“We can be proud of sport for sport sake, but we need to convert it
into the local authorities’ agenda”
Richard Lewis, Chair, Sport England.
Over 300 representatives from local government, national
governing bodies and county sports partnerships came together last
month to discuss how best to join forces to deliver more and
improved opportunities to play sport.
Held in Birmingham, Leeds and London, Sport England’s three
Connect events gave the invited audience a chance to share
experiences, plans and future possibilities.
In the morning, speakers from a range of organisations
highlighted examples of successful partnership working between
local authorities and governing bodies. These included England
Netball, Bedford Council and Team Beds and Luton on the Back to
Netball programme; and England Athletics and Newham Council
discussing the development of an athletics network in East
London.
After lunch, delegates took part in round table discussions
focused on understanding each other’s needs and identifying areas
where interests overlap and joining together could help
organisations deliver a range of objectives.
“Sport needs local authorities far more than local authorities
need sport,” said Sport England chairman Richard Lewis. “We can be
proud of sport for sport’s sake, but we need to convert it into the
local authorities’ agenda. It’s all very well for us to talk about
our national plans, but it’s about converting that into what is
required on a local basis. This is challenging but it is Sport
England’s role to help make these conversations happen, not just at
events like these but on a regular basis.
Feedback from delegates has been positive. “The group session
was very useful for stimulating conversation and learning how we
can all work together,” said one delegate. Another commented: “It
has been very useful in terms of crystallising my knowledge of
national governing bodies.”
But it doesn’t stop here. We plan to build on the success of
these events to keep the conversations going, and are currently
working with participants to decide on a future events
programme.
Videos of the speeches and copies of the presentations, delegate
list and national governing body whole sport plan summaries can be
downloaded from our website.