Sport England Update

Creating a sporting habit for life

Sport England and Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt today (10 Jan) gave details of a new five-year youth and community sport strategy that will deliver on Lord Coe’s 2012 Games bid promise to inspire a generation to get involved in sport.

Between 2012 and 2017 over £1 billion of National Lottery and Exchequer funding will be invested to create a meaningful and lasting community sport legacy by growing sports participation at the grassroots level.Under the new strategy, every secondary school in England is set to host a community sports club, and £10 million will be made available to open up school sport facilities for wider public use.

In 2017, five years after the London Olympic and Paralympic Games, we want to have transformed sport in England so that playing sport becomes a lifelong habit for more people and a regular choice for the majority. In particular, we want to raise the number of 14- to 25-year-olds playing sport.

National governing bodies (NGBs) will continue to play a pivotal role in increasing participation, particularly among young people. And, as the Secretary of State has outlined today, a tougher regime of payment-by-results will be a fundamental feature of our performance management system. This will be coupled with a new incentive fund to enable those doing exceptionally well to achieve more.

County sports partnerships will support NGBs, foster local links and help transition young people into clubs. We will support and work with local authorities through our advocacy tools and investment including a new community activation fund.

Partners including the National Partners, StreetGames, the Dame Kelly Holmes Legacy Trust, the Youth Sport Trust and others will add value and support our work.

“Changing the sporting behaviour of a generation is a major challenge which has not been achieved by any other Olympic host nation,” said Sport England Chief Executive Jennie Price. “With a new focus on young people and an even tougher, Government-backed, regime of payment by results, Sport England and its partners are determined to deliver.”

Under the strategy:

• Every one of the 4,000 secondary schools in England, will be offered a community sport club on its site with a direct link to one or more NGBs, depending on the local clubs in its area
• County sports partnerships will be given new resources to create effective links locally between schools and sport in the community
• All secondary schools who wish to do so will be supported to open up, or keep open, their sports facilities for local community use and at least a third of these will receive additional funding to make this happen
• 150 College Sports Makers working across most of the 347 general FE colleges 
• Three-quarters of the university student population (aged 16-24) – that’s over 900,000 young people - will get a chance to take up a new sport or continue playing a sport they enjoyed in school or college
• A thousand of our most disadvantaged local communities will get a Door Step Club
• Two thousand young people on the margins of society will be supported into sport and to gain new life skills by the Dame Kelly Holmes Legacy Trust
• There will be a new £40 million local sport fund to help local authorities improve sport provision
• Building on the early success of Places People Play, a further £100m will be invested in new facilities for the most popular sports, for example new artificial pitches and upgrading local swimming pools
• A minimum of 30 sports will have enhanced England Talent Pathways to ensure young people and others fulfil their potential.

In future, NGB investment will start at age 14 to ensure a better transition from school sport and create a sporting habit for life through increasing participation overall.

Alex Horne, General Secretary of the FA, said: “Football welcomes the Sport England strategy and the increased focus on youth. A priority will be taking 2,000 local football clubs into secondary schools across the country, offering expert coaching and creating the strong ties that will help young people make the move from school sport to community sport.”

Ian Drake, Chief Executive of British Cycling, said: “Looking ahead to the next funding cycle, we have ambitious plans to build further on the success we’ve achieved over the past few years, and to capitalise on the inspirational impact of London 2012 to increase participation. We look forward to continuing to work closely with Sport England on turning these plans into reality under the new strategy outlined today. We take our responsibilities seriously in terms of maximising the impact of the public money we receive. We fully appreciate the fact this funding is a privilege and not a right, and with that in mind it makes sense to tie-in continued funding to the achievement of agreed goals and objectives to help ensure the best return on investment across all sports.”

David Collier, Chief Executive of the ECB, said: “The ECB welcomes the new Sport England strategy and the reach down to 14 year olds. This very much mirrors cricket’s own strategy to get more young people playing at school and in clubs and keep them involved in the game throughout their lives.”

Paul Clark, Chief Executive of England Netball, said: “The success we’ve had in growing adult netball participation through our Back2Netball programme has clearly demonstrated that the participant-focused approach we take at England Netball is the right one. Our key challenge over the next four years will be to apply that approach and learning to drive increased participation in netball amongst young people aged between 14 and 25 years of age. This age group is critical to our ambition of encouraging and enabling engagement in Netball for Life.”

The sporting legacy was given a further boost today when Sainsbury’s pledged a £10 million package to support the new School Games Competition over the next four years, alongside other additional funding including £8 million from Sport England.

Jeremy Hunt said: “We are absolutely determined to leave a real and lasting legacy for young people from London’s Olympic and Paralympic Games, and the Sainsbury’s School Games will help do just that.  The fantastic funding package announced today – from Sainsbury’s, adidas and the Department of Health - shows the commitment to completely transform competitive sport in schools.  I want to thank Sainsbury’s and adidas for their generosity in helping to secure the future of the School Games beyond 2012.”

Sport England is investing up to £35.5 million of National Lottery funding in the School Games.

