With the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games in full swing, we look back to the positive legacy of the last Games and how we’re backing this year’s event.
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We profile some of the Team England athletes and teams competing at the Commonwealth Games whose development has been supported by our Backing the Best funding.
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Four years ago I wrote an opinion piece as the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games reached its climax.
Some things have changed and Glasgow 2026 will be very different, but the allure of the Commonwealth Games and its unique place in the sporting ecosystem endures.
I’ll explain why.
It has been a bumpy four years for the Commonwealth Games with the withdrawal of the state of Victoria (Australia) and a period of uncertainty before Glasgow stepped in to deliver a re-imagined Commonwealth Games.
The Games, starting today, will feature 74 nations and territories competing in 10 sports and six parasports across a range of iconic Glasgow venues.
Notwithstanding the well-documented challenges, the future looks positive: the 2027 Commonwealth Youth Games is looming large (Malta and Gozo), and the venue for the Centenary Commonwealth Games in 2030 was announced late last year. They will take place in Amdavad, India, in what promises to be a ‘full-scale’ Games with some innovative twists.
So, as we look ahead to some brilliant performances and some great memories being made in Glasgow, let’s take a moment to reflect on why the Commonwealth Games is often cited as a formative and special experience.
At the outset I should stress that Team England is an inherently collaborative endeavour that’s prepared and presented by Commonwealth Games England.
They work in concert with the relevant national governing bodies (NGBs) and world class programmes to identify and select athletes (and the team behind the team) across the sports, and to prepare them for success.
But this goes beyond the athletes. The games present an important development opportunity for coaches, team leaders and practitioners, and they motivate and inspire people playing key roles in clubs and facilities across the nation.
Many athletes benefit from World Class Programme funding from UK Sport, and many of the coaches and practitioners will be employed elsewhere across the system in UK Sport-funded NGB programmes.
The Commonwealth Games is a special opportunity for British athletes to represent their home countries.
For our sporting system it's also an important chance to showcase its success and our rich and diverse sporting offer.
Glasgow will feature a portfolio of sports that are played and built in community sports and leisure facilities across the nation, including some that don’t get much airtime but that also deserve to be celebrated.
Our delegation in these games will include Team England Futures – a ‘non-competing’ Team England who will visit Glasgow as part of a carefully coordinated programme delivered by SportsAid, commissioned by Commonwealth Games England and funded by Sport England.
The initiative consists or circa 100 athletes and 30 coaches that’ll receive an immersive games experience designed to support their development.
It'll also help them prepare to thrive in the major games environment when they make their competitive ‘debut’. For many this will come when representing Team GB or ParalympicsGB at LA2028.
They will be England’s living legacy from the Games – and from what we have seen already through the programme, they have a bright future ahead of them.
Firstly, Glasgow is an ‘integrated’ games.
What that means is that para-athletes and athletes live, train and compete alongside one another, in our context, as part of One Team England.
Glasgow will feature a portfolio of sports that are played and built in community sports and leisure facilities across the nation, including some that don’t get much airtime but that also deserve to be celebrated.
Glasgow is also reported to be the largest ever Para-sport programme with a total of 47 medal events being contested.
Team England will field 60 para-athletes (or 24% of the Team England athlete delegation) in bowls, para-powerlifting, track cycling, athletics, swimming and wheelchair basketball 3x3.
All sports are presented as part of an integrated programme of competition and given equal billing, sharing the programme means that spectators get to enjoy the best sport and para-sport as a matter of course.
Team England is relentlessly focused on ensuring parity of support for all athletes, and on giving them the best possible experience and opportunity to fulfill their potential.
This has created an environment that’s genuinely special, as it demonstrates and reminds us of our common values and aspirations, not our differences – physical or otherwise.
In terms of women’s sport, the number of medals available is strikingly similar and Team England will have more women competing than men.
Amongst them is netball, which is a particularly high-profile event and the Commonwealth Games rivals the Netball World Cup for perceived importance and profile.
