Taxonomy term

As we work alongside partners in Uniting the Movement, we have been deeply inspired by the brilliant youth voice initiatives across the sector that are supporting young people to make themselves heard. 

At the Leadership Skills Foundation, our own youth-voice journey is about reinforcing a core belief: that every young person can lead change if given the opportunity to develop their skills and confidence.  

Overcoming obstacles through communication

As part of our role as a Sport England system partner, we’ve been building understanding of the barriers young people face to accessing leadership opportunities and progressing into the sector's workforce. 

Youth voice has been an important part of this process and we’ve been testing a new accredited learning programme to empower young people to lead the conversation. 

The Speak Up Challenge aims to build young people’s skills and confidence through creative, participatory activities in classrooms, sports halls and youth clubs. 

Based on the Lundy model for youth participation, it gives young people a platform to communicate their views to influential professionals and policy-makers – all while also receiving feedback to help them understand the potential impact of their insights. 

As part of our pilot, colleagues at Sport England kindly agreed to listen and to provide video feedback as young people shared their perspectives on the barriers into sports volunteering and worked together to reimagine pathways into employment. 

Their ideas spanned transport difficulties, prohibitive costs, lack of role models, low confidence and negative perceptions of careers in sport. 

We’ve taken all the insights and created a summary for everybody to access and this is available on the Challenge page too. 

Our journey so far  

Inspired by Sport England’s Youth Voice Innovation Storybook, we began by running co-design and consultation sessions in a variety of community and academic settings.

The young people we worked with were both energised by the opportunity to lead change and motivated by the potential to earn accredited recognition for their participation, but they also shared their concerns: 

• Lack of time to commit to ongoing youth-voice activities. 
• Worries about standing out amongst their peers or being visible online. 
• Concerns around lacking the skills and confidence to make a difference. 

These insights helped form our core design principles: prioritise confidence-building, avoid long-term commitments, foster peer collaboration, protect privacy and recognise skill development through accreditation. 

We planned a small, iterative pilot to test and adapt as we learned during the first phase, and we were blown away by the depth of insights shared and the level of creativity displayed.

However, some less confident participants, particularly those from special educational needs and disability (SEND) and neurodivergent backgrounds, felt overly vulnerable and struggled to express their views.

Delivery staff reflected that participants needed more time to build trust and grow into the activities. 

Our second iteration focused more on building this base of skills and team rapport.

By improving scaffolding for mixed abilities, we saw positive signs that the programme was becoming more accessible and inclusive.  

Overall, our internal evaluation showed that 87% of participants believed the pilot helped them build skills to speak up for change, and the same percentage said they are now more confident speaking in front of others. 

These results reinforced our belief that the ability to form a viewpoint and effectively share it is a leadership skill that can be practiced, improved and recognised.  

Encouraging impact 

This project has strengthened our understanding of young people’s lived experiences and is informing how we design and deliver programmes for underrepresented groups. 

Participation has also had a meaningful impact on those involved.

It was a real joy to witness a room of boisterous 15-year-olds fall silent and react with smiles as they watched their views being addressed by colleagues from Sport England.

When we surveyed how they felt about the feedback, the overwhelming majority indicated they “definitely felt heard”.  

They were proud that their insights were taken seriously and this validation has acted as a springboard into other opportunities.

Following the challenge, we’ve seen participants inspired to launch online petitions for their MPs, to create new youth-led school clubs and to seek out other youth advocacy initiatives. 

Looking ahead 

As we move into the next phase of our development, we know we’ve still got some way to go, but we are excited to collaborate with other system partners to build on our learning and to support other related work from across the sector.  

Together we can make sure that every young person – regardless of background or circumstance – is able to lead positive change, so if you’d like to discuss our findings or how we can work together to empower young leaders to speak up, please contact us.  

We’re excited about continuing to grow together.

To some, 'devolution' might sound like a dry constitutional tweak – another layer of governance, another reshuffling of power. 

In reality, it’s actually far more human and ultimately, it’s all about people.  

For us in Greater Manchester, devolution has always been about who gets to shape the conditions of everyday life and about enabling those closest to the challenges to also have the power to solve them.

This is what drives us to go further and deeper on our devolution journey.

Facing reality

Back in 2009, the Manchester Independent Economic Review set out two stark truths.

Firstly that if the city-region acted as one joined-up place, it had the potential to help re-balance the UK economy; and secondly, that poor health in the area was holding people back from participating in that growth.  

In some of our neighbourhoods, healthy life expectancy still differs by more than a decade and access to employment, housing, green space and opportunity remains uneven.

These problems are one and the same because health and wealth inequalities are deeply intertwined, and physical inactivity is at the heart of it, yet this isn’t a result of personal choice but a product of environment, policy, culture and design work.  

Movement and physical activity have often been engineered out of daily life, especially in communities facing the greatest disadvantage.

By 2015, when the first Greater Manchester Moving strategy – Blueprint for Change – was developed, the data was clear.

Where inequality was top level, inactivity was also the highest; and the costs – financial, social and human – were enormous.

A true change of tactics against inactivity

The price of inactivity was at least £27 million a year and far higher if you took into account the cost of long-term conditions, mental health, social isolation and the impact of exclusion.  

The response couldn’t be another short-term campaign or an isolated programme. The people of Greater Manchester deserved better.

We needed to reshape the whole system – from transport to planning, from health to education and from workplaces to public spaces.  

This meant a shift from blaming individuals for being inactive and unhealthy (indeed 55% of people in our city-region wanted to be more active), to redesigning the conditions that were shaping their behaviour.

Devolution in Greater Manchester, along with the support of key partners like Sport England, has made that kind of systemic change possible.

This approach has made it possible to have power over health, transport, housing and skills for the people and places they affect but, more importantly, it has enabled us to work differently. 

The way we work now is rooted in collaboration across ten boroughs, public services, communities and sectors. We are one team! 

