New Sport England Equality Policy
Sport England has been reviewing the statistics produced by the Active People survey and during the last part of 2007 was in the process of developing a new Equality Policy to replace No Limits. This policy is currently being developed in line with Grow, Sustain, Excel: The Sport England Strategy 2008-2011.

Sport England's Equality Scheme and Action Plan
Sport England is committed to promoting and developing sports equality, both within our programme development and in our work with partner organisations. To underline our commitment we have developed an Equality Scheme and Action Plan which sets out the steps we are taking to promote equality in sport.

We have consulted on the Scheme and Action plan and have now updated them to take into account partner's views. However they are both living documents so feel free to email comments at any time to shapingthefuture@sportengland.org

sport_england_equality_scheme_december_2007.doc

sport_england_equality_scheme_action_plan_feb_2008_update.doc

What does equality mean in sport?
Equality in sport is fairness, equality of access, recognising inequalities and taking steps to address them. It is about changing the culture and structure of sport to ensure that it becomes equally accessible to all members of society, whatever their age, ability, gender, race, ethnicity, sexuality or socio-economic status.

To achieve equality in sport we need to:

• Take account of the needs of different groups or communities within any given priority group
• Adopt the recommended practices of equal opportunities and managing diversity
• Address issues of fairness in the workplace and the way in which services are allocated and delivered
• Acknowledge and respect diversity

What is Sport England doing?
Sport England, together with Sporting Equals, the Women's Sports & Fitness Foundation (WSSF) and the English Federation of Disability Sport (EFDS). are working to increase particiapation in sport and physical recreation across all groups and sections within society. There is an ongoing review of Sport England's No Limit Equality Policy which will report update the policy to enable Sport England to use the latest data (provided by the Active People survey) to shape strategies and programmes.

The benefits of achieving equality in sport are various and wide reaching, ethical, moral and material:

• An increase in levels of participation is likely to result in an increase in the potential number of elite performers.
• Public perception of sport will become more positive, its image becoming more professional, forward thinking and socially just
• Achieving a more equitable status for your sporting organisation will increase your appeal to large numbers of people and therefore can increase membership and revenue and attract revenue support
• The number of people able to fulfil roles in administration, coaching, management as well as volunteers will increase
• An organisation that is more diverse and reflects the community it serves in terms of staff make-up at management, executive, officer and volunteer levels is likely to be more innovative and able to respond better to the varied needs of all members of that community. The services offered by your organisation will improve with a likely result of higher customer satisfaction rates
• Adhering to Sports equity means that you will be working within the law. Sports Equity is supported by legislation including the Race Relations Act & Race Relations (Amendment) Act, Sex Discrimination Act and the Disability Discrimination Act
• Sport will be working to the Government's agenda and thus more likely to receive or continue to receive monies to develop sport/your sport. Indeed there is a clear government intention to ensure that all organisations in receipt of public funds make a genuine commitment to provide their services for all sectors of the public
• Equity underpins the basic premise of Sport England's work. The power of sport to engage, unite and motivate people, break down barriers, promote social inclusion and improve health makes it essential that all sporting organisations in England ensure equal status and opportunities to all members of our communities.
  

To find out more about Sport England's research on identifying and understanding better the inequities in sporting opportunity which exist amongst different groups in the population and the way these may be overcome, click here