Sport England Update

£10 million to tackle the gender gap in sport

Sport England has revealed the sports projects that will benefit from a £10 million National Lottery fund to encourage Active Women and tackle the gender gap in sport.

Sports and Olympics Minister Hugh Robertson and badminton star Gail Emms joined Sport England’s Chief Executive, Jennie Price, in Nottingham to name the 20 projects we’re supporting.

The targeted investment will get more women from disadvantaged communities - and women caring for children - playing sport as part of the drive to deliver a mass participation legacy from London 2012.

At present, one in eight women regularly play sport in England. Whilst this has increased significantly in the past five years, it still trails behind men’s participation, with one in five taking part. Women from disadvantaged communities play even less sport, with less than one in 10 women taking part.

Through Active Women, sports groups, charities and others organisations across the country were challenged to consult local women and then develop sporting projects that dealt with the barriers to participation they highlighted.

“For many women with children or those managing a tight budget, sport – and time to themselves - can slip down the list of priorities,” said Sport England’s Chief Executive, Jennie Price. “The projects we’re funding have asked local women what is stopping them from getting involved and what sports interest them, before coming up with an offer that is appealing and accessible.”

Chosen through a competitive process, the investment decisions announced include:

Netball in the City – which will get over 12,000 women back on the court in Bristol, Leeds, London, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham and Wolverhampton. More than £1 million has been awarded to England Netball for the project, which will provide fun and accessible sporting opportunities, through both traditional and modified versions of netball.
A council’s domestic violence team will receive £154,509 to run a sports project at Hyndburn in Lancashire for women who’ve suffered abuse. Fit, Free & Fabulous will use the power of sport to help women to improve their health and self-esteem.
£2.295 million has been awarded to a project that will get 30,000 women playing ‘doorstep sports’ in 49 of the most disadvantaged areas in England. Delivered by a consortium of sports organisations, led by charity StreetGames, it will also see over 200 events and festivals organised and 1,700 new coaches and volunteers recruited.
A grant of £147,000 is going to Southampton charity Catch 22 for a project that will introduce women to activities such as boxercise, badminton, swimming and canoeing. Childcare will be provided for mums and lots of local sessions will be offered at a very low cost, with keen participants encouraged to stay on as volunteers or take coaching badges.
A National Women's Cycling Network will be created thanks to a £992,159 investment which will see 80,000 women getting on their bikes. British Cycling will: recruit cycling champions to organise led-rides and inspire others to take part; recruit women cycling instructors to teach basic skills and help people gain confidence on the roads; and organise nine women-only mass cycling events.

“We have many fantastic female athletes in this country, but not enough women participating at sport’s grassroots,” said Hugh Robertson MP. “More needs to be done to encourage women to participate in sport, particularly those from disadvantaged communities. The £10 million being invested by Sport England will give women the chance to try out new sports as part of a dedicated programme and hopefully keep them in sport in the future.”

Gail Emms, who became a mum nine months ago with the arrival of Harry, said: “As a new mum, I know only too well how difficult it can be to make time for yourself and to get out there and play sport. The projects receiving investment from Sport England today will make a big difference because they’ve really thought through the challenges women face in becoming regular sports participants.”

Sue Tibballs, chief executive of the Women's Sport and Fitness Foundation said: “WSFF welcomes Sport England’s investment to increase the number of women from disadvantaged communities and mothers playing sport. Women make up over 50% of the population, yet despite this, many often find it hard to access sport due to a complex set of barriers and practical requirements. Projects tailored specifically to meet the needs of female participants are hugely beneficial and support our goal of creating a nation of active women.”

To find out more about the projects funded by Sport England’s Active Women programme, visit Sport England’s website.

Cycling and running boom shows appetite
for sports participation

New participation figures paint a mixed picture of progress in grassroots sport, with strong growth in running and cycling but a drop in numbers for other major sports.

Overall, the slow but steady increase in participation numbers seen over the past five years continues, with 6,938,000 people now taking part in sport at least three times a week.

Find out more?

Sports Unsung Hero

The BBC Sports Unsung Hero for 2010 today revealed how Sport England’s Sportsmatch fund is helping him do even more sporting good in his local community.

Lance Haggith, who picked up the prestigious BBC award, received £10,000 from Sportsmatch for Bounceback - a project that uses basketball to steer young offenders and young people from low income areas away from gang culture, drugs, alcohol and vandalism and into sport.

Find out more?

Playing field safeguards working

Research from Sport England shows that 95% of all planning applications affecting a sports playing field in 2008/09 resulted in the places where people play sport being improved or safeguarded.

Sport England objects to all applications unless the developer can prove it will improve or safeguard sports provision.

Find out more?

Sports Market Segments - a new tool to help understand
the nation's attitudes to sport and motivations

We are pleased to announce the launch of the Sport England Market Segmentation web tool. It incorporates a refresh of the 19 Sports Market Segments.

This powerful method of analysis groups adults (18+) into 19 distinct sport market 'segments' and provides insight into each one's sporting behaviours and preferences, as well as their motivations and barriers to playing sport, satisfaction with the sporting experience, and the best ways to contact and market opportunities to them.

The tool is located at: http://segments.sportengland.org - there is a link from the Sport England website's research pages. It contains:

19 pen portraits - each segment's characteristics and suggestions of how to reach them;

index tables - detailed data enabling comparisons with the national average and others of a similar age;

the web tool - allowing you to find out which segments play your sport and where they are located. Results are displayed on a map with the option to use charts or tables to analyse the data. You can also search for sports that the segments currently play - or would like to - and other characteristics.

Active People Survey 4 results

Results of the fourth year of the Active People Survey (APS4), which started in mid October 2009 and ran continuously until mid October 2010, were published on 16 December 2010.

During 2009/10, 6.938 million adults (aged 16 and over) in England participated in sport three times a week for 30 minutes at moderate intensity. This equates to 16.5% of the adult population.

More results can be found on Sport England's website.

Active People Survey 5 (APS5) is well underway

APS5 fieldwork started on the 15th October and we have now successfully completed the first quarter, with results to be published on 17th March.

In addition to continuing to build our core data on overall participation rates, and the types of sports people take part in, we have included some exciting new questions in the survey including more details about coaching, the types of volunteering people do, the motivations and barriers that impact on participation, and levels of subjective wellbeing.

A copy of the full APS5 questionnaire is available on request from the Research team.

Sport England and Leonard Cheshire Disability launch Yoodo Sports

Sport England and the charity Leonard Cheshire Disability have joined forces to launch Yoodo Sports, a new project to help people with disabilities take up and enjoy sport.

Yoodo Sports will bring disabled people together with activity ‘buddies’ – people who may or may not have an impairment themselves but want to help others play sport or be active. This initiative will make it easier to find someone to exercise with and have fun.

Find out more?

Lords see Community sport in action

Disabled children and young people from Camden met two members of the House of Lords during a visit to Swiss Cottage School to see grassroots sport in action.

Baroness Young of Hornsey and Baroness Henig, members of the House of Lords EU Sub-Committee on Social Policies and Consumer Protection, met Camden Council’s Disability Sport and Physical Activity team to see how sport is being provided for disabled people in the borough.

Find out more?

Sportsmatch re-opens with improvements
for 2011

Sport England’s Chair, Richard Lewis, today urged grassroots sports organisations to look at how they could benefit from the Sportsmatch programme, which has been re-launched for 2011-12.

For the coming year, we have made some minor changes to Sportsmatch to make life easier for sports clubs.

Find out more?

Click here to return to the newsletter