In Greater Manchester, prior to devolution, we already had the foundations and had laid the groundwork for this approach as we have a history of cooperation that stretches back generations. 

Devolution accelerated that instinct and drive as it gave us the space and opportunity to align strategies, pool resources and focus on our shared mission of building a thriving city-region where everyone can live a good and active life. This is making a difference.

Evidence suggests that life expectancy has improved faster than expected since devolution, particularly in more deprived areas.  

Employment, school readiness and public health outcomes have all shown signs of progress.  

In terms of physical activity, Greater Manchester reduced inactivity at nearly three times the national rate before the pandemic and has since recovered more quickly.

The latest data shows that in Greater Manchester, 62.1% of adults are now considered active. This is the highest rate ever recorded and there is further progress too, with inactivity falling to 26.9%, down from 28.3%.

Data shows that activity levels for children and young people in Greater Manchester are also the highest they’ve been since the survey began in 2017 and, currently, 50.1% of those aged 5-16 are active for at least 60 minutes a day.

But inequalities remain, particularly for people living in more deprived areas, lower socio-economic groups and for some ethnic communities.

So, while this is encouraging progress, a continued focus is needed to enable active lives for all and to keep the MIER report front of mind.

Moving forward as one

These changes are the result of systems that are maturing, where there is better alignment between local and regional strategies, stronger partnerships, and growing trust across sectors.  

They also reflect a deep cultural change in leadership that drives everything we do.

Here, leadership is more than job titles and institutions – it’s relational, distributed and rooted in a shared purpose. 

Leadership seen in community groups is as important as that of boardrooms because, for us, it is about convening, listening and connecting. 

We are united by the same goal of helping people see how movement links to the issues they care about, from jobs and growth to mental health and climate.

Devolution supports us in this work, but it doesn’t guarantee it. Local power alone isn’t enough and mindsets, behaviours and relationships matter just as much.  

The instinct to collaborate doesn’t come from governance structures alone – it comes from people and that’s the real lesson here.

Whether a place has formal devolved powers or not, the fundamentals still apply and it all starts with a shared vision.  

We use a central community voice, work collaboratively across boundaries and build trust by aligning efforts around outcomes that matter.

Our journey in Greater Manchester’s is far from finished (we are only five years into our 10-year Active Lives for All strategy), but we are an example of what is possible when a place brings together its people, purpose and power. 

To my mind, devolution isn’t about redrawing maps. It’s about redesigning systems so that everyone – regardless of where they live – has a fair chance at a good life.

Growing up as the only deaf person in my family, sport became my escape from the loneliness and isolation I often felt at home and at school, because constantly second-guessing conversations and struggling to keep up takes a toll.

But sport gave me freedom and a way to let go of all that frustration.

It all started with swimming. In the water I found my own bubble of silence. No worrying about misheard words or asking people to repeat themselves – just me, the lane and a sense of independence.

That feeling is something every child should have, but for many deaf children the chance to experience it simply isn’t there.

Destination Deaflympics: turning inspiration into action

In 2025, we launched Destination Deaflympics, a programme for 8-16-year-olds inspired by the Tokyo 2025 Deaflympics.

For us it’s all about giving young people the chance to try fun, inclusive activities and closing the gap between deaf children and their hearing peers.

So far we’ve reached 3,500 deaf and hard of hearing children across 175 settings and, along the way, we’ve learned a lot about the barriers they face, like the lack of accessible community provision or coaches who don't know how to deliver inclusive sessions.

That’s why we’re working with partners like the British Association of Teachers of Deaf Children and Young People to make sure deaf children get their recommended 60 minutes of activity every day.

This work has seen great success in the education sector with teachers sharing that by taking part in Destination Deaflympics, they are also seeing benefits in the classroom with students being more focused and ready to learn.

Role models who make a difference

The Deaflympics celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2024 and the Tokyo Games was an event like no other.

The GB team brought home 12 medals, finishing 12th out of 80 nations, but its impact went way beyond the results.

These athletes are key role models who showed what’s possible and inspired the next generation of Deaf sport men and women.

Before the Games, one of our swimmers spent a day with deaf schoolchildren in Greater Manchester sparking excitement and ambition that will last a lifetime.

Why this matters for Sport England’s vision

Everything we’re doing supports Sport England's long-term strategy, Uniting the Movement. We're talking about things like:

• tackling inequalities by addressing the participation gap in sport for deaf people
• creating inclusive environments through coach education and community partnerships
• improving mental wellbeing by using sport to combat isolation
• building role models who inspire young people to dream big.

Sport should be for everyone and that’s why, by breaking down barriers and creating opportunities, we’re not just changing lives – we’re helping deliver Sport England’s vision of a fair, inclusive and active nation.

I can’t wait for the Commonwealth Games, which this year will be held in Glasgow at the end of July, and to the much-needed uplifting news and excitement they’ll bring us.

The games are an opportunity for athletes from across the Commonwealth to compete at the highest level and for people everywhere to enjoy the spectacle, which will extend over 11 days of sport and festivities.

But among all the excitement we can't forget that for some of the athletes, actually getting to the point of competing has been tough and the effects on their training by climate change means it’s only getting tougher.

The dangers of acute weather conditions 

For instance, on the Maldives, sea-level rise is a real problem with saltwater encroaching on facilities and extreme weather stopping play, whereas in India it’s simply too hot to train in the summer, so its athletes must live and train elsewhere if they want to compete.

For those still unsure about the impact of climate change on sport, it’s worth attending a screening of the National Emergency Briefing and having a look at The Well-Adapted UK report, as both documents warn us about the importance of preparing for new temperatures, extreme rainfall and the changing of the seasons.

Sport and physical activity are threatened by a changing climate, not just at elite level but at grassroots level too.

As winters become wetter we are seeing pitches and courts flooded with increasing frequency, leaving them unusable for any training, competition or enjoyment.

