interest expressed by members through our education survey. To keep sessions accessible they are completely free, are normally only an hour long and run in the early evening so members still working can access them.

On 1st April STS launched a campaign to highlight our members supporting the NHS front line. In return for individuals getting in touch to let us know about their shooting and what they are doing on the front line, we are rewarding these key workers with free Enhanced STS Membership in 2021. This is our May update, letting you know about our members doing amazing work on the NHS front line, highlighting these superstars so we can say thank you to them! We also understand there will be many more of our members working in essential services so while this project is focused on the NHS for the time being, we also want to say a big thank you to all those working in other essential services. Keep up the fantastic work you are doing!

STS has been reflecting on and refining the process used in 2019, as well as reviewing and benchmarking the scores against international standards and making some alterations. With that in mind, STS is pleased to confirm that the selection policy for the 2020/21 Performance Programme is now available on the STS website for anyone to access.

This article contains a brief which will be uploaded to the Police Scotland website today (20th March 2002) and has been approved at Executive level and which outlines Police Scotland’s interim processes. STS understands that these matters are of huge importance to the shooting community so are supporting the dissemination of this information through our website, social media channels and directly with members. We have also included a summary of the latest news government announcement tonight.

Last week we issued an email to provide an update on COVID-19 (Coronavirus). Following further guidance received over the weekend, combined with our review of the situation, please see below a further notice and guidance.

STS has received some guidance from sportscotland with regards COVID-19 (Coronavirus) so we want to share this for your own health and to help limit the spread of the virus as much as possible. The article also provides an updated position with regards STS events and training camps as things currently stand.

STS is pleased to confirm that individual members and member clubs are able to sign up for membership for 2020 as of 2nd December. STS Membership for 2020 comes with the same packages and benefits that proved popular in 2019 but has now introduced a reduced membership for individuals with a disability. The club memberships that have proved popular last year are also unchanged, with the Club Reward Scheme and added benefits for clubs signing up 90% or more of their active shooting membership also returning in 2020.

The Home Office have contacted STS, asking us to highlight that they have now updated GOV.UK guidance with regards to a potential no deal Brexit.

The introduction of statutory guidance is designed to improve consistency across the UK in police firearms licensing. The draft guidance sets out the checks that should be made, the weight to be given to the evidence and the factors that need to be taken into account. The consultation started on 23rd July and will remain open for eight weeks, finishing on 17 September 2019.

STS is delighted to confirm the appointment of Jennifer Ross to the STS staffing team in the role of Performance & Pathways Manager. Jennifer previously carried out the role on a contracted basis but with support from sportscotland secured for the next 2 years, STS made this an employed position and is delighted to confirm Jennifer’s appointment to continue the good work already underway.

At the start of the month, STS announced that it will be holding it’s first Coaching Conference on Saturday 25 May. bringing shooting specific topics and discussion opportunities to coaches in the sport. Following feedback from the shooting community and further reflection, it has been decided that this event should be postponed.