At the preparation camp and ‘kitting out’ – where everyone goes to collect their kit, complete their preparations and receive their final training on aspects such as anti-doping and media – there is a map of England and athletes are invited to take a photo and place themselves on the map.
This is a visual representation of where athletes originate from and how they represent the full spread geographically of the nation.
Watching the map get populated as athletes come through the prep camp is fascinating.
Besides, the team has an age spread between 14 and 73 years of age and yet we come together as one Team England of 251 athletes and para-athletes, all with their unique stories and backgrounds – a truly inspiring and exciting prospect.
All the athletes started their journeys in grassroots sport, where volunteer coaches and officials provided fun and impactful opportunities for them to explore and develop their potential.
I can’t stress enough just how much that matters and how amazing a journey can be started with that important first step, plus all those accessible and inclusive first experiences.
Now the baton of supporting the athletes passes to the team behind them.
The commitment and passion from the team at Commonwealth Games England, plus the professionalism and dedication of the sport team leaders is genuinely inspiring – these roles are hard work and I hope very rewarding too.
However, these people won’t stand at the summit of the mountain.
Instead, they are the sherpas staying quietly in the background enabling athletes to focus on their experience, process and performance. I applaud every one of them.
If you want to watch the games and share some of the magic there are different TV options, including daily highlights on Channel 5 and live coverage throughout on TNT, and also on BBC Radio 5 Live and talkSPORT.
If you love sports, you can’t miss it. For me, it’s the sports event of the summer!
Helping local leaders, strategic authorities and partners better understand the role sport and physical activity can play in delivering local growth, prevention and wellbeing ambitions.
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Place-based working
It’s not very often that we stop and really reflect on how far we’ve come, but this Mental Health Awareness Week I'm inviting you to celebrate some recent and significant milestones in embedding mental health in sport and physical activity.
Over the last decade, the sector has been on an incredible journey to take positive action on mental health.
This kick-started with the launch of the Mental Health Charter for Sport and Recreation in 2015 and since then we’ve seen some key milestones, such as:
It’s not very often that we stop and really reflect on how far we’ve come, but this week I’m inviting you to celebrate some recent and significant milestones in embedding mental health in sport and physical activity.
“So, Ben, are those the significant milestones you’re referring to?” I hear you ask, and of course they’re significant! But there’s still more to do to support people’s mental health through sport, physical activity and movement.
Back in 2017, Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson's Duty of Care report contained clear recommendations including:
Recently we’ve done just that and CIMSPA’s Coach and Swimming Teacher professional standards now include a section on mental health awareness with knowledge points on:
Plus did you know the sport and physical activity sector now has a dedicated professional standard for working with people with mental health conditions?
This means NGBs and training providers can benchmark qualifications and training when delivering programmes specifically aimed at people with mental health problems.
This is hugely significant because, believe it or not, the sport and physical activity sector is leading the way!
And I'm not being biased as, out the 322 organisations surveyed in CIMSPA’s 2025 Workforce Development Tool, nearly half (48%) identified mental health awareness as a specialised skill they will need in the next 12–24 months.
Oh, and we haven’t stopped there!
We’ve also created licensed mental health content for NGBs and for the Sport England system partners to use in their training and qualifications for free!
Nowadays I’m working with NGBs to embed this content into their coach education pathways, with British Rowing leading the way.
Their head of qualifications and training development, Rachel Hooper, mentioned that our licensed content has been invaluable in ensuring they use modern and credible information to support coaches.
“Completed it, mate?” Well, not quite because there’s still a long way to go to truly embed mental health across sport and physical activity.
Too many people are battling with their mental health, often in silence, but we know physical activity can be a powerful tool for both preventing and managing mental health problems.
So, this Mental Health Awareness Week I’m inviting you to take action and to be part of the journey, because great mental health care isn’t just clinical; it’s human.