Conflict elsewhere is another factor affecting our sector, as it’s leading to wildly fluctuating energy prices that threaten the clubs and sports organisations’ ability to keep the lights and heat on in the facilities, something that particularly affects swimming pools.

And as we approach the summer we'll see how extreme heat is increasingly going to be a key threat, particularly for disabled people, the elderly or those with a long-term health condition.

Plus for those living in densely-populated areas, the lack of shading will deter people from taking exercise as it’s hard for many to be active when the heat makes you ill.

Given that during the Covid pandemic physical activity was one of the few legitimate reasons we were allowed to leave our homes – along with essential shopping, medical needs and travel to work for key workers - it is clear how important exercise is to individuals and to any nation.

That realisation has become an accelerator for action and it’s encouraging that we are starting to work on measures to reduce our impact on the environment, to stop climate change getting any worse, and – just as importantly – to plan for the future.

Here at Sport England we are developing a report, which should be available by late summer, looking at the hazards caused to sport and physical activity by a changing climate.

But while there’s still work that needs to be done, it’s reassuring that people are considering climate change and that we’re are already taking action. 

This is only a first step because we know we need to understand how this will vary across the country, how it’ll affect different activities and – perhaps more importantly – how different people and communities will behave in more extreme weather conditions. 

The King's Baton Relay

I could see this when I visited Malmesbury Bowls Club earlier this month as part of the King’s Baton Relay, which sees delegates of the 74 competing nations and territories travel across their home lands before finishing at the host city of the Commonwealth Games, Glasgow. 

I was there with Sally-Ann Lewis-Wall, representing Team England in para-bowls at the Games, and with TV presenter Radzi Chinyanganya, to hear about the importance of sport at both elite and grassroots level being more sustainable and preparing for the future.

It was great seeing the work done, supported by our Movement Fund, to install an artificial green and then restore it when it was damaged by severe flooding last year.

The bowls club are working with others in the area to take a wider look at the flooding issue.

They have identified tree-planting and other nature-based solutions upstream to slow the flow of water to the town to enable play to continue, meaning that the members of the club will be able to keep enjoying the exercise and the good company. 

It is with thousands of these small actions across England and the Commonwealth that we can ensure we’ll all be able to keep enjoying sport and activity now and into the future.

Every little win against climate change counts and I, for one, will be watching the Games closely and listening out for other inspirational projects.

I co-founded Dementia Disco back in 2019 along with my brother Nick and our friend Phil as we all shared the heartbreak of watching family members live with this terrible condition. 

Mine and Nick’s dad was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s at just 66 and while local support groups used music, they often played songs from the 1940s and 50s that meant very little to a man born in 1950 and who grew up loving the 60s and 70s.

Meanwhile, Phil watched her independent, piano-playing gran quickly fade due to vascular dementia, realising that losing someone to this condition means losing them twice.

We wanted to give our community, of over 400 disco-goers, access to daily engagement while providing care homes with accessible, repeatable physical activity resources.  

This purpose lead us to asking ourselves a key question: how do we take that magical, weekly disco energy and turn it into a simple, life-changing daily habit?  

The hidden danger: tackling falls 

The answer became urgent when we looked at one of the most serious health risks facing people with dementia: falls.

Falls are the leading cause of emergency hospital admissions for older people, costing the NHS £2.3 billion annually, and they drastically accelerate the loss of independence.

Because of a fear of falling, many people with dementia become less active, but this only makes them weaker and more vulnerable.  

We wanted to break this cycle by embedding clinically-proven strength and balance exercises into joyful, familiar dance routines.  

Where science meets boogie

Thanks to the support from the Sport England Movement Fund, that dream is now a reality and we have teamed up with the brilliant Ailsa McPhee and her project, The Daily Dance, to co-create 240 brand-new dance videos over the next 12 months.  

The opportunity here is massive, because we’re not just making dance videos – we are transforming clinical therapy into a daily celebration.  

To ensure the highest physical impact, we have partnered with KOKU Health Ltd, a University of Manchester spinout.

Endorsed by Prof Emma Stanmore and Dr Jaheeda Gangannagaripalli, our routines seamlessly integrate the university's award-winning, evidence-based falls-prevention exercises, as decades of research prove these movements can reduce falls by up to 42%.

This all comes to life with Ailsa as she beautifully weaves these targeted balance and strength movements into high-energy, themed choreography sets to well-known songs.

Participants get the medical benefits of a specialised falls-prevention programme, but to them, it just feels like having a brilliant boogie.  

Turn on Dementia Disco TV 

This week is Dementia Action Week and while it's key to celebrate, we want to make daily physical activity achievable for everyone and everywhere, so all our 240 videos are being hosted directly on our brand-new digital hub, Dementia Disco TV.

Whether it’s a short warm-up before breakfast at home, a midday mood-booster with a family member, or a group session in a care home, these routines are free, evergreen, and designed to be easily woven into any daily schedule. 

Over the next year, we will be exploring different dance styles, seasonal themes (from summer holidays to Christmas), and fun costumes to keep our dancers inspired and connected all year round.  

We are incredibly grateful to Sport England and the National Lottery players for making this project possible, because combining emotional engagement with robust health science, we’re not just helping people stay active – we are giving them the confidence, strength and joy to live their lives to the fullest, one dance step at a time.  

If you’ve ever wondered whether a simple walk can really make a difference to someone’s life, the answer from our Somerset Health Walks community is a huge ‘yes’.

Over the past year, we’ve been gathering feedback from over 3,000 of our individual walkers and over 180 volunteers to better understand the impact that our Health Walks programme is having across Somerset.

But while the statistics are important, it’s the personal stories and comments that really bring everything to life – and honestly, they’ve been some incredibly moving tales to read.

One thing that shines through again and again is how welcoming and inclusive our walks feel.

Another lovely theme that emerged was people reconnecting with their local area.

Walkers told us they’d discovered footpaths, countryside routes and places they never knew existed.

