Sport England Update

Sport And Gordon Brown

Brown Launches Football Project

The Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, joined forces with the Police, Football Foundation, Premier League and Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) to announce an £11 million expansion of the Kickz project, and hailed its success in cutting anti-social behaviour.

The Football Foundation is investing £4.7 million into the scheme, the Metropolitan Police Service £3 million and £1 million through the DCMS from the Premier League's good causes fund. Matched funding provided by local bodies will boost the total amount to more than £11 million over three years.

Kickz, a partnership of 19 Premiership and 11 Football League clubs, offers young people the chance to take part in sports sessions three nights a week, 48 weeks of the year. The activities offered include football leagues, tournaments and coaching sessions. Educational sessions are also offered to young people about issues such as healthy lifestyles and the dangers of drug use and carrying weapons.

As a result of the joint investment, Kickz will now be extended to more than 100 projects and 12,000 teenagers in the most deprived areas of the country, more than four times the existing provision. This follows successful pilots at Tottenham Hotspur FC, Fulham FC, Brentford FC and Manchester City FC, which police said had helped break down barriers between young people and local police officers. The police reported that anti-social behaviour and low-level crime in the pilot areas fell by an average of 27 per cent on the days that Kickz sessions were held. Criminal damage was down 31 per cent on average and minor assault down 26 per cent on average.

The new funding will mean that every Premier League and Football League club in London will be involved in the scheme in partnership with Police Safer Neighbourhoods teams and local authorities. Outside of the capital Aston Villa FC, Sheffield United FC and Reading FC are the latest clubs to join Kickz following the new investment. Kickz's ultimate ambition is to roll the scheme out nationwide, and to offer the programme to every professional football club in the country.

Opportunities for Sport

The Government’s continued support for this type of project, and the more focused Positive Futures projects, all addressing problems of anti-social behaviour amongst young people is encouraging. Established sports organisations should be seeking to work in partnership with these “local schemes” to ensure that there are opportunities for young people to progress into mainstream sport and to further develop their talents and skills in sports clubs and to have access to appropriate “performance coaching” for the more talented young people.

 

---

Government announces £5million campaign to recruit more coaches - announcement made 24 September 2007

A note form Andy Husband, Area Manager (West Midlands) sports coach UK, re the announcement:

‘As some of you are now aware, the Government has announced a £5 million campaign on recruiting coaches to work in (in the main) inner city deprived areas. To date there is not much more information barring the links below.  Sports coach UK are currently in discussions with Government on the detail and more information will be announce as soon possible. What we do know is that funding will start April 2008, so the campaign will run from then - what it is, how it is delivered etc is yet to be worked up’.

---

PESSCL -  New  ‘5 Hour Offer’

On 13th July 2007, the Prime Minister announced the investment of an additional £100m (over three years 2008-11) into the National School Sport or PESSCL Strategy in order to give every child and young person (aged 5-19) the chance to do 5 hours of sport a week.

This briefing note provides an update on what this is likely to mean for Sport England, though it should be noted that final plans are still being developed and agreed with the Government.

---

Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) replaced by new body - Equalities & Human Rights Commission (EHRC)

On 30 September the CRE will be replaced a new single equalities organisation Equalities & Human Rights Commission (EHRC). The purpose of the new body is to reduce inequality, eliminate discrimination, strengthen good relations between people and protect human rights.

For more information on the new organisation please visit the website - www.cehr.org.uk

The EHRC will have a regional presence in all of the 9 English regions. The presence for the West Midlands will be based in the old CRE building at 67 Newhall Street, 3rd floor Lancaster House, Birmingham, B31 NA.

The main contact person for the West Midlands is Zahid Nawaz who can be contacted on 07947357168.

 

---

SEWM – 3 projects receive CIF awards

1.      Staffordshire Rugby Development Partnership – awarded £31,460 towards the costs of a project to develop women's rugby in Staffordshire.

2.      Trentham Water Sports Association (TWA) – awarded £ £48,000 towards a project costing £441,998 to  build a new club house with changing rooms and storage for canoeing and rowing at Trentham lakes in Stoke.

3.      West Midlands Amateur Swimming Association - awarded £21,750 towards a project to improve the access, provision and support for disabled swimmers in the West Midlands

Click here to view press release.

---

Sportsmatch Funding

As a result of unprecedented demand for funding, Sportsmatch is unable to accept an further applications for funding for the remainder of the financial year 2007-08.  All the available funding for 2007-08 (£3.44m) has been allocated to projects faster than ever before.  The budget has been match by sponsorship funding bring the total investment to almost £7m.  This is a great deal for community sport.

