Sport England announces investment into local communities

A major expansion of its investment into local communities has been announced by Sport England.

Research published today by Sport England shows the most active place in England has almost double the activity levels (81 per cent) of the least active place (43 per cent); lifespan could vary by nine years depending on where someone lives; and people living in some poorer neighbourhoods are twice as likely to have a disability or health condition.

To tackle this, Sport England is expanding its Place Partners programme, which will see up to £190 million of National Lottery and Exchequer funding invested in up to 80-100 new places across England.

An additional £35 million will be invested to strengthen work with Sport England’s existing Place Partners; with up to £25 million being made available to create a Universal Offer for other parts of the country, to help tackle inactivity and the associated inequalities that stop people moving more.

This place-based approach will see Sport England partner with these new places through 12 existing Place Partners and through the  network of 43 Active Partnerships across England, to foster relationships with local organisations and leaders and overcome the specific barriers to physical activity that exist in their communities.

The programme will see Sport England invest in places using evidence-based strategies to ensure the greatest resource is targeted to the places with the highest inactivity levels and other social need indicators.

Sport England will consider a range of data sources to do this, including analysis of physical activity data, from its Active Lives surveys; as well as social data, community need and health inequality data.

Details of the areas to be prioritised for funding across the Active Partnership Network are yet to be released to any of the 43 partnerships.

We are confident that Sport England will provide further information as soon as these local investment decisions have been made.

Graeme Sinnott, Relationships Director for the Active Partnerships national organisation, explained the important role that Active Partnerships will play in ensuring that this investment reaches the places and people that need it the most:

“It has been great to work in partnership with Sport England on this new approach that brings together robust data and local intelligence, focuses on local solutions and pro-actively seeks to avoid competition between stakeholders for funding.

“Our Active Partnerships are immersed in their place, with an extensive knowledge of local people, communities, stakeholders, and systems. Our network will use this new investment to remove barriers to activity, directly address inequalities and affect widespread social change.”

To read more, visit the Active Partnership website.