Enjoying our local spaces

Others spoke about the joy of being outdoors in all seasons – being out in fresh air, nature, muddy boots and all – plus the recent study by Current Psychology confirms that walking in natural environments significantly improves mental wellbeing.

As always, we’ve also listened carefully to suggestions and feedback, and over the past year we’ve introduced more walks in different locations, added clearer meeting point information and improved details on our website to make walks easier to access.

Walking is a favourite activity for many people and why wouldn’t it be here in our beautiful county?

It’s important to us that Somerset Health Walks continues to grow and evolve with the needs of our community. That’s what working in Place is all about.

The investment from Sport England is important, but working in this way has only been made possible by our incredible volunteers and walk leaders.

The warmth, professionalism and care they bring every single week is what makes these walks so special.

And, of course, the walkers themselves. They are what make this community what it is and why we carry on working together in this way. See you on the next walk!

There are many ways in which people use digital on the journey to being active, but this can be challenging for those lacking access, skills or confidence to use online platforms.

Our new research explores these barriers and recommends actions for making sport and physical activity more digitally accessible.

But think about the last time you decided to try a new sport or activity.

The role of ‘digital’ in being active

Chances are you used the internet in one or more ways: to look for opportunities, to book and pay for a session, to plan travel to the venue, to participate in an online exercise session or to communicate with others about the activity.

‘Digital’ is now so entwined with the way we access and participate in physical activity that it’s hard to imagine being active without it.

In fact, in a recent Sport England Activity Check-in survey (Wave 19), 67% of respondents said they use digital tools to find out information about sport and physical activity.

At Good Things Foundation, we are committed to ensuring everyone can participate in our digital society, but there are still many people who face barriers to being online.

According to Lloyds' Essential Digital Skills 2025 report, around eight million people lack foundational-level digital skills in the UK, while data provided by Ofcom, the communications regulator in the UK, reveals that over a quarter of households struggled to afford mobile data and/or broadband in 2025.

Our 2025 desk research with Sport England showed that groups facing digital barriers also face inequalities in being active, so understanding how digital shapes participation is crucial to ensuring opportunities are inclusive and accessible for all.

Understanding digital barriers

We recently partnered again with Sport England to extend our research to better understand the experiences of people trying to be active when struggling with digital access and/or digital skills.

We also identified examples of good practice for reducing digital barriers from organisations supporting people with digital and physical activity.

Our research highlights four types of digital barriers that can make it difficult for people to be active:

• Access: not being able to afford mobile data, wifi connections and/or not having access to a suitable digital device.
• Skills and confidence: lacking skills to search for/or access information online and/or finding it hard to use different apps and platforms.
• Trust and safety: worrying about booking and paying online, and/or lacking trust in the reliability of information online.
• User experience: language and/or accessibility needs, which for many makes it harder to use online platforms, and/or poor user experience including a lack of relevant information on digital platforms.

Take Ewa, for example, who told us that she loves to be active but who, due to confidence and English language barriers, struggles to go online to find out information about suitable local opportunities.

She relies on support from a local community organisation and from her young son to help her access information and book sessions, such as at the local swimming pool because, as she shared: “If it is online, I have to ask someone to help me. I don’t feel confident doing this myself.”

Recommended steps

Our research also highlighted great examples of how organisations are taking steps to support digital inclusion in order to help people participate in sport and physical activity, with recommend actions such as:

• build understanding of digital barriers: embed simple questions on digital barriers, like the Indicators of Digital Inclusion, into customer or population surveys to understand needs and design sport and physical activity services accordingly
• provide or signpost to local, trusted support for digital help, like organisations in the National Digital Inclusion Network building digital access and skills among local communities
• make it easier for people to use online platforms: sport and physical activity platforms should be designed with the needs of people with low digital skills in mind. Besides, non-digital pathways for information (such as printed leaflets) and booking options should also be provided
• build partnerships for place-based support: as digital barriers are not limited to the sport and physical activity sector, collaboration across local systems like the health and social prescribing services or the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector can help build digital capability.

A call for a digitally inclusive sector

Digital should be an enabler – not a barrier – to being active, so by understanding and addressing digital barriers we can ensure that everyone has the same opportunities for participating in sport and physical activity.

While many people still struggle with digital access and skills, our new research shows that organisations across the sport and physical activity sector can take action to make their services more digitally accessible.

Sport England has a critical role in this space too and by continuing to raise awareness of digital exclusion across the sector, championing best practices and raising expectations for commissioning inclusive services, they can ensure digital inclusion is baked into all sport and physical activity from the beginning and not just as an afterthought.

We all know that regular movement is one of the most powerful ways to reduce the risk of major illness, improve mental health and help people live longer, healthier lives. 

But access to movement is not equal and those who could benefit most often face the greatest barriers, whether through low confidence, complex health needs or difficulty navigating what’s available locally. 

We also know that simply encouraging people to be more active or signposting them to activities rarely leads to lasting change. 

What’s needed instead is a support system that reflects the realities of people’s lives and this is where social prescribing comes in.  

From access to engagement

Social prescribing is a personalised, community-based approach to health that focuses on ‘what matters to you’ rather than ‘what’s the matter with you’, recognising that wellbeing is shaped by a range of social, economic and environmental factors, many of which are linked to wider social inequalities.

It often begins with a referral (whether from a GP, a community worker or even a self-referral), which connects the individual to a link worker or similar role.

Social prescribers spend time understanding a person’s circumstances, interests and motivations before supporting them to access community-based activities, resources and services that meet their needs.

So, unlike traditional signposting, social prescribing provides sustained, relational support that enables individuals to take greater control of their health over time.  

In England, there are now over 3,300 link workers and a strong body of evidence that demonstrates the positive impact of social prescribing on both health outcomes and, in turn, healthcare services.

Social prescribing is increasingly delivered across a range of settings, including primary care, secondary care and also within the community, supporting people at every stage of life.  

For the physical activity sector, social prescribing provides a vital mechanism to make movement a realistic, accessible and integrated part of people’s lives.  

