Louise Martin, chair of Sportscotland, has said that she is satisfied with the progress made in reorganising the sports body.

Speaking at the Annual Partners meeting in Edinburgh, she said said the decentralisation of the organisation is now taking shape and will be rolled out over the coming months, benefitting Scottish sport at all levels.

Following discussions with the Scottish Government, sportscotland has been told to extend the principle of partnership working with Scottish sport’s key organisations by increasing the number of area offices throughout Scotland.

Six area offices will support the new headquarters in Glasgow, rather than the four originally proposed following a review of how Sportscotland works.

It is hoped that the decentralised approach will enable the sports body to address duplication of resources.

Martin said: “Having staff working from six areas, rather than the four originally proposed, will allow us to build on the existing excellent partnerships we have developed around the Area Institute Network and extend the concept further.

“These proposals are aimed at sportscotland delivering effectively and ensuring our partners are best supported to deliver sporting pathways that not only improve performance, but increase participation.

The focus of work in each of the six areas will include leading the delivery of national and regional coach development; working with Scottish governing bodies to establish and deliver regional sport specific plans; implementing national and regional athlete development programmes; and developing national and regional SGB coaches, employed by the SGB and deployed to regions.

As part of the restructure, the Sportscotland headquarters will be based at Templeton Business Centre, Doges, Glasgow Green for an interim period, until the completion of its permanent new headquarters on the site of the National Indoor Sports Arena and Velodrome.

Sportscotland will take over the new accommodation in November 2008 and it is anticipated that the interim move will be completed by April 2009.