Yesterday we published the final report for Impact ’25 programme, our Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025 legacy programme.
The programme was delivered by the Rugby Football Union (RFU) in partnership with the UK government, Sport England and UK Sport.
Backed by £14.55 million of government investment, and driven by the incredible commitment of clubs, volunteers, coaches, match officials and players, Impact '25 has helped transform opportunities for women and girls across England.
It goes without saying that a key strand of the work was getting more women and girls into playing rugby. But that wasn’t our only focus.
We wanted to encourage and support more women to get into coaching, match official and leadership positions, and to invest in club facilities to improve the experiences for women and girls involved in rugby.
We also aimed to use the opportunity of the World Cup to connect communities and welcome new fans to the sport we love and to support the development of high-performance pathways in Wales, Scotland and Ireland.
We wanted to transform the sport for women and girls.
Around 40,000 girls aged six to 12 were introduced to rugby.
Girls' club participation has increased by 49%, growing from around 18,000 to 26,800 players, and women's participation at supported universities has risen by 38%.
More than 5,400 coaching and match official courses have been completed by women, with nearly a third funded through Impact '25.
Women now account for 28% of newly qualified coaches and match officials, compared to just 9% before the programme, and the number completing advanced coaching and refereeing qualifications has increased more than five-fold.
Thanks to the programme, 607 clubs received 1,078 facility grants between them.
These grants were used to develop or upgrade changing rooms, upgrade toilets, refurbish social spaces, enhance female sanitary provisions at clubs, or to make other improvements that could create a more female-friendly club environment.
These things really matter as they directly impact the experiences of women and girls involved in the sport and their sense of belonging.
We also aimed to use the opportunity of the World Cup to connect communities and welcome new fans to the sport we love and to support the development of high-performance pathways in Wales, Scotland and Ireland.
There is a huge amount to celebrate with Impact ’25. But we can’t stop there.
Through Every Rose: Our Time, the RFU's five-year action plan published shortly after last year’s Women’s World Cup, we set an ambitious target of reaching 100,000 active female players by 2030, including 70,000 club-registered players.
Last year, almost 48,000 women and girls were playing at rugby clubs across England, and now schools, colleges and universities will play a critical role in reaching that ambition in the next four years.
Our growing workforce across the education sector is introducing more young people to the game through T1 Rugby, an accessible non-contact format that retains the unique characteristics of rugby union while providing an easy entry point into the sport.
Partnerships with organisations such as Scouts and Guides are helping us reach new audiences, while the growth in girls' and women's sections at rugby clubs means there are now more opportunities than ever for participants to continue their rugby journey.
Alongside participation growth, we are committed to ensuring women and girls can thrive in the game.
And our work on female health and wellbeing continues to develop.
This summer we announced a landmark partnership with Women in Sport and became the first major British sport to launch a standalone anti-sexism and misogyny policy, part of a broader commitment to making rugby safer, more inclusive and more welcoming.
The success of Impact '25, and what’s been happening since, demonstrate what can be achieved when different organisations and the wider community game come together behind a shared vision to drive the women’s and girls’ games forward.
We’re hugely grateful to Sport England for their involvement in Impact ’25 and value their ongoing support.
There remains huge potential in women’s and girls’ rugby, and we must not take our foot off the pedal.
I’ve never heard anyone say “I wish my child had more screen time”.
But a clip from BBC Breakfast over the summer provided an interesting insight about what time in front of a screen can mean to some children and young people.
On the clip, we heard a girl respond to what she would do with the nine hours she typically spends online over a weekend if proposed social media restrictions for under-16s came into force.
Her answer was bold, unequivocal and somehow devastating: "…stare at a wall."
It was a funny moment, but it also pointed to something deeper.
The Youth Matters: State of the Nation survey gathered insights from more than 14,000 young people aged 11-25 and it paints a concerning picture.
The study highlights that despite being the most digitally connected generation ever, many young people are experiencing loneliness, poor wellbeing and social disconnection.