View the full statement

---

Building Schools for the Future

New document providing guidance around VAT issues around Community Use and Potential Solutions - click here to view.

---

Sport and Education - 7,000th Extended School

Children's Minister Beverley Hughes announced last week that 7,000 schools are now offering access to extended services

The Government wants all schools to offer access to a core set of extended activities by 2010, and wants all families with children up to 14, who require it, to have access to affordable, flexible and high quality childcare from 8am to 6pm. This could be provided through a local extended school.

The extended school milestone has been exceeded on the same day that the Department for Children, Schools and Families released a survey showing that there are more day care places, after schools club and holiday club places than ever before. Findings show that there are now 263,900 places in holiday clubs, a 117 per cent increase, 260,100 after school club places, a 58 per cent increase and 544,200 full day care places, a 26 per cent increase, all since 2003. Click here for further information.

Opportunities for Sport

---

London Assembly – consult on Lottery funding re 2012

Press release – 5 September: 2012 Games: at what cost to Lottery-funded organisations? Click here to view.

---

2012 Activity calendar

Click here to view the latest edition:

---

StreetGames WM

Invitation to join their network - click here

---

Volunteering Survey

2,705 people in England were interviewed for 'Helping Out: A national survey of volunteering and charitable giving'. More than half (58 per cent) had both volunteered and donated to charity in the last 12 months, and most (81 per cent) had given to a charity within the last four weeks.

The most common reasons for volunteering were 'to improve things or help people' (53 per cent), 'because the cause was important' (41 per cent) or 'because they had spare time' (41 per cent). When it came to giving to charity, the importance of the charity's work topped the list of reasons for those surveyed (52 per cent), closely followed by a belief that it is the right thing to do (41 per cent).

Other key findings from the report include:

Volunteering

• 59 per cent had volunteered in the last year (39 per cent had done so at least monthly), and 69 per cent in the last five years, with an estimated economic value of £38.9 billion;
• on average, volunteers had given 11 hours over the last four weeks;
• positive feelings were expressed on the experience of volunteering - nearly all (95 per cent) of regular volunteers said their efforts were appreciated and nine in 10 had the chance to do activities they liked;
• cited benefits of volunteering included satisfaction from seeing the results, a sense of personal achievement, and the opportunity to meet people and make new friends;
• those in the 34-44 and 55-64 age brackets, women, the employed and people of religious faith were more likely to volunteer than other social groups;
• there is room for improvement in organisation (31 per cent said their volunteering could be better organised) and in reducing bureaucracy (mentioned by 28 per cent);

Giving

• among the 81 per cent who had given to charity in the last four weeks, the most common way was by putting money in a collecting tin, following by buying raffle tickets;
• the average total amount donated in the last four weeks was £25 per adult;
• the most popular causes donated to were health and disability, followed by overseas aid or disaster relief;
• nearly half said they had upped the amount they donated since 2000, most commonly due to a rise in their level of disposable income;
• almost two-thirds (64 per cent) had heard of Gift Aid, but only a third (34 per cent) had used it to give tax-efficiently in the last year.

Click here for further information.

---

Volunteering England newsletter

Newsletter for partners on volunteering - click here to view. Contact Sophie Tobin 0207-273-1780 if you have any queries.

---

Volunteers for Lady Godiva Half Marathon, 21 October 2007

Volunteer Opportunity: The Lady Godiva Half Marathon is in its third year and we are looking to build upon the success of last year. Volunteers are vital to the event, which takes place on Sunday 21st October in Coventry, and we require up to 200 volunteers to undertake a number of roles such as course marshalls and start/finish line assistants. If you would like to be part of one of the biggest events in the City's calendar, please register your interest online.

---

StreetGames Bulletin

September's edition includes profiles of recent StreetGames regional events in the North West and North East, an article on how StreetGames is working to build social cohesion and a letter from Gerry Sutcliffe MP, Minister for Sport on the future of StreetGames. Click here and here to view the article and letter.

---

CCPR

Policy Update September 2007: click here to view

---

scUK - High Performance Coaching Workshop series 2007/08

The sports coach UK High Performance Coaching Workshop (HPCW) Booking Form 2007 -2008 is now available!

The theme for the series of workshops is Coaching World Class Talent: Preparing for success.

Please view sports coach UK website.

---