Partnership, place and prevention

Sport England’s ongoing partnership with the National Academy for Social Prescribing (NASP) helps  
to enable this more connected, whole-system approach that strengthens the infrastructure, the relationships and the local capacity needed to connect people to movement through social prescribing. 

With Sport England’s support, NASP has built a strong evidence base for prescribing physical activity and has also developed guidance, campaigns and training for link workers to support movement-based referrals. 

We’ve also strengthened place-based community partnerships that are unlocking inclusive and innovative approaches to physical activity.

An example of this is Sunderland, where one social prescribing service has programmed silent discos for children with disabilities, dance for those at risk of falls and aerial workshops for older adults. These gave the opportunity to Marion, 95, of swinging from a silk hammock, laughing freely while suspended in the air for the very first time.  

Our most recent programme with Sport England, Movement Matters, aligns with their place-based investment approach.

The programme is designed to strengthen how physical activity is embedded within local social prescribing systems, supporting Active Partnerships to work more closely with primary care at a neighbourhood level in order to reach the communities most impacted by inactivity and health inequalities.  

The initial pilot in 2025 provided important foundations to strengthen relationships between sectors, support more strategic use of data and insights, and to build confidence among practitioners to position movement centrally within healthcare pathways.  

Building on this, we're preparing to launch a new phase of Movement Matters in April 2026 that will support Active Partnerships to translate insights into action, working with primary care to take a proactive social prescribing approach to health creation.

The new phase will also support wider primary care and community roles directly, providing resources, practical guidance and opportunities to share learning with the physical activity sector.   

This approach is a vital component of the vision for neighbourhood health, where prevention, community assets and personalised care play a central role in improving population health. 

This is reflected in Sport England’s recent blog for the Neighbourhood Health Implementation Programme.

This Social Prescribing Day, we recognise that creating active communities requires more than just provision.

It requires a way to connect people to movement that is shaped around their reality. 

When this happens, movement can become a routine part of health management, supporting people not only to stay well, but to live fully – with greater confidence, resilience and agency to take part in what matters the most. 

Want learn more about Social Prescribing? You can take NASPs free e-learning modules, including Social Prescribing Essentials, and Social Prescribing with Children and Young People.

Long before I worked in sport, or even imagined running a sports charity, I was a state-school kid in Windsor learning how to row and trying to help keep our school boat club afloat.

My first experience of The Boat Race wasn’t from a fan park or a television screen but from the riverbank, where I was selling programmes to passers-by to help raise funds for the club.

That day, and what I felt during that time, stuck with me.

From school talks and volunteering opportunities to co-designing the event’s branding, the build-up and their input to shaping the event mattered, as those moments helped young rowers feel ownership, pride and a real connection to The Boat Race week itself.

Seeing the idea become reality

By April 2025, standing on the sunny banks of the Thames at Fulham Reach Boat Club, it was clear the idea had taken on a life of its own and the event featured on the BBC with a peak audience of 2.8 million. We even made our own video on the events of the day, which we are very proud of.

Over 100 state-school students and volunteers gathered for the second Youth Boat Race.

Eight mixed crews from schools across London raced side by side on the same stretch of river used by the Oxford and Cambridge University rowers, with families lining the banks and local supporters cheering.

The atmosphere was joyful, loud and deeply proud, with participants describing it as an amazing experience filled with music and laughter that they would “100% like to do again”, and "a very fun and a unique experience" that people thoroughly enjoyed and that built new memories with friends.

Watching young athletes race along the Championship Course was genuinely moving.

Many of them had discovered rowing through state school and community programmes, and that gave me an added sense of pride.

Speeches from OCRF Trustee Erin Kennedy OBE and Mayor Patricia Quigley captured exactly what the day represented: teamwork, trust, confidence and being part of something bigger than ourselves.

From pilot event to national stage

But for me, what has been most exciting is witnessing just how quickly the Youth Boat Race has grown.

From a small pilot in 2024, to a significantly expanded second year, all supported by the generosity of OCRF, the event has already become a meaningful fixture of Boat Race week. And now to see it included in Channel 4’s coverage this Easter Weekend 2026 truly feels like a milestone.

That visibility matters as it sends a powerful message to young people watching at home that rowing is something they can be part of.

After the inaugural Youth Boat Race in 2024, Owen Slot, chief sports writer at The Times, summed this up perfectly when he said: “Only when sports can spread the word like this does elite funding at the Olympic end really make sense.”

For me, that captures the essence of the Youth Boat Race and is the link between grassroots opportunity and elite sport, showing how inspiration, access and participation can exist hand-in-hand with elite level racing.

Looking ahead

The Youth Boat Race is still young, but its purpose is clear and each year it grows, not just in numbers, but in confidence, quality and impact too.

What began as an idea is now an event that brings communities together and opens doors for young people across London.

It proves that success isn’t measured by winning, but by the friendships formed, the confidence built and the moment a young person realises they belong on the river.

And this Easter, with the Youth Boat Race shared with a national audience, many more young people might just see themselves there too.

The power of storytelling feeds through to our marketing efforts, with a social media influencer campaign and summer activation in development.

For it, we’ll be building on our previous successes with one in five people taking action having seen the campaign, 64% of people finding our advertising relatable and 66% agreeing that the campaign stands out from other advertising. Our insight hub offers more details about the response to the campaign.

And, while more details will come in due course, keep an eye out for a summer campaign and how you, and your networks, can get behind it.

Evaluating past efforts and looking ahead

While a lot of our lobbying and influencing work goes on behind the scenes, we’re particularly excited to kick start work on a follow up to our impactful Millions More Moving report from 2024 to see progress made against the policy shifts we set out to influence.

This time we’ll be going into it with greater depth on how and why to get millions more moving.

We’re also proud of our continued work on shaping the implementation of the 10 Year Health Plan, which will provide a focus for our lobbying and influencing work.

