With all jobs there are some things that are a pleasure, some a chore. Later tonight I will be giving the opening address to the National Conference of the English Institute of Sport (EIS) in Cheltenham. A task that falls very much into the former category. 

I will be speaking to a room full of more than 200 practitioners of sports science and medicine dedicated to helping our elite athletes be in the best possible shape they can be, using their expertise and experience to help make the EIS a crucial part of the high performance landscape. 

These are people that understand the business of sport and understand what it takes to win and succeed. As I say, it will be only a pleasure to speak to them, and give them a positive message from UK Sport about where they stand today.

For they are also a group of people who have had to endure considerable uncertainty over the past 18 months or so. Since the strategic review of its operations that UK Sport carried out in conjunction with the EIS back in 2008, the organisation has undergone some radical change and repositioning. 

A new business model has seen the shift to a more demand-led approach to their services, where Olympic and Paralympic sports are more empowered to decide where and when they want their athletes to be treated. A new structure has meant a reorganisation of the way in which they operate internally; and this has been accompanied by inevitable changes in personnel.

The EIS has responded to these challenges extremely well, and I will be paying tribute to this. The people there are now well positioned to deliver world class services to our athletes at a vital time: with not much more than two years to go to London 2012 we cannot afford to feel that support is not there. Much of this change has been brought about through the leadership of Conor O’Shea, and his decision to move back to his first love of rugby union, whilst completely understandable, is a blow. 

But I have no doubt it is one that the EIS can overcome quickly - and I will be working closely with Steve Cram (pictured), the chairman of the EIS,  to help him find Conor’s replacement. 

Perhaps the most important factor we will be considering in the new director is the ability to continue and build on the good work of the past year. Continuity, not radical change, is the key now. 

Indeed that is something of a message for all organisations involved in the build up to the Olympics and Paralympics in 2012. It was certainly the basis for the important investment decisions that UK Sport took at the end of 2009, where we sought to bring as much certainty to bear as possible for all sports.  

We made some very minor but important adjustments to awards based on our prediction of future inflation and this, together with the fantastic boost given to our funding by Visa's support for the Team 2012 sponsorship initiative, allowed us to make awards that still prioritised medal potential, but also solidified the base by giving sports that are making real strides in performance terms more certainty.  

These decisions as always provided some come back - whenever an organisation like UK Sport - funding in this case 28 Olympic and 19 Paralympic summer sports and disciplines - has to make relative judgements on performance grounds, it is inevitable that these calls might lead representatives of sports that have not done as well as they would like to complain.    

Our strategy however is clear and transparent: we make decisions based on our own objective performance evidence, not on submissions from the sports themselves; they are always relative judgements, with the need of one sport having to be balanced against those of all the others; and we only fund where we see genuine performance need. Given the overwhelming support we have received from Olympic and Parlaympic sports for our moves back in December, I am confident we got this one right. 

What we have therefore achieved is as much certainty as we can bring in the current environment: and my message to the EIS tonight will be along the same lines. While there has been a turbulent time, we should be settling down now to a singular, ruthless focus on performance:  first for the Vancouver Games that are merely days away, and then on London.

Everyone involved must realise however that absolute certainty is a pipedream. Sport is certainly not immune from the tough economic realities of the current time, and no one can be sure that they will not be impacted over the coming months and years. 

Likewise we are entering a period where the political landscape of a General Election will throw up even more scrutiny and challenge than usual.  And of course sport itself is unpredictable – that is one of its glories. 

What we can do is ensure we are as best prepared as possible for potential changes going forward - and world class in our outlook and activity as we collectively seek to ensure that our athletes line up on the start in their competitions over the next few years as well prepared and supported as they can possibly be.  

John Steele is chief executive of UK Sport, the country's high performance sports agency.