It’s the sports coach who asks, “is everything ok?” when you miss a session or the fitness instructor who checks how they can support you before your first exercise class, but mental wellbeing is also about building a supportive and friendly environment where people can move and thrive.
So if you’re unsure where to start, that's what we’re here for! Let’s talk, let’s start the conversation and let’s fight for mental health for the next 10 years and beyond.
You can reach us by email, online or follow us on LinkedIn. We look forward to hearing from you.
Learn about the role we play in backing aspiring winter sports athletes through our investment of National Lottery and Government funding into talent and support programmes.
Disability
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After the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, we worked with the Centre for the Acceleration of Social Technology and National Governing Bodies to ensure a lasting digital legacy after the international event.
Innovation and digital
National governing bodies
Research
This week is National Inclusion Week, an initiative started by our friends at Inclusive Employers to celebrate inclusion and to make changes that build workplaces where everyone can thrive.
This year the theme is 'Now is the time', but what does this mean exactly?
Basically, that there’s no moment like the present to take action and to make those practical steps in your organisations that embed inclusion and create a sense of belonging.
This really is one of my favourite weeks of the year!
‘Being inclusive’ is one of the guiding values for the work we do at Sport England and it highlights a collective commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) in sport and physical activity.
But we don't approach our commitment to EDI alone, because Moving to Inclusion is an initiative by all the home nations sports councils.
Its purpose is to provide resources and support for physical activity and sport organisations moving towards a more diverse, inclusive and socially responsible sector.
These commitments include an opportunity for self-reflection and continual improvement, which is key in our compromise to keep progressing and living by the values we want to promote.
The Moving to inclusion Framework was created to replace the former ‘Equality Standard - A Framework for Sport’ following a review and consultation with the sport and physical activity sector back in 2021, and it was later soft-launched in Autumn 2023.
This week is National Inclusion Week, an initiative started by our friends at Inclusive Employers to celebrate inclusion and to make changes that build workplaces where everyone can thrive.
The Framework guides organisations on developing inclusive practice through self-reflection and continuous improvement using the Moving to Inclusion Diagnostic Toolkit.
Through this self-reflection tool, our aim is simple: to embed equality, diversity and inclusion through incorporating action planning, implementation and review into an organisation’s everyday work.
It is important to note that the diagnostic tool is not mandatory to complete, or part of any performance management for partner-organisations' funding conditions in England.
In any case, and whichever way you choose to start your inclusivity journey, we believe there are benefits to joining our Moving to Inclusion community:
Any organisation (either inside the sport sector or outside) can undertake the self-reflection process and benefit from the online resources that support it.
To get an idea of the impact it is currently having, check out this infographic for April 2024-March 2025.
Sport England (and UK Sport) have introduced Diversity and Inclusion Action Plans (DIAPs) as a mandatory requirement of the Code for Sports Governance.
DIAPs set out the ambitions and practical steps that organisations in the sport and physical activity sector will take to achieve greater diversity and create inclusive cultures.
The plans are applicable to Tier 3 organisations, with the aim to improve representation and inclusion on boards, in senior leadership teams and throughout the wider organisation.
To date, Sport England and UK Sport have signed off 116 DIAPs that are now with partners to deliver on the actions within their plans and to improve diversity within their organisations and beyond.
Organisations funded by Sport England will find that Moving to Inclusion provides additional, complementary and enduring support for their DIAP processes.
The themed pillars within Moving to Inclusion will help those organisations refresh their DIAPs and they may choose to incorporate the actions arising from their self-assessment within their own plans.
This National Inclusion Week (and every other week in the calendar, if you ask me) we all have a role to play in changing our behaviour, championing inclusive practices and challenging discrimination.
Collectively, we can create the conditions that support a kind, welcoming and nurturing environment for everyone to lead healthier and happier lives and we hope Moving to Inclusion can help you in that journey.
As the Women’s Rugby World Cup kicks off today in Sunderland, we're witnessing the culmination of three decades of National Lottery support that’s transformed women and girls' rugby from the grassroots up.