Our Lived Experience Insights Dashboard helps to inform our influencing work, so we’re delighted that this resource continues to be freely available for anyone who wants to access it as it now spans several years’ worth of data from 13,000 respondents with long-term conditions.

And finally (yep, there’s still more!), we’re heading into year two of having our very own app, which we’re about to get the first 12-month evaluation back from (thanks to GoodBoost and London Metropolitan University for working with us on that).

A sneak peek shows increases in physical activity for those engaging with the app and increases in personal motivation to be more active, which we’re thrilled to see.

With over 13,000 users registered already, this is a promising start to a fundamental part of the behaviour change journey for our audiences.

With such a busy year ahead there’s great cause for optimism that in 12 months' time we’ll have taken huge strides to achieving our goals within our role as a system partner and across our wider sector.    

International Women’s Day is a date that, contextually, makes me reflect on how far women’s sport has come.

From being excluded entirely to selling out stadiums and becoming Euro champions, women and girls have had to overcome barrier after barrier in the UK (and beyond).

There is so much to celebrate in that progress, yet we’re still a long way from a world where sport is genuinely accessible and inclusive for everyone, regardless of identity.

Recognising this inequality is what shifted the direction of my own life and it continues to be the driving force behind my commitment to creating change for others. 

'Give to Gain'

This year’s theme, 'Give to Gain', really resonates with me because it reflects much of my own experience.

A lot of my journey has involved giving time, energy and care to support women, girls, trans and non-binary people, often alongside my main role, without always knowing what that would lead to.

What I’ve gained in return has been confidence, perspective and a much clearer sense of why this work matters. 

Through my role as activities and opportunities officer at Leeds University Union, I’ve been involved in work linked to the Women’s+ Sports Participation Project.

This is a great initiative that focuses on understanding why women and marginalised genders engage, or don’t engage, in sport and what needs to change to support them better.

Giving time to this work has reinforced how important it is to listen properly in order to create welcoming environments and challenge assumptions about who sport is for.

Seeing people feel more confident accessing sport and physical activity has been one of the most rewarding parts of what I do. 

Recently, I joined Sport England’s Co‑Design Group and took part in an introductory session.

While I’m still very new to the space, what stood out to me straight away was the emphasis on lived experience and learning from one another.

Women's leadership in our sector

Being in a room where people are encouraged to share honestly and where those experiences are treated as valuable, felt important.

At this stage, my role is very much about listening, learning and understanding how these spaces work, but even that feels meaningful.  

Alongside this, being part of Leading the Movement has helped me reflect on leadership and what it looks like for women in sport.

There are positive signs, for example, that more women are stepping into leadership positions and that progress deserves to be recognised.

But when you look more closely, the number of younger women in leadership roles is still relatively small and that gap matters because younger women bring different experiences, challenges and perspectives that aren’t always represented.  

This realisation has also made me think about how often society equates age with experience.

However, I’ve learned first‑hand that this isn’t true because passion can outweigh knowledge and when someone is genuinely committed to making change, they will learn with purpose.

So I want to challenge the assumption that leadership must come with age, because it overlooks the value, insight and drive that younger women bring.

The future of sport

That’s why I believe that creating space for that passion to be recognised is just as important as creating space for experience, which is what I feel Leading the Movement has really committed to. 

All of this reminds me that progress in women’s sport has never happened by accident.  

It has happened because people have been willing to give their time, their voice and their energy to push for something better.

All of this leads me to the conclussion that 'Give to Gain' isn’t just a theme, it's a necessity.

Because when we give space to people’s stories, we gain understanding. When we give opportunities to those who are overlooked, we gain stronger, more diverse leadership. And when we give our passion to a cause, we gain the possibility of real, lasting change. 

As we celebrate International Women’s Day, I feel hopeful about what comes next.

There is still a long way to go, but there is also a growing community of people of all ages, identities and experiences who are determined to reshape what sport can be.

I want to be part of that movement not just to open doors for others, but by challenging the assumptions that keep those doors closed in the first place.

If we continue to listen, to learn and to lead with purpose, then the future of sport will not only be more equal, but also more representative of everyone it’s meant to serve. 

When young people feel seen and connected, they are less likely to engage in harm and when they feel pride in their street or estate, they are less likely to damage it.

Doorstep sport also changes how places feel. A park filled with organised activity feels different. A street reclaimed for play feels different.

Putting a value on wellbeing

But ultimately, why does this matter?  Recently, we commissioned State of Life to conduct a social value study.

The research organisation looked at survey data from around 1,000 young people taking part in StreetGames’ doorstep sport, which many had entered through youth crime prevention pathways.

Using the WELLBY approach set out in HM Treasury’s Green Book guidance, the study estimated that the wellbeing uplift associated with participation equates to approximately £12,986 per young person, assuming the improvement lasts for one year.

That’s not a participation statistic. That’s the wellbeing value of doorstep sport.

Raising the bar

Our current Youth Endowment Fund-backed evaluation, Towards Sport, is using randomised control trials – the gold standard in evaluation. Results will land next year and we can’t wait!

But one thing is already clear: sport must be intentional. It must understand referral pathways. It must align with youth justice priorities. It must embed strong monitoring and learning. It must work in partnership, not in isolation.

Over the last decade, as a sporting organisation, we’ve become fluent in the youth justice system’s language – concepts and phrases such as trusted adults, contextual safeguarding, public health principles, system impact – and its significance.

This understanding has led us to a key learning: sport cannot simply turn up. It has to fit.

A decade in and still learning

We know many of Sport England system partners and Active Partnerships are active — or increasingly curious — in this space.

That’s encouraging because prevention is long-term work that requires humility, partnership and constant learning.

There is still more to understand and strengthen but the direction is clear.

Ultimately, this work is about supporting place-based community partners to support and protect vulnerable young people, getting them more physically active along the way. 

Think pro-social (not anti-social), build protective factors (not just manage risk) and, above all, use sport not as distraction, but as deliberate prevention and keep putting it where it works best and is needed the most.

