What facility improvements does your sports club really need?

Sport England has launched an online consultation on what facility improvements it should offer to sports clubs through the Inspired Facilities fund.

 

Part of the Places People Play programme which will deliver a legacy of increased participation in sport from London 2012, Inspired Facilities will offer clubs a catalogue of standard items such as floodlighting, coaching equipment, or grounds maintainance equipment. This eliminates the burden of procurement and generates economies of scale. Sport England needs you to tell them what improvements the Inspired Facilities fund should offer. 

 

Sport England want to design a funding programme which will reach out to as many clubs as possible, offering relatively small capital grants which will create a big impact on the people who play sport there. Modernised or extended changing facilities or sports lighting for example, can make a major difference to small clubs, both in their ability to attract new participants and retain their existing support.

 

To maximise the impact of the money Sport England have, and to make applying for grants as easy as possible for clubs, they intend to prepare a “catalogue” of many of the standard facility improvements clubs would like to make if they had funds available, and they will enter into framework arrangements with suppliers to ensure that we can benefit from economies of scale. In removing the need from clubs to procure suppliers, they believe that this will lower the barriers to entry for clubs, lessen the burden on those who are running clubs and enable us to reach outside of traditional heartlands, getting to those areas where the need is greatest.

 

Given the importance of clubs to sport at community level, and the impact Sport England believe we can make right across the country with this investment, they are proposing to make up to a thousand grants available of between £20,000 -£150,000.

 

Your help is sought in identifying the facility developments community sports clubs need.

 

Please take a few minutes to complete our online questionnaire and help Sport England shape this funding programe.

 

Chris Turner
Club Development Manager
T: 01785 619681
E: cturner@staffordbc.gov.uk