Funding
National governing bodies
We and UK Sport have provided an update on the 19 policy commitments we made in 2023, after commissioning the Whyte Review to look into abuse in gymnastics.
Children and young people
National governing bodies
Representatives of clubs from England and Wales will meet at Coronation Street tomorrow to celebrate National Lottery funding of the game, enabling pathways from local pitches to international tournaments.
Funding
National governing bodies
Uniting the Movement
It’s only been a few weeks since I completed my first year as CEO of BAFA and I’ve been reflecting on the journey we’ve taken.
It’s been over 12 months of learning, growth and of laying foundations for the future of American football in the UK and this week I’m proud to share Together to Inspire – our new three-year strategy to inspire the next generation of British American football players, coaches, officials and volunteers by bringing the Britball (British American Football) community together alongside its partners and supporters.
Since securing our initial investment by Sport England we’ve made strong strides as a national governing body.
One of our first priorities was to reset the National Flag Football League under BAFA’s direct management, while reconnecting with clubs and players and also fostering a more inclusive, development-focused culture.
The support from the investment has allowed for some immediate short-term participation growth, but we now have a big opportunity in this space to grow the sport as we build towards the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Los Angeles in 2028.
We’ve also invested in our digital infrastructure – recognising that sound systems and processes are critical for long-term sustainability.
Platforms like JustGo are being enhanced to capture better data, helping us understand who’s playing and how to support them.
And in the meantime, our team continues to balance the efforts of our incredible volunteers with the consistency brought by skilled staff and contractors that then align into our chair and board members.
It hasn’t always been easy, but we think all these efforts are vital to our future.
A key lesson this year was balancing ‘the urgent and important’ with the long-term priorities.
There’s always something pressing – a complaint to attend to, another scheduling to fix or a new opportunity for growth to be pursued.
But for me it’s been key to be able to step back away from the day-to-day business and connect with members across the game to ask them about the kind of sport we want to build.
That’s what our new long-term strategy aims to answer.
The support from the investment has allowed for some immediate short-term participation growth, but we now have a big opportunity in this space to grow the sport as we build towards the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Los Angeles in 2028.
With Together to Inspire we’re not just solving today’s problems – we’re building tomorrow’s potential.
And we’re doing so in continuing our alignment with Sport England’s long-term strategy, Uniting the Movement, by creating a sport that’s inclusive, connected and sustainable.
Whether it’s supporting clubs, widening access or growing the workforce, we’re proud to be part of that mission and the work we have delivered in year one.
The biggest insights in our strategy have come from conversations.
Hearing from coaches, volunteers, officials and players has shaped our understanding of what’s needed, but this is an ongoing activity.
Through National Flag League resets, youth competitions and GB performance camps, we’re creating more spaces for meaningful dialogue – not just consultation, but connection with our community.
In 2024, we piloted a regional 11v11 league for under-19 players – removing barriers while offering meaningful development.
It reached 400 players across 12 camps and six fixtures, and it led to 80 additional GB trial invites.
The result? A boost of 16% in under-19 registrations!
The pilot also developed new coaches, several of whom now contribute to GB performance teams.
This model reflects the Uniting the Movement’s focus on youth engagement and inclusive talent pathways.
This year, we implemented MyConcern – a secure case management platform powered by First Advantage.
It streamlines case-tracking and integrates DBS checks via JustGo to streamline the process and make it easy and secure for the user.
We’re also working with CPSU and NSPCC to ensure our policies reflect best practice, by furthering a safe and trusted environment for all.
There’s a lot to be excited about, including:
The Los Angeles 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games present a huge opportunity for us, not just for visibility, but for exciting partnerships with the likes of the NFL UK and BUCS that’ll aid long-term growth together.
We look at these games as the beginning, rather than the end.
Looking back, I’m proud of how far we’ve come – and even more excited about what’s next.
We’ll keep working with our clubs, volunteers and partners to build a thriving future for contact and flag football in the UK.