Yet their message about what would improve their lives is clear: access to safe spaces, trusted adults, better mental health support and more opportunities to take part in activities that help them connect, develop and belong.
This is why last week’s government announcement on enrichment deserves attention, as there’s a growing recognition of the role enrichment can play in supporting young people's wellbeing, development and life chances.
Enrichment refers to activities and experiences beyond the formal curriculum.
‘Sport and physical activity’ is recognised as one of five core enrichment categories, alongside arts and culture, civic engagement, nature and outdoor learning, and wider life and future skills.
At its best, enrichment does far more than keeping children and young people occupied.
It helps them discover interests, build confidence, develop relationships and gain skills that support them throughout life.
For many young people, particularly those facing disadvantage, these opportunities can be transformational.
Importantly, enrichment is increasingly being recognised not as an optional extra, but as a key part of supporting children and young people's development and wellbeing.
Despite being the most digitally connected generation ever, many young people are experiencing loneliness, poor wellbeing and social disconnection.
In June, the Department for Education published the enrichment framework for schools and colleges, which provides schools with non-statutory guidance on creating high-quality enrichment offers.
Built around eight benchmarks, the framework reflects principles that many across the youth, education and sport sectors have long championed, including:
Alongside the framework, the government has recently announced the Enrichment Expansion programme, backed by £22.5m and delivered via a cross-sector partnership led by the Youth Sport Trust.
The programme will support around 400 secondary schools to strengthen and co-ordinate their enrichment offer, with a particular focus on developing partnerships with local providers and community organisations.
The Enrichment Expansion programme sits within a wider package of investment designed to improve opportunities for children and young people.
This includes Every Child Can, a £132.5 million programme funded through dormant assets that will support enrichment opportunities across England, which includes after school, at weekends and during school holidays.
These developments align with the ambition within the National Youth Strategy to halve the participation gap in enrichment activities between disadvantaged young people and their peers by 2035.
Alongside wider investment in youth services, facilities and trusted adult relationships, these announcements represent a strong signal that enrichment is moving towards the centre of policy discussions about young people's wellbeing and future prospects.
For those working across sport and physical activity, these announcements are very welcome and recognise that sport is about far more than participation.
High-quality experiences of sport and physical activity can help young people build confidence, develop meaningful social connections, enhance their wellbeing, build valuable life skills, and establish a positive lifelong relationship with movement and physical activity, which we describe as physical literacy.
However, this should not be viewed simply as a challenge to create more opportunities.
The real opportunity is to ensure experiences are meaningful, inclusive, shaped around young people's needs and embedded within the local community.
The strongest enrichment offers will be those that bring together schools, youth services, clubs and community organisations around a shared goal: helping young people feel safe, connected and valued.
If the debate about social media has highlighted anything, it is that simply taking something away is not enough. Young people need compelling alternatives.
A positive experience of being active is something that all young people should have and, if we get it right, perhaps fewer young people will feel that their only alternative to being online is staring at a wall.
The government is investing £22.5m in enrichment activities for young people at more than 400 secondary schools in disadvantaged communities.
Children and young people
Funding
Government
Lower socio-economic groups
If you type National Lottery into any internet search engine, you’ll immediately be greeted with the strapline 'Changing Lives Every Day'.
And while for most, immediate thoughts might turn to the joy of winning a life-changing jackpot, for nearly 20 years I have been privileged to work at the heart of an organisation that distributes Good Causes funding.
This has allowed me to see every day how National Lottery money helps people and communities change lives.
In Sport England’s investment management team, we recognise how lucky we are to have a role that supports organisations and communities to make a positive difference through National Lottery funding.
And we also accept the responsibility and diligence that comes with the role, given that we are investing lottery players’ and public money.
Every day we see the very best of our communities – in the ideas that they talk to us about, in the applications that they send to us and through the impact their funded projects have.
And as the total number of people reached by projects funded by the Movement Fund nears 500,000, it is evident how National Lottery funding is helping communities become more active every day.
In Sport England’s investment management team, we recognise how lucky we are to have a role that supports organisations and communities to make a positive difference through National Lottery funding.