These subjects, and more, will now become a series of deep-dive webinars that will be delivered in partnership with Sport England and the Active Partnerships National Organisation (APNO), and you can access the Quarterly Learning Session we had last week with Sport England. 

Together we will get more young people into sport and physical activity and away from crime.

Sport England’s system partner investment has committed over £500 million, since 2022, to more than 130 partners in support of the organisation's Uniting the Movement strategy. 

This long-term funding provides up to five years of financial security and stability for organisations to focus on addressing the systemic changes needed to tackle the inequalities stopping individuals and communities from being physically active.

Moving forward together 

The latest findings from the evaluation of the System Partner portfolio, based on insights gathered throughout 2025, matures the understanding of how partners’ collective efforts are creating change.

It also shines a light on four distinct, yet interconnected, roles that System Partners play to influence change.

It’s important to say that while many organisations naturally combine these roles, understanding them helps us to be more strategic and effective.

Whether you are funded through the System Partner investment or from elsewhere, we encourage you to reflect on the roles your organisation play.

We hope this insight can prompt you to consider how you can strengthen your collaborations and benefit from the expertise and reach of others as part of your work towards addressing inequalities and increasing physical activity.

The four roles identified are:

• The Improver. This role is the foundation of a safe and professional sector. Improvers focus on raising standards in governance, safeguarding, and equality, diversity and inclusion. They not only enhance their own practices but also support other organisations to do the same. An example is The Angling Trust, which – in response to a surge in demand for angling for wellbeing – introduced a 21-point checklist and new training to ensure its delivery partners met high standards for safety and quality.
• The Influencer. Influencers work to shape the conversations and conditions that make it easier for people to get active. They advocate for policy change and champion the needs of specific communities. The Richmond Group of Charities, a coalition of health charities, exemplifies this role. By acting as a collective, they have achieved greater reach and successfully embedded physical activity resources into the healthcare system.
• The Deliverer. This is where strategies are translated into opportunities for people to be more active. Deliverers create and adapt on-the-ground programmes for people to participate in sport and physical activity, with a focus on reaching under-represented communities. Chance to Shine’s ‘Street’ cricket programme illustrates this. By targeting deprived areas, recruiting local coaches and empowering young leaders, they have grown a programme that is youth-led and community-driven.
• The Connector. Connectors bring people and organisations together at a local level. They use their understanding of a place to guide funding and activities where they are most needed. Active Partnerships such as the Yorkshire Sport Foundation demonstrate this role. They bring people and policies together to link regional policy and community action, using formal agreements and data-driven insights to translate high-level strategy into targeted, grassroots support.

At Sport England, we want to make physical activity and sport a normal part of life for everyone, as movement is not only great for everybody's mental and physical health, but because it also brings communities together, develops skills and confidence, and even contributes to boosting our economy.

However, we know that when it comes to being active, it’s not a level playing field across the country and some groups in our communities face additional barriers due to their background, gender, postcode, culture and/or disability (amongst others).

That’s why our focus on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (ED&I) runs through everything we do and aims to tackle some of these systemic challenges, because for us it’s not about ticking boxes, but about making the world better for everyone.

As part of our long-term organisational strategy, Uniting the Movement, and our ED&I ambition to tackle inequalities, we have a specific focus on disability.

Our latest Active Lives data shows that one in five people in England have a long-standing limiting disability or illness, and that disabled people are almost twice as likely to be physically inactive.

We also know that an estimated 15% of the UK population are neurodivergent and that the more barriers people face, the less likely they are to be active.

On the other hand, we believe in the social model of disability – which means that people are disabled by society, not by their impairment – so we want to change the systemic and practical barriers they have to face as these, and not the person, are the real problem. 

Historically, societal systems and sporting traditions have (often invisibly) excluded neurodivergent people and that's why at Sport England we're so excited to be working with Neurodiverse Sport and Autism Action. Together we want to begin to address these issues and drive more inclusive practice.

We are all included

Everyone is neurodiverse because everyone’s brains are different, but 'neurodivergence' refers to the cases when cognitive profiles differ further from the statistical norm, as happens with autism, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), dyslexia or dyspraxia.

As with everything, neurodivergence is different for each individual and some experience greater challenges than others.

A person’s experience depends on how their unique strengths and challenges interact with their environment – so designing better environments is key to better outcomes.

Not everyone sees neurodivergence as a disability and this often links to whether they align with the social or medical model of disability, which sees the disability as the problem.

But as a disabled person, this makes sense to me – I don’t see myself as disabled if I use the medical model, yet I do under the social model.

Being disabled doesn’t stop anyone from having significant strengths, experiences or ambitions. 

In fact, it definitely doesn’t stop those wanting to be involved in sport and activity, from grassroots through to elite (Paralympics, anyone?).

So what we want to see, and what our partnership with Neurodiverse Sport and Autism Action will help us progress with, is a more inclusive and skilled sector for neurodivergent people.

The investment will focus on increasing awareness, upskilling the workforce, creating health and wellbeing partnerships, and building best practice and innovation for change.

Additionally, it will develop a 'Blueprint to Inclusion' to develop, pilot and replicate neuroinclusive practices across the sport and physical activity sector that will equip it with tools and resources to change understanding and practice.

The document will be co-produced with people with lived experience and it'll focused on people's strengths, promoting practical and reasonable adjustments as standard, and considering both performance and wellbeing.

More information about how this work is developing will be shared in the new year.

Bringing barriers down 

In spite of our best efforts and Uniting the Movement, it’s clear that there are deep-rooted inequalities in sport and physical activity that mean many people feel excluded.

We want to reduce this for neurodivergent people by working together to understand the barriers some are facing, finding solutions and supporting the sector to take this forward.

But we can’t do this alone – not even with the extensive networks of our partners. So if you want to be involved and are curious and ambitious in how we can collectively make the world better, please get in touch. We’d love to hear from you.