Together to Inspire is more than a strategy – it’s a goal to work with our partners to create a sport that is values-driven, to make a difference for our clubs, workforce and athletes.
It’s undeniable that the Lionesses’ recent triumphs and the professionalisation of the women’s game, the strong performance of the men’s team and the fact that the number of girls watching and playing football has doubled in recent years, has made the country proud.
We know that the scale of grassroots football in England means that the sport is well positioned to influence people and communities in tackling inequalities in sport and physical activity.
So because of all of these reasons, we thought that our case study with The Football Association (FA) would be a great way to close our series of blogs.
The FA is the National Governing Body for one of the country’s most popular sports and receives significant funding through Sport England’s system partner investment.
We know that the scale of grassroots football in England means that the sport is well positioned to influence people and communities in tackling inequalities in sport and physical activity.
This funding, while a small proportion of The FA’s overall turnover, drives initiatives aimed at tackling inequalities and increasing participation among under-represented groups.
There are different learnings we’ve achieved from these initiatives that are also contributing to Sport England's long-term strategy – Uniting the Movement.
Recognising the common challenge of drop-off in girls’ sports participation during teenage years, The FA developed ‘Squad’– a programme that’s designed to be a fun, non-competitive initiative for girls aged 12-14.
This model, which could be replicated across other sports, prioritises enjoyment and social connection, and aims to retain girls in football while building their confidence and leadership skills.
In addition, they have developed a new talent ID programme called Discover My Talent, shifting the way they find and support talented footballers.
The FA’s learnings from this programme highlight that moving away from a traditional approach, focused on existing clubs and academies, enables them to identify potential "anywhere, anytime."
This approach aims to identify talented players across the country, within diverse groups and at any kind of football events and sessions to broadening opportunities across different communities, resulting in more diverse talent pathways for women and girls.
The FA reports that they are seeing positive results, with increased diversity in the top talent programmes.
The FA is committed to growing para- and disability football and to closing the disability gap, partly through initiatives like ‘Comets’ – a recreational program for disabled children aged 5-11 that provides fun and accessible entry opportunities to the sport.
While aiming to expand Comets and the provision of disability football, The FA acknowledges challenges such as workforce training, confidence levels of local coaches to support disabled people and logistical barriers to attending sessions – like the time and financial costs of travel – for para-athletes.
In response, The FA are providing disability training and toolkits for clubs, called Journey to Inclusion, with the aim of proactively addressing these challenges.
The FA have identified potential for cross-sector collaboration and knowledge sharing with other system partners to continue to address these difficulties, as well as using football as a hook to engage disabled people and connect them with other sports.
As many system partners have told us, local champions have an important role for creating local change.
Recognising the need for a diverse workforce to help diversify participation, The FA is actively working to increase the number of Black and Asian coaches in grassroots football.
And by targeting specific localities and offering more coaching opportunities, The FA aims to create a coaching landscape that reflects the communities it serves.
The FA is increasingly working locally, tailoring programmes to the unique needs of different communities.
Their experience is that partnerships with community groups and schools are key to reaching under-represented groups.
Ensuring safeguarding standards when partnering with non-accredited organisations is recognised as a challenge, so they are actively supporting community organisations in developing their safeguarding processes through training and qualifications.
The new Learning Synthesis report based on the year two evaluation report will be published soon with more insights from the ongoing evaluation.
It will also include the collective contributions that partners are making to changing the sport and physical activity system.
We hope this series of blogs have been useful and if you have any comments or questions, we'd love to hear from you, so please get in touch.
The association has met several conditions imposed upon it by the Home Country Sports Councils so will continue to be recognised as the national governing body for ju jitsu in the UK.
National governing bodies
The Diversity in Sport Governance 2024 report was commissioned by us, along with UK Sport, and conducted by Perrett Laver and provides a detailed breakdown of the makeup of more boards and senior leadership teams of sports organisations.
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Uniting the Movement
We've recognised the organisation as the national governing body for the sport in England.
