Sport England Sets Out Community Targets

Sport England has set out its plans for future investment in six sports – basketball, tennis, swimming, table tennis, squash and fencing – with the aim of illustrating a new approach to ensure that millions of people across the country who play sport, and the volunteers who support them, get the maximum impact from its investments. 

The organisation is increasing the overall investment earmarked for basketball by committing an additional £2.3 million between 2013 and 2017, reportedly in recognition of its wide appeal to young people and its ethnically diverse participation base. 

However, Sport England also said in a statement that it is not confident in England Basketball’s ability to increase the numbers of people playing the sport, so has reduced its investment into the national governing body. 

At the same time it will invest in other providers including the British Basketball League Foundation and Reach and Teach in a bid to strengthen the marketplace and support alternative ways to get more people playing basketball.

Sport England chief executive, Jennie Price, said: ‘There are some tough messages here for national governing bodies. If they don’t grow participation we will reduce their funding, and we won’t make long term investments until we have confidence in their ability to deliver.’

‘This is exemplified by our new approach to basketball: increasing our investment to over £9 million, but reducing our reliance on the national governing body and investing more in community organisations with a strong track record of local delivery.’

Minister for Sport Helen Grant added: ‘I want to see more people playing sport regularly and enjoying all the positive benefits that brings. So it is completely right that Sport England does not shirk from taking some tough decisions on how public money is spent. I am encouraged that many sport governing bodies are upping their game to increase participation and we must not forget that 1.5 million more people are playing regular sport than in 2005, when we won the right to host the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. But the message to underperforming sports governing bodies is clear – if you can’t deliver, then funding will be taken away and given to projects and people that can.’

According to Sport England, the Lawn Tennis Association has made good progress over the last year, ’embracing change and putting itself in a better position to deliver improvements in participation over the next year’. 

However, they are not yet delivering at scale and the number of 16 – 25 year-olds playing tennis decreased in the last participation survey, so Sport England is reducing funding for programmes for this age group by 20% over the next year, and investing directly into a pilot project to boost park court usage.

Around half of Sport England’s grant funding goes to specialist and local groups rather than to governing bodies, and Friday’s announcement included a significant £6 million award to national sports charity StreetGames to continue delivering its Doorstep Sport Clubs programme.