At StreetGames we are passionate about helping children and young people from the most deprived places build life-long habits in sport and physical activity.

We do this because we know the powerful role that sport and physical activity can play in helping young people build friendships, develop confidence, forge a sense of belonging, provide opportunities to connect with trusted adults, develop pro-social behaviours and improve attention, engagement and performance levels at school.

The triple dividend for young people

Sport and physical activity improves health and wellbeing for everyone, but for children and young people it delivers a ‘triple dividend’.

This refers, firstly, to the immediate gains from getting good active habits from a young age; secondly, to the potential of future benefits as today’s youngsters transition into adulthood and, thirdly, to the advantages that the next generation (i.e. their children) will enjoy from following their elders’ healthy behaviours.

As such, it’s encouraging to see this new research from Sport England and their research partners – State of Life, Sheffield Hallam University and Manchester Metropolitan University – which provides powerful data showing the significant wellbeing uplift children and young people gain from taking part in sport and physical activity.

The latest numbers include new calculations for 7-11-year-olds and applies the newly developed C-WELLBY measure, together with wellbeing values by demographic breakdowns for 11-16-year-olds.

The new results show an average yearly wellbeing value of an active young person aged 7-11 years of £3,100, and an updated average value of £4,300 for an active person aged 11-16 years.

There is also significant wellbeing value attached to young people who are ‘fairly active’, because taking part in at least some sport and physical activity regularly is better for the wellbeing of our young people than being ‘less active’.

Wellbeing calculations

In both cases, the average wellbeing values for participation are higher for children and young people than for adults, highlighting the importance of being active from a young age.

However, the research also highlights a ‘wellbeing gap’.

As we mentioned, the value of being active for 11-16-year-olds is £4,300, but analysis by demographic sub-groups shows a weaker association between physical activity and wellbeing among children and young people who are from low family affluence (£2,900), Black (£2,300), girls (£3,300), or disabled or living with a long-term health condition (£2,800).

As the report pinpoints, these wellbeing calculations do not take into consideration factors related to opportunity, motivation, enjoyment and experience – all of which are essential to developing a lifelong positive relationship with physical activity and that may go some way to explaining the disparities.

Indeed, recent analysis from Youth Sport Trust showed that motivation and enjoyment account for at least half of the wellbeing benefits of physical activity in school.

We also know from last year’s Active Lives Children and Young People 2023-24 survey data that only 37% of children and young people from low affluence families feel they have the opportunity to be physically active, compared to 57% of children and young people from high affluence families.   

This is a view that is very much echoed amongst young people StreetGames speak to and who are living in areas of high deprivation who tell us: “there isn’t a lot to do”, “parks don’t feel safe”, “the public facilities get vandalised and are not maintained”, “prices are very expensive” or “we would love to volunteer, but it’s difficult to find opportunities”.

Equalising opportunities and provision 

However, when opportunity and choice are equalised – such as through school-based activity or accessible community provision – the association between physical activity and wellbeing appears stronger among more disadvantaged groups.

Youth Sport Trust analysis shows that the wellbeing benefit of physical activity in school is almost double for children who are disabled or receiving free school meals compared to their peers.

For those of us working to provide all children and young people with access to the benefits that come from taking part in sport and physical activity, this new research is important as it provides further evidence on the essential role that sport and physical activity can play in society. 

But also importantly, it emphasises the need to maintain an unwavering focus on reducing inequalities that exist, and on making sure all children and young people can take part in a variety of enjoyable and accessible opportunities that will help them to flourish not just now, but also in the future.

And if you still need further convincing, then we’ll leave the final say to young people who shared how sports and physical activity benefits them.

Some mention it’s all about having fun, others highlight how it helps them to meet new people and socialise, while for others being active brings “a nice break from daily stresses” that gives them a chance to “forget everything while being an active and healthy too”.

The advantages of being active really are too good to ignore and all children deserve to take advantage of them.

As the usage of virtual spaces increases in all areas of our lives (including work, leisure or physical activity), it’s important to push for equity online too.

But with the backdrop of ongoing online abuse and discrimination, which inhibit participation in sport and physical activity, we’re rightly focused on the importance of creating safe virtual spaces too.

However, safety is only one side of the equation because we’ve also been asking ourselves how we can use technology to improve representation.

An example of this is We Like the Way You Move, the latest phase of our award-winning campaign, This Girl Can.

Technology for good

This phase has included a push for greater visibility of Black women – as well as other underrepresented groups of women – in imagery that promotes participation by sport and physical activity organisations.

This is how it’s worked: with the help of AI, we analysed publicly-available photos that came from parks, gyms, sports clubs, community centres, swimming pools and other leisure facilities across England and sourced via Google Maps, and confirmed that – alongside other minoritised groups of women – those who look like me have been virtually erased.

I’m excited that we’ve found a way to use the power of AI to drive better representation in our sector, because at a point when we’re all figuring out how to be more purposeful in how we use technology, finding insights that we can act on in real-time to contribute to change feels like a tangible win.

This push for greater visibility marks a positive shift that has come with our strategy’s focus on tackling inequalities as we’re working on reshaping our existing efforts to collaborate with different audiences and leaders through initiatives like TRARIIS.

Having celebrated the 10th anniversary of This Girl Can earlier this year, We Like the Way You Move has also used some powerful new imagery of women who have conventionally been excluded from the picture of sport and physical activity.

These are pictures full of joy and love for movement and, at times, I’d say you can almost hear the music they’re moving to.

These images are also a great reminder that women are creating their own platforms in communities, leading change and putting their unique stamp on activities and spaces.

We hope that they will help shift mindsets and that other organisations will follow suit.

On a personal note, it’s wonderful to see references to Caribbean culture, dance and movement in the mix.

It really does make a difference to my motivation and sense of belonging when I can see parts of my identity reflected back to me.

And I’m confident that the breadth of images and ways of moving captured in the campaign will have a similar impact on lots of other women that should have always been in the picture.