To download a copy of our new Youth and Communities Strategy

click here

To find out more about the School Games announcement

click here

Huge legacy boost for hundreds of local sports clubs

350 local community sports groups are celebrating today after being offered a total of £17.4 million in Olympic legacy funding from Sport England’s Inspired Facilities Fund.

The fund is part of the £135 million Places People Play National Lottery-funded legacy programme that is bringing the magic of a home Olympic and Paralympic Games into communities across England. All 350 facilities will carry the London 2012 Inspire mark – celebrating the link to the Games. 

Sport England’s Chair, Richard Lewis, said: “For hundreds of clubs and tens of thousands of people, 2012 will be the year their local sports facilities got better.

“We’ve had unprecedented demand for this fund, which has really hit the mark with sports clubs. It shows we’re offering the sporting legacy that people want.”

The investments announced today will breathe new life into tired facilities that can be unattractive to sports participants, difficult to maintain and run. Grants have also been offered to convert existing buildings into venues that are suitable for grassroots sport and to allow local clubs to buy the facilities they use.

The investments include:

• £46,000 to buy a new permanent home for a boxing club in Oxford that was at risk of being closed down
• £28,000 to resurface two tennis courts at Windermere Lawn Tennis club, where tree roots had made the existing courts unsafe
• £50,000 to replace the roof at Worcester Citizens’ Swimming Pool which currently has a number of serious leaks that were threatening its future
• £50,000 to upgrade a 35-year-old clubhouse at Great Eccleston cricket club in Preston, including disabled access with changing and toilet facilities.

Minister for Sport and the Olympics, Hugh Robertson MP, said: “We want to use the Olympic and Paralympics next summer to inspire a generation to get involved in sport across the country. This is why as part of the £135 million Places People Play legacy programme we invited community sports clubs to apply for funding to upgrade their facilities.”

Inspired Facilities has been designed to be as simple and accessible as possible for potential applicants, with a shorter form and a catalogue of ready-made options to choose from. This is the first of five funding rounds of Inspired Facilities; the second round opens on 1 February 2012, offering hundreds more local groups the chance to bid for a further £10 million of funding.

Places People Play is being delivered by Sport England. We are working in partnership with the British Olympic Association (BOA) and the British Paralympic Association (BPA) with the backing of The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) and the London 2012 Inspire mark.

LOCOG Chair, Seb Coe, said: “This is a fantastic funding project that will deliver a real legacy from the London 2012 Games. It will provide a whole range of sporting opportunities for young people through improved facilities and will I hope inspire them to take up sport.”

Today’s announcement was welcomed by the Local Government Association. Cllr Chris White, Chair of its Culture, Tourism and Sport Board, said: “In spite of budget pressures, councils are striving to keep supporting local sports clubs and want to work with them in creating a lasting and meaningful Olympic and Paralympic legacy. This much-needed funding will hopefully act as a catalyst to further strengthen local partnerships between councils and sports clubs and get more people playing sport.”

Sport Makers hit 10,000 as sporting legacy gathers pace

Seventeen-year-old Tamara Radford has become the 10,000^th person inspired by London 2012 to sign up as a Sport Maker and get others playing sport.

It comes just three months after Sport England launched its search for 40,000 Sport Makers who will make sport happen for their friends, neighbours or colleagues. 

“I’d like to work as a fitness trainer and get young people doing sport,” said Tamara, who lives in Binnington, South Yorkshire.  “When I heard about Sport Makers, I thought it be a great way to pick up some new skills and get some experience while having some fun.  

“It’s really exciting to be part of something linked to the Olympics and I’m looking forward to going to the workshop next week to find out more.”

Every Sport Maker who’s signed up is invited to an informal and interactive workshop where they’ll gain the skills and opportunities to get involved in sport in their area. 

“I’ve been really impressed with the early stages of the project and it’s great news that 10,000 people have already signed up as Sport Makers,” said Sir Steve Redgrave, our greatest Olympian and Sport Makers ambassador.  “It goes to show you don’t need medals to become a sporting hero.  The people I’ve met so far who’ve become Sport Makers have shown that by helping people you know to get involved in sport you can do something amazing for them as well as having fun at the same time.”

Sport England Chair, Richard Lewis, also welcomed the news.  “This is a fantastic result and I am really pleased to see people signing up to make sport happen in their local community.  While this is a great start, I want even more people following Tamara’s lead and signing up.

“So if you think you could help, or have your own ideas for getting others involved in sport, please join in as a Sport Maker and become part of the legacy of the London 2012 Games.”

Last week also saw another first for Sport Makers with 500 new recruits attending the biggest Sport Maker workshop to date in Leeds.  With Sport Maker ambassadors Adam Whitehead, Daniel Caines and Oliver Dingley on hand to inspire them, they met representatives from clubs and national governing bodies of sport, and tested their newly acquired skills by running a range of sports sessions on the day.

Backed by the British Olympic Association and £4 million of National Lottery funding, Sport Makers is part of the Places People Play legacy programme that is bringing the magic of a home Olympic and Paralympic Games into communities across the country.