sport-england-2016-17-annual-report-and-accounts

Local delivery
The central principle of Towards an Active Nation
is a focus on the customer – both current and
potential – who is doing the sport or activity.
They are part of local communities, each with
their own unique characteristics. We want
to understand how we can use insight and
better understanding of local identities and
circumstances to get more people active
across England.
Over the next four years we are investing £128
million into behaviour change strategies in up to
10 selected places across England. Taking place
in a mix of rural and urban areas, they will be
focused on addressing inactivity and/or working
with under-represented groups.
Within any community, there are stubborn
inequalities in activity levels. Some people
don’t take part in sport and physical activity
and may not have done so for quite some time.
Older people, people with a disability and people
from lower socio-economic groups are much
more likely to be inactive.
We want these local pilots to focus on reducing
the inequalities that are most persistent locally.
And to understand how we can empower
communities to tackle these issues themselves.
The pilots deliberately focus on the whole place,
not just the sporting infrastructure, so we expect
to see new partners from beyond the sports
sector as part of any consortia. This might include
private sector companies if they are a large local
employer. And we want to work collaboratively
– not just as a passive investor but a broker of
relationships and working together to create new,
innovative and radical approaches.
It is an approach we have already
tested and learned from:
• In 2016-17, our women’s pilot project in Bury,
‘I Will If You Will’ produced evidence to show
that, as a result of our interventions, female
leisure membership has increased across all
local authority leisure sites between 16% and
57% since 2012-13. This is higher than male
membership growth in all instances.
• Our ‘City of Football’ project in Nottingham
shows that more than 39% of those taking part
in the programme have come from a black,
Asian or ethnic minority background in a city
where the figure is currently at 35%. At the
organised events and sessions, 59% of people
attending had either played football infrequently
or had never played the sport before.
The competitive process for the local delivery pilot
awards was approved in November 2016 and by
31 March 2017 we had received more than 113
expressions of interest. To support the application
process and help local authorities decide if they
want to commit, we invited 700+ delegates
from 30 organisations to workshops across the
country, and made a short film to support those
who couldn’t attend.
In 2016-17 we have also continued our positive
relationship with Public Health England which will
be a key partner in helping us to identify the right
locations where physical activity is a priority in
local health and wellbeing strategies.
Outside the local pilots promised
in Towards an Active Nation
60 LOCAL
AUTHORITIES
Throughout 2016-17 we continued to give
support to more than 60 local authorities,
enabling them to dedicate more resource to
putting sport and physical activity at the top of
the agenda.
This included continuing our Commissioning
Support Programme and signing a memorandum
of understanding with Greater Manchester
Combined Authority and the NHS in Greater
Manchester. This sets out how we’ll work together
to tackle inactivity, address inequality and have
a positive impact on the health, social and
economic outcomes for Greater Manchester’s
2.8 million residents.