New-College-Leicester-Evidence

autonomy with little or no accountability the DCMS through Sport England have been moredescriptive in their commissioning of various bodies. I personally believe that with the use of anypublic sector funding, lottery or exchequer there comes a level of responsibility and accountability.We need to be seen to be making a difference whether that is achieving more medals, growing thenumbers that are participating or improving health and wellbeing. Sport is extremely important for amultitude of reasons and until all that is embraced under a particular directorate or bodyparticipation will struggle.4.0 Is the funding allocated to delivering a sporting legacy being distributed and targetedin a way which is likely to maximise long-term positive impacts?4.1 The current level of funding being committed to sport and creating a sporting legacy issomething that is most welcome.4.2 The targeted areas for investment within Sport England’s strategy have created a five year 2012- 2017 commissioning framework that should see long-term impact.SchoolsNGBsFacilitiesLocal Investment£150 million£450 million£250 million£250 million4.3 On top of this we have the recently targeted primary school sport premium (£150 million peryear for 2 years) which again is welcome, but is invested in silo without any criteria to connectto the wider sporting landscape.4.4 Also following the success of team GB in London it is pleasing to see the ongoing commitmentto elite sport and the £500 million that will now take us beyond the comprehensive spendingreview and into the Olympic year of 2016 – 2017. Uk Sport have decided how to distribute thisfunding leading into Rio following discussions with NGBs4.5 It was interesting to see Mr Cameron suggest that the elite funding commitment was madebecause there was a “direct link” between elite performance and participation, something noprevious Games has been able to prove. (The Telegraph 12 August 2012)4.6 Mr Cameron makes these comments despite the lack of connectivity between the bodies thatare responsible for the distribution of the funding for elite sport and participation.ConclusionI believe the level of funding and the themes it is targeted at gives us an excellent chance to create asporting legacy.