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Playing Field Strategies - Frequently Asked Questions

Expand Q: What is meant by a Playing Fields Strategy?

A:

Sport England expects a Playing Fields Strategy to comprise the following:

• A carefully quantified and documented assessment of the current and future needs for playing field land within an agreed geographical area.  The assessment should cover the quantity, quality, capacity and accessibility of all relevant playing pitch and non playing pitch provision relevant to the local area.
  
• The development and adoption of recommendations based on the assessment, and a detailed action plan which seeks to address any identified deficiencies.

For playing pitches (grass and synthetic turf) the strategy should follow Sport England's adopted methodology 'Towards a Level Playing Field:  A Guide to the Production of Playing Pitch Strategies' (2003).

As far as they are relevant, the principles of the 'Towards a Level Playing Field' methodology should also be followed for non playing pitch provision (e.g. Multi-Use Games Areas inclusing tennis and netball courts).  This should include an assessment of supply and demand within appropriate catchments along with consultation with all relevant users, sports clubs and the National Governing Bodies of Sport.

Through the application of its Facilities Planning Model, Sport England has recently undertaken an assessment of the supply and demand of Synthetic Turf Pitches across the country.  This information should be used to supplement the 'Towards a Level Playing Field' methodology and is available on request through Sport England's local offices.

Expand Q: What is meant by 'up to date'?

A:

An up to date strategy will be one that has been completed or adequately reviewed within the last three years. The extent of any review will be dependant on the nature of any changes in the supply and demand of playing field land since the development of the strategy or previous review.

If a review of an existing strategy is planned for outside of this three year period it should be demonstrated that the review timetable is appropriate.

Expand Q: Who is responsible for developing a Playing Fields Strategy?

A:

It is the responsibility of the local authority leading the BSF bid to ensure that this requirement is complied with.

However, there may be appropriate work already completed or underway within the relevant geographical area that may assist in meeting the requirement. For example, the planning departments within borough, district and unitary council’s may already have produced an open space, sport and recreation assessment and strategy to support their Local Development Framework. In addition, the relevant leisure departments may have already carried out the playing pitch element of the strategy to support investment decisions, sports development programmes and funding applications.

Where a strategy does not exist or an update is required, the authority leading the BSF bid should seek to ensure that all parties (i.e. county and district/borough councils) pool their resources to develop a new, or update an existing, strategy.

The above partnership approach should also be taken between education, planning and leisure departments within unitary authorities. The work should also ensure the close involvement of the BSF PE and Sport Stakeholder Group.

Expand Q: What geographical study area should be used?

A:

As a minimum the study area should equate with the relevant district, borough or unitary council administrative area which is affected by BSF whilst taking into account cross boundary issues (e.g. demand from sports clubs).

However, the study area should reflect the likely geographical nature of the supply and demand for playing field land which is likely to cross local authority boundaries. This point will be particularly critical for agreeing the study area within a large local authority where a strategy for the entire administrative area may not be appropriate e.g. the new unitary councils of Cornwall and Wiltshire. Appropriate sub areas should also be established which reflect the nature of, and the catchments within, the agreed study area.

Expand Q: How long does the development of a strategy take?

A:

Undertaking a full strategy for a single district could take up to six months.

The actual timescale will be heavily dependant on the size of the authority, the nature of any information that already exists, the level of resource allocated to the work, whether the work will be undertaken in house or by external consultants and the level of commitment by all parties. Even if basic information on pitch supply is available the research into demand is likely to take around 8 to 10 weeks.

Expand Q: How should the development of a strategy be managed?

A:

The development of the strategy should be overseen by a steering group with a composition reflecting the scope of the study, the catchment area involved, the internal structure of the commissioning body (i.e. local authority leisure, sports development, parks and maintenance, planning and education departments) and other relevant external bodies.

The steering group should ensure close liaison with all key parties involved in the provision and use of playing field land in the area, including key providers and sports governing bodies.

Expand Q: Which sports should be included?

A:

The strategy should include all playing pitch and non playing pitch sports relevant to the local area and where appropriate take into account competition and training requirements for male and female participants and appropriate age groups e.g. adult and junior.

For some sports the number of facilities (pitches or courts) required may be so small that an assessment should be undertaken on a club-specific basis. 

Appropriate non playing pitch sports could include netball, tennis and basketball which would require an assessment of the court provision for wach sport and of Multi-Use Games Areas.

Expand Q: What time of year should the assessment side of the strategy be carried out?

