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EAST OF ENGLAND PLAN FOR SPORT |
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY |
1. THE EAST OF ENGLAND |
2. THE VISION |
3. FROM GAMEPLAN TO THE FRAMEWORK FOR SPORT IN ENGLAND |
4. PRIORITIES FOR THE EAST OF ENGLAND |
5. MAKING IT HAPPEN |
6. TIME FOR ACTION |
APPENDIX ONE PRIORITY SPORTS |
APPENDIX TWO ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS |
APPENDIX THREE - EAST OF ENGLAND PLAN FOR SPORT SUMMARY
“Sport offers the opportunity for everyone in the East of England to be more active and get more from life."
Terry McEntee, Manager, Suffolk Sports Partnership.
To be the most active and successful sporting nation in the world
The Challenges of Game Plan
This section describes the journey that sports policy and sporting bodies have been travelling in England since the publication of the Government’s Game Plan – a strategy for delivering the Government's sport and physical activity objectives in December 2002. An understanding of this journey is important since it provides the essential context for the preparation of the East of England Plan for Sport.
The Prime Minister, Rt Hon Tony Blair MP, commissioned Game Plan to provide a high level, dispassionate analysis of sports policy, funding and delivery structures in the UK. It built on, and in many respects, superseded previous Government strategies and action plans for sport, e.g. 'Sporting Future for All', 'Government Plan for Sport', etc and provides clear guidance on the role of Government and Government agencies and the use of public funds for sport.1
Whilst acknowledging the extensive amount of achievement and good practice that exists, Game Plan also reached a number of challenging conclusions about the state of UK sport today. These included:
Some of the key recommendations to emerge from Game Plan were as follows:
The Framework for Sport in England
Game Plan represented a landmark in sports policy in the UK and has provided a wake up call for many sports organisations, particularly those reliant on public funding. The response to Game Plan has been significant - a root and branch reform of Sport England, the identification of 30 national priority sports and the production of the Framework for Sport in England.
It has been a catalyst for the emergence of a new consensus on the important issues in English sport and a renewed spirit of partnership working at all levels. Working with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and other Government departments, Sport England commissioned the Henley Centre in early 2003 to:
Through this process Henley concluded that "sport was broken and it needed to be fixed". Fifty 'drivers' were identified as key influencers (positive and negative) on sports participation and, from these, seven key drivers for change were selected, tested through consultation and eventually confirmed as being the most significant.
This then informed the development of a robust conceptual framework - The Framework for Sport in England, the aim being to create a systematic basis for testing priorities and affecting change (change being defined as a positive increase in the number of people playing sport and improved levels of performance).
The Framework for Sport signals a new way of working through partnership to deliver our shared vision for sport in England - To be the most active and successful sporting nation in the world. It sets the broad strategic parameters for sport - the boundaries - within which there is much flexibility for 'local' interpretation and prioritisation. It seeks to provide the common themes and understanding that will bind sport together, whilst not being so prescriptive as to dictate specific planning priorities.
Unlike previous strategies, which far too often have failed to achieve a lasting and measurable impact, the Framework for Sport needs to be understood more as a process than a product. Sport England, which has a key strategic role with regard to the implementation of the Framework, is committed to refining and updating it so that we keep in step with, and where possible anticipate, the social, institutional and environmental context that will impact on our ability to achieve our objectives for and through sport.
A key factor in the success of the Framework will be for organisations at all levels - national, regional and local - to embrace it as a basis for their own policy formulation, business plans and investment decisions. Key priorities here include:
Following the production of the Framework, the next stage of the journey was to produce the East of England Plan for Sport, engaging with key regional partners (existing and new).
A way of summarising at this point, is to consider Game Plan as the challenge from Government, the Framework as a united response from sport across the country and this Plan as the regional interpretation of the Framework following considerable consultation (see appendix Two for a full list of consultees).
From the outset the process has been interlinked with the work of the Henley Centre in the preparation of the Framework. Regional partners have contributed a great deal to this national piece of work whilst also being able to give their views on the specific issues relevant to our region.
Three regional seminars were organised - June and September 2003 and February 2004 and delivered in a dynamic and interactive style. Feedback from delegates at each of these events was very positive. The vast majority of people who attended welcomed this new style of consultation and felt both challenged and engaged by the process.
In addition to the partner consultations a number of other factors have contributed to the production of our final Plan:
Finally, the East Regional Sports Board has scrutinised this plan prior to publication.
Purpose and Support
The East of England Plan for Sport is a document designed to guide the strategic direction of sport in our region. Our Plan has as its backdrop the long term aims and targets laid down in Game Plan and we will aim to make substantial, but incremental, steps towards these targets over the next four years (2004 –2008).
Again, the easiest way to view the Plan is to consider it as the regional interpretation of the Framework for Sport in England. It is (deliberately) a high level, advocacy document designed to provide strategic guidance to a range of traditional partners, e.g. local authorities, governing bodies of sport, education providers, sports clubs, etc, as well as to influence the policies and plans of other agencies for whom sport and active recreation can make a significant contribution to their objectives and goals.
Our plan will be subject to a rolling review process every year and will be supported by an Annual Business Plan for Sport England East and the East Regional Sports Board. It is this Annual Business Plan that will determine how the available resources (human and financial) will be allocated towards achieving the goals and targets set out in the East of England Plan for Sport.
However, for the Plan to be most effective, partner agencies need to embrace it (or at least the elements which are most relevant to them) as a basis for their own policy formulation, business and action plans. In this way the plan will be truly 'brought to life' and its impact will be maximised across our region.
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