Governance
National governing bodies
Creating a diverse, thriving, community of leaders who are supported, empowered, skilled and united in the movement to tackle inequalities in physical activity and sport.
Coaching
Local authorities
National governing bodies
Uniting the Movement
Volunteering
Our chief executive reacts to the publication of Inspiring Generations, the updated strategy for cricket in England and Wales.
National governing bodies
Keeping Your Child Safe in Sport Week is a campaign by the NSPCC Child Protection in Sport Unit (CPSU) that runs from 7 to 11 October 2024, highlighting the key role local communities can play in safeguarding children and young people when taking part in sport and physical activity.
The CPSU is one of Sport England's key safeguarding partners and we’re really proud of this collaboration.
We all know that sport and physical activity are great ways for children and young people to learn new skills, support their wellbeing, reach their potential and make friends, but do you really know how important you are when it comes to keeping children and young people safe while being active?
I am talking about volunteers, spectators, helpers, family members, friends and carers – we all need to make sure children have a great time and feel safe when playing a sport.
Many of us are familiar with historic cases of abuse and learning from these is vital to inform practice.
Valuable insight has been gained from Sport England's recent partnership with the National Working Group (NWG) on the Voices in Sport project, which has developed a series of resources in collaboration with survivors and people with lived experience of abuse highlighting the real, lifelong impact of these incidents on their lives.
There is a common theme when you listen to survivors and those with lived experience of abuse and harm: the missed opportunities for intervention and the devastating lifelong consequences brought to each of them.
The NSPCC Child Protection in Sport Unit is one of Sport England's key Safeguarding Partners and we’re really proud of this collaboration.
Some of the testimonies include expressions like: “The signs were there” or “If only someone had listened, believed and responded.”
So now we must do everything we can to prevent future harm, and it is vital that we all know what signs to look out for and how to support creating a culture where – if you have even a slight concern – you feel you can speak up, ask questions and/or raise concerns.
Sadly, abuse in sport is not something that just happened in the past, because children and young people are still suffering the impact of having been harmed.
The NPCC CPSU Case Data Tool Report – based on trends established from anonymised yearly data collected from 39 participating national governing bodies regarding cases that have reached a threshold (cases involving a statutory service, like children's services or police) – identified that between the period between October 2022 and October 2023, 91% of reported incidents occurred less than two years prior to the disclosure.
The good news is that there are many things we can do to reduce the risk of harm to young people and this is exactly the aim of Sport England in its partnership with funded bodies in the sector like the NSPCC CPSU and the NWG.
Recent investments of £14.83m of National Lottery funding into the network of Sports Welfare Officers are providing additional local support to this role within clubs, signposting organisations to the right advice and guidance, and raising awareness of campaigns such as Keeping Your Child Safe in Sport throughout the year.
Play Their Way is also a good example where, through collaboration, the sector has created a campaign for child-led coaching, giving the youngest a voice.
It can’t be emphasised enough how much we need to support sport to develop a culture at grassroots level where talking about the welfare of children is the norm.
Sadly, many people walk away from a club or activity when something is not quite right.
That may be inappropriate behaviour from a coach, a volunteer or a parent, a concern, a doubt, a feeling of uneasiness or realising behavioural changes in a child.
Children and young people’s wellbeing is fundamental to their enjoyment of being active and the CPSU has done a phenomenal job in putting together a great array of ways to get involved including a resources library, short courses and animations to name a few.
I invite you to look at these materials, so we can all learn to play our role to keep children safe in our sector.
The BJJAGB will continue to be recognised as the national governing body for ju jitsu in the UK, subject to it meeting several conditions.
Governance
National governing bodies
We've funded a new £3.6 million Performance Archery Centre, which has officially opened at Lilleshall National Sports Centre.
National governing bodies
Uniting the Movement
We issue a statement following Swim England's publication of the Heart of Aquatics Listening Research Report.
National governing bodies
I’ve always loved power hockey and played it since I was eight.