A:

The most suitable time to carry out the assessment work is the beginning of the winter season (i.e. September to December/early January) when winter pitches are marked out and pitch quality can be adequately assessed. This timing will also allow for data and views to be collated from both the last full winter season and the recently ended summer season.

Expand Q: What audit work is required to enable an adequate assessment?

A:

The successful and accurate working of the methodology is reliant on obtaining as accurate picture as possible of the number of teams and other users in the area along with the existing pattern of play and the quantity, quality and accessibility of pitch provision.

The audit of teams should include both a direct count and a calculation of ‘team equivalents’ which builds in training and educational use of pitches. This information should be gained from a number of sources including the sports governing bodies, county association and league handbooks, interviews with league secretaries, booking records from local authority, educational and other pitch providers as well as sports clubs themselves.

The audit of pitches should include all pitches regardless of ownership and establish their level of community use. A qualitative audit should also be carried out for all pitches and their associated ancillary facilities.

The assessment should also identify and build in latent and displaced demand that may exist within the area. In addition, the quality audit and wider information gathered should be used to determine the carrying capacity of the pitches.

The electronic toolkit accompanying the ‘Towards a Level Playing Field’ methodology document provides a number of tools to assist in carrying out the audits and compiling and assessing the information gathered. These include template pitch provider and sports club questionnaires as well as quality assessment sheets.

Expand Q: How should the assessment be carried out?

A:

The information gained from the audits provides the basis for the application of the Playing Pitch Model (PPM). The PPM is a key element of the methodology and forms an eight step process which should be applied to each sport individually and to the relevant geographical area, including sub areas. The process enables quantitative deficiencies to be identified along with any areas of underused/unused provision.

The eight steps are:

Step 1. Identify the number of teams and ‘team equivalents’

Step 2. Calculate the number of homes games per team per week

Step 3. Assess and establish the total homes games per week

Step 4. Establish the temporal demand for all sports and age groups

Step 5. Define the number of pitches used/required on each day

Step 6. Establish the number of pitches available (including only those available for community use and an adjustment to reflect the carrying capacity of pitches)

Step 7. Assess the findings

Step 8. Identify policy options and solutions

As a minimum the PPM should be applied to the current situation and an appropriate future year to assess both the current and future demand for pitch sports and subsequently playing field land.

To aid this calculation of the future situation, Team Generation Rates (TGR’s) should be developed. TGR’s indicate how many people in a specified age group are required to generate one team. As well as allowing for benchmarking against similar authorities and/or geographical areas and monitoring sports development initiatives, the TGR’s can be applied to a specific future population figure to help predict future levels of demand and resulting supply issues. This future population figure should ideally be the same figure being used by the appropriate local authority planning department in their Local Development Framework.

The PPM should also be used to assess appropriate scenarios based on the results of the assessment e.g. bringing identified pitches into community use, improving the carrying capacity of identified pitches and increasing the TGR based on sports development initiatives.

Expand Q: Turning assessment into strategy

A:

The results of the audit work including consultation with pitch providers, clubs and the NGB’s, along with the application of the PPM and development of the TGR’s , will highlight key issues regarding deficiencies in the quantity, quality and accessibility of playing field land along with any underused/unused provision.

The steering group should use this information to identify solutions to any deficiencies which may include changing pitch use and reviewing programming arrangements, securing community access to educational provision, enhancing the quality and in turn the carrying capacity of pitches, developing new pitches and new management and maintenance arrangements.

The steering group should look extremely carefully at any identified underused/unused provision to ensure that there is an adequate level of spare capacity to meet current and future demand across all sports. This assessment should take into account demographic and sporting trends along with potential increases in participation resulting from sports development initiatives.

The steering group should develop these solutions into key recommendations and a detailed action plan to which all relevant parties are signed up to and includes actions at the area, sub area and site specific level. .

Expand Q: How is a Playing Field Strategy formally assessed by Partnerships for Schools once it is submitted prior to the remit me

A:

Partnerships for Schools will pass the submitted Playing Fields Strategy to the relevant Sport England local office for assessment. Once the strategy is received Sport England will provide an assessment report on the strategy back to  PfS within 21days.

Sport England will assess the strategy against its adopted methodology ‘Towards a Level Playing Field: A Guide to the Production of Playing Pitch Strategies’ (2003) for playing pitches and against the principles of the methodology for non pitch sporting provision. 

Sport England will also utilise the Facilities Planning Model to suppliment the assessment of the supply and demand of artificial grass pitches across the country.

Contact your Sport England local office for further support.