Sport England seeks delivery partners for local pilot schemes
Sport England will begin challenging “stubborn inequalities in activity levels” across the regions by investing £130million in 10 local pilot schemes over the next four years.
The national body, which distributes Government funds for grassroots sport, are holding a series of workshops to find suitable delivery partners for the schemes, and are encouraging collaboration between organisations already delivering based on local ‘needs’.
The local pilots will form a vital part of the Towards an Active Nation strategy (published May 2016), which aims to combat inactivity. Both this and the DCMS’ Sporting Future strategy (December 2015) acknowledge that permanently changing widespread cultural attitudes towards participation and reducing sedentary lifestyles will require a phased approach. The aim is to capture learning and evidence from the pilot schemes in a mix of areas, including rural, urban, semi-rural and coastal, in order to better inform future strategy and funding.
Sport England CEO Jennie Price admitted ‘Towards an Active Nation’ sets “an ambitious vision that everyone, regardless of their age, background or level of ability should feel able to engage in sport and physical activity.”
UNDER-REPRESENTED
She explained: “We know we can’t achieve this immediately across the whole of England, so one of our most important new programmes is a series of 10 ‘local delivery pilots’ to show it’s possible to create a step change in engagement in sport and physical activity.
“There will be a focus on tackling inactivity and driving change through more engagement by people currently under-represented in sport and physical activity which includes groups such as women, older people, disabled people and people from lower socio-economic backgrounds.
“We want to work with 10 pilot areas who are willing to take a bold new approach – we know this is what it will take to decrease levels of inactivity and make being active normal and as easy as possible for all parts of the community.
“A broad range of organisations will need to be working collaboratively with community interests at their heart. Yes the existing providers of sport and activity will have a role to play, but so will many others, including local authorities, local businesses, trusted Third Sector bodies and higher and further education. Central to this will be the need to plan for, deliver and sustain behaviour change.”
Sport England accept the new strategy comes at a difficult time financially for local authorities with cutbacks to public services, but have vowed to provide support and find new solutions.
PARTNERSHIPS
The Chief Executive added: “We are seeking to work in places where there are strong partnerships between a range of organisations committed to working well together and where the views and needs of the local communities guide local policies.
“We recognise we are asking for a big commitment from the places where the pilots will be located. We can provide expertise and resources, including significant grant funding, but in return we need a strong, integrated approach to sport and physical activity, with the active commitment of the local health and well-being stakeholders.
“This will include the need to think differently about sustainability and will require the ability to realign existing resources and potentially attract match funding.
“We think the strongest bids will come from significant local organisations working collaboratively. We will work with Public Health England and others to identify locations to work with as we will need a mix of types of locations if we are to understand properly ‘what works’.”
Source: Connect Sport