New Strategy for Sport in England Announced
News Posted: 6 June 2008
Sport England today published a radical new strategy to get more people playing and enjoying sport and to help those with talent get to the very top.
The new approach is designed to capitalise on the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity presented by the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and to use its power to inspire more people to take part and succeed in sport.
The strategy commits Sport England to deliver on a series of demanding targets by 2012/13:
- one million more people doing more sport
- a 25% reduction in the number of 16 year olds who drop out of five key sports
- improved talent development systems in at least 25 sports
- a measurable increase in people's satisfaction with their experience of sport - the first time the organisation has set such a qualitative measure
- a major contribution to the delivery of the five hour sports offer for children and young people.
Sport England will work closely with the National Governing Bodies of sport (NGB's) to deliver the new strategy, and will also create strong partnerships with local authorities. It will reduce bureaucracy by combining its multiple funding streams into a single pot of funding for NGB's, and will be consulting on a new, more streamlined method of funding wider community projects.
Peter King, British Cycling's CEO, attended a briefing at Number 10 this morning on the new strategy. The briefing was led by the Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Andy Burnham (Secretary of State for Culture Media and Sport), Alan Johnson (Secretary of State for Health), Hazel Blears (Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government) and Tessa Jowell (Minister for the Olympics and London) along with Jennie Price (CEO of Sport England) and was attended by the CEO's and Chairs of a small number of NGB's including Football, Rugby and Cricket.
You can download a copy of the Sport England 2008-2011 Executive Summary here:
Sport England Strategy 2008-2011: Executive Summary (PDF)
British Cycling's Reaction
As one of the leading Olympic sport National Governing Bodies, British Cycling has welcomed this strategy, particularly given the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to inspire people to take part in sport which London 2012 will offer us.
This new direction is in line with the approach British Cycling has consistently adopted over the past decade and our results speak for themselves, both in terms of the success we have achieved on the World Stage and in the dramatic growth in our sport at all levels. Support from Government, Sport England and UK Sport has transformed British Cycling during this time and we are confident that with this new change in policy we can do even more in the run up to 2012 to grow our sport, whilst continuing to excel in the International arena.
Peter King, British Cycling's CEO, commented:
"National Governing Bodies have always been at the heart of sport and the bedrock of success will always be their clubs, coaches and members, who comprise competitive sport, regardless of the political context of funding for sport. The more support and resources that can be directed at that level through the NGB framework, working with Sport England at all levels, the more medals will be won and the more people will play sport."
Free swimming to be 2012 legacy
In addition to Sport England's new strategy, an exciting and innovative free Swimming 2012 legacy was launched as part of a cross-departmental Governmental approach to sport and physical activity. Over-60s are to be given free admission to public swimming pools in an £80m initiative, part of a bid to get more people involved in sport by 2012. Secretary of State for the DCMS, Andy Burnham, indicated future funding would allow free entry to under-16s, then to everyone by 2012.
British Cycling is eagerly anticipating further engagement with the DCMS in the context of the emerging sport and physical activity agenda given that Cycling as an Active Living, Active Recreation and Sporting activity has the potential to make the single biggest contribution to the participation in sport and physical activity in the run up to 2012.
Peter King, British Cycling's CEO, commented:
"I applaud the Government for its innovative approach to swimming and it is essential that this approach is now widened to encompass cycling, in particular around the development of new traffic free facilities for cycle sport as well as resolving the access issues around events on the public highway. I made it clear at the briefing at Number 10 that our Sport needs a home and as such we need investment from Government to develop new traffic free facilities for all our disciplines which will enable us to significantly accelerate our current growth in participation and sustain our position as the World's leading Cycling nation."