Power hockey is the powered-wheelchair version of field hockey, which started at Liverpool's Greenbank Sports Academy in 2000.
This is the only contact sport for electric wheelchair users and in March 2021 a governing body - GB Power Hockey Association (CIO) - was born.
It’s the best sport ever as it makes me feel like I have no disability and I can focus on just enjoying it, so imagine my delight when in 2001 I was offered to become a trustee by Gerry Kinsella, chairman of the charity and creator of the sport.
This opportunity meant I could help develop the sport nationwide, something which is key to my current role as media secretary at the charity.
I also helped organise and run power hockey’s inaugural tournament, held in May this year, at the sport’s home of Greenbank Sports Academy.
It was an action-packed day with teams from around the country competing in front of hundreds of spectators.
The occasion became an excellent showcase of how amazing power hockey is and it also signified the official launch of the sport, with numerous teams competing for the first time in the sport’s history.
The tournament helped in raising awareness of power hockey and we hope it’ll become a much larger national league sport with more people playing it.
The boost for the sport was such that we started four new power hockey teams through it.
The aim of the GB Power Hockey Association is to predominantly have disabled people running the charity. Currently, over 50% of our trustees are disabled, including me.
In fact, it was the disabled trustees – Gerry Kinsella, Ellie Curran and Mark Palmer – who helped to organise and run the inaugural tournament.
We also produced the Rulebook of Power Hockey and its Classification System, and Ellie and I collaborated with two physiotherapists to design the Classification System of the sport.
Disabled people need to lead in the development of disability sports, as we are the ones who are going to be playing it, plus we understand first-hand what is like to live with disability and know how important sport is for us.
Sports are a distraction from an individual's disability and an escape from the inaccessible world.
They also play an essential role in our physical and mental health as they can help the cardiovascular system, keep the brain active and provide a sense of freedom.
The aim of the GB Power Hockey Association is to predominantly have disabled people running the charity.
I think it is safe to say that without the role of disabled people within power hockey, the sport wouldn’t exist and I’m proud of having helped laid the foundations for this exciting and up-and-coming sport to prosper and immensely improve disabled people’s lives.
Funding from Sport England has enabled the Greenbank Project, working in partnership with the GB Power Hockey Association, to promote and develop this great new sport.
The funding has aided the creation of four new hubs in England - in Chester-Le-Street, Gloucester, Middlesbrough and Burton Upon Trent - and the further development of the Liverpool hub.
The hubs - which will train teams to compete in different leagues and championships - each have eight power hockey chairs stored, ready for players to use in power hockey and power football weekly sessions.
The funding has also paid for the role of the Greenbank Power Hockey business development manager to support the development of the hubs.
The officer has introduced the games of power hockey, and sometimes power football, to the hubs by organising test sessions in each venue before the hubs start.
This figure has also developed the local partnership, which is crucial to the hubs' success and is supporting the volunteer force to run these centres.
The funding has also enabled the development of the chair themselves.
They count with a shooting mechanism that can propel the hockey ball out of the chair using two electromagnets and the players can tackle each other safely due to front bumpers, more commonly used to protect walls from forklift trucks.
The chairs are made by Powersport Engineering, a community interest company, which took over making the chairs from Greenbank in 2020.
The project has enabled the social enterprise to flourish and develop through the turbulent Covid period and has also enabled disabled people to return to playing sports after the pandemic.
Power hockey and power football players were isolated for a prolonged period during the pandemic due to their vulnerability, but the hubs enabled the players to come out and start playing sports again in a safe environment.
Sport England has also supported the sport by providing a case officer who helped shape and link the project with other key organisations.
Together, we’ve made power hockey a sport with the necessary infrastructure and workforce to thrive and one, more importantly, with a truly exciting future to look forward to.
This is something for all lovers of sport, not just the disabled community, to celebrate.
The national governing body has today published an update on their work following the recommendations of the Whyte Review.
Governance
National governing bodies
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