This plan argues strongly that to achieve the outcomes set out within Game Plan and the Framework for Sport, we will need to build a strong and effective sports system and develop extra capacity within that system. This represents an extra outcome for this plan that lays the foundations to achieving the plan’s other outcomes.

The regional sport system will be based on a regional sport board (RSB) which provides the overall strategic leadership. It will work closely with a regional sports partnership made up of sports partner agencies and five county sports partnerships. The RSB will encourage the CSPs to develop strategic plans that achieve this plan’s outcomes and provide them with appropriate funding.

A reginal activity co-ordination team (ACT)
A new regional activity co-ordination team (Active East Midlands) is proposed that will be jointly serviced by the board and the Regional Public Health Team. This will encourage sport and physical activity in connection with all the other work strands or sectors (transport, education, regeneration, health, environment and the workplace).

Monitoring and review
The Regional Sport Board (RSB) has an important role to play in monitoring and reviewing the plan. The RSB will also develop a four year investment strategy to guide its funding decisions.

Sport England will send this regional plan to regional and local agencies so that they can respond to it and include certain actions in their own plans.

The regional office of Sport England will be producing an annual business plan that will take forward the main actions and initiatives for which it is responsible. We will support the subgroups of the regional sport board (RSB) to produce annual action plans for their work.

An important part of this progress monitoring will be developing performance standards, including those provided by the national survey of participation rates, for target groups and for each county partnership area.

The RSB will carry out an annual review of each year of the plan that will monitor progress against these targets and standards. This will guide the production of the following year’s business plan and will form the basis for the funding the RSB distributes.

The Regional Office will be developing its own framework for managing performance using the Towards an Excellent Service Model (TAES) to encourage other agencies to use this sport-focused model for making continuous improvements.

Strategic aims

• To develop a long-term regional sport system that achieves the outcomes and sets out roles and purposes clearly
  
• To invest in our paid and voluntary workforce, making sure that they have relevant skills and knowledge
  
• To set up a Regional Activity Co-ordination Team for physical activity, making sure that sport benefits from it
  
• To support the further development of five effective County Sports Partnerships that are focussed on outcomes
  
• To make sure the region’s facilities are fit for their purpose and will help us achieve plan outcomes and targets
  
• To promote new long-term ways of working and delivering sport in the region

Key actions

• Promote a regional initiative to develop leaders and leadership skills within sport
  
• Develop the five County Sports Partnerships to be the strategic leads for sport in their counties and encourage an outcome-focused approach
  
• Make sure that volunteers in sport are supported throughout the region
  
• Support and promote work, including putting into practice the national Coaching Taskforce recommendations, and the UK Vision for Coaches, which can show the benefits of coaching to the East Midlands
  
• Make sure, through the regional organisations ENGAGE and VOICE, that the voluntary sport sector and mainstream voluntary sector are working together to promote and support volunteers in sport
  
• Set up a one-stop shop for research and evidence in the region as part of Intelligence East Midlands (The Regional Observatory)
  
• Support organisations by developing the opportunities presented by multi-activity and multi-sports clubs
  
• Encourage new ideas in tailoring the sport product to the marketplace
  
• Work closely with media agencies, such as the BBC and key regional partners, to explore new ways of promoting success and effort by people in sport in the East Midlands
  
• Make sure that all planning authorities meet the requirements of planning policy guidance and regional planning guidance, and carry out thorough assessments of what facilities are needed
  
• Make sure sport is supported through East Midlands Spatial Planning Guidance, and built and green infrastructure for sport is supported through land use
  
• Remove duplication and overlap, and challenge organisations which do not support this plan
  
• Encourage more creative ways of delivering sport through pilots.