Agenda item

Presentation to be given by Jennie Price, Chief Executive of Sport England

The Chair introduced Jennie Price, Chief Executive of Sport England, who gave a presentation on their new ‘Towards an Active Nation’ strategy.

Ms Price discussed a number themes emerging in the strategy, including the idea of investing for a wider purpose and particularly targeting people are who currently inactive. For instance, Sport England feels that walking should come under the heading of sport and physical activity as it appeals more widely, can be an entry level activity and can be taken up regardless of socioeconomic background. Sport England will be looking to target currently under-represented groups and will consider a number of factors, including employment, income and education, which dictate life opportunities.

To help deliver this new strategy, Sport England will be structuring support teams around influencing different behaviours. Some teams will specialise in inactivity, some in targeting low socioeconomic groups and some will work at a local level across the country. This should make it easier to approach the right people in the organisation when seeking support.

Members were advised that £130 million has been set aside to work in ten places across England and Sport England are currently dealing with expressions of interest in other investment opportunities. The shortlist includes a diverse mix of areas, including a variety of sizes, locations and urban/rural split.

Each of these areas will have dedicated staff helping them. The staff will not just be looking at the individuals, but at behaviours dictated by social environments, physical environment, and both national and local policy.

In addition to the local delivery pilots, Sport England will provide resources through a hub which all local authorities can access. Ms Price also committed to continuing the partnership with the LGA to provide leadership essentials programmes for elected members.

Members made the following points:

·         Local authorities are suffering from a lack of officer resources, as well as funding, and correspondence from Sport England can be missed if it is not properly targeted. Ms Price acknowledged that councils have fewer sports specialists than they used to and that in cases where an authority does not have a named contact, communication would go through the Chief Executive’s office. Ms Price also noted that Sport England has a regular newsletter specifically for local government.

·         Members welcomed the shift towards activity but raised some concerns about future availability of match funding. Sport England said that match funding would not apply in every case and authorities who are already doing well in this area and have innovative ideas going forward would be not prohibited from accessing support.

·         Concerns were raised about councils not having the capacity to enter effective bids for funding. Ms Price stated that Sport England needs to keep being reminded about capacity issues for councils but that they are trying to ask for less information at the early stages of the bidding procedure so what is asked of councils is not so considerable early on. Ms Price advised councils to contact their county sports partnership if they need additional support in the interim.

·         Members wanted to know how engagement with volunteers could be improved and how rural areas within metropolitan authorities can be better supported. Sport England staff advised that they are increasing specific help for very small community groups to support volunteers and they are providing a network of advisers to work with local charities who can better target smaller groups.

Decision

Members noted the report and agreed to send feedback about communications from Sport England.

Action

1.    Officers to forward any member feedback to Sport England.

2.    Officers to consider the possibility of creating a portal on the LGA website which would redirect them to the Sport England website and hub.