Making it easier for everybody to apply for Sport England funding is a key pledge in our Uniting the Movement strategy.
The Movement Fund now operates with more open and less restrictive criteria, and it has become a single point of entry for grants and crowdfunding opportunities.
Applicants also have clearer expectations of our process and, as a result, we’re seeing National Lottery funding support a diverse range of projects.
Whether we're talking about first-time applicants, organisations that have received funding before or organisations that are brand new or well-established, the Movement Fund is helping more communities access the funding to make their projects a reality.
Like Par Track, which was awarded £10,000 to professionally deep clean and reline Cornwall's only UK Athletics licensed athletics track, helping them sustain opportunities for athletics, but also to support people of all ages to be active and to come together as a community.
The simplicity and openness of our Movement Fund is giving communities and organisations the freedom to identify local needs and to bring forward their own ideas too, enabling us to get National Lottery funding to where it is needed the most.
And 72% of funded projects through the Movement Fund are reaching people who are less likely to be active and that are in places where more need exists.
Funding is also helping organisations break down barriers to physical activity in their communities.
For example, Dance Mojo have been able to expand their Zumba sessions and have more impact in their community through their National Lottery funding support.
Additional targeted sessions have also helped the organisation remove financial barriers to participation, enabling people experiencing financial hardship or accessibility challenges to access tailored activities that otherwise would have been out of reach.
Within the investment management team, we try to spend as much time as possible talking with the communities and visiting them too.
Whether that’s attending local events and funding fairs, or working with trusted local partners to share information and data about what we fund and where it goes.
Since January our dedicated investment advisers have had more than 38,500 interactions with people contacting our funding advice service for support and guidance.
Meeting more people and their communities where they are at, helps us understand their needs and it ensures we fund projects that provide opportunities for people to be themselves, like the activities delivered by The Joshua Tree.
Their National Lottery funding has enabled them to offer an inclusive physical activity and wellness programme for children and families affected by cancer, giving children a sense of their childhood back.
Something that’s key, because as explained by the organisation:
“When a child’s life is filled with hospitals (…) and worry, the opportunity to feel in control of their body, use it positively, and experience joy and confidence is incredibly powerful."
National Lottery funding really makes a huge difference by helping people feel welcome, confident, connected and able to take part in sport and physical activity in ways that work and matter to them.
This is why, every day, we feel privileged to play our part in turning lottery players’ contributions into opportunities that help communities change lives.
Last week I finally plucked up courage to have my BioAge measured at an EGYM showroom by St Paul's Cathedral, London.
I still have an inbuilt phobia of getting things checked out, even when there’s nothing to worry about, and I was very pleased to learn that my BioAge (that is how old my organs are compared to the numbers of birthdays I've celebrated so far) is in fact 37-years-old – a good 16 years younger than my actual age.
By coincidence, 37 was the exact age when I started my fitness journey.
Having not exercised since school, I’d gradually put on a few pounds every year and a heath check had told me I was on the borderline of being obese.
I’d signed up my old team at 20th Century Fox to an ambitious team challenge – to climb 20 peaks across the Lake District over 20 hours – and didn’t want to be the 'overweight managing director' holding people back!
And just as that experience was the kick off for me, this National Fitness Day we’re looking to welcome millions to start, or restart, their fitness journey.
Reflecting on the EGYM experience, there’s so much more to fitness than simply losing weight and also so many ways to measure success.
There’s strength, mobility and, most importantly, how you feel both physically and mentally.
These days we have the technology and insight to help people with personalised training plans that are right for them, and with so many ways to get moving.
A few weeks ago, I was inspired by a member of the team who’d taken his daughter on her first parkrun, and I decided to take may own teenage daughter out for her debut parkrun in Cheltenham.
It was great to see such an eclectic range of people out early(ish) on a Saturday morning, to run without fear of judgement or failure, just to be out there being active.
This National Fitness Day we’re looking to welcome millions to start, or restart, their fitness journey.
Our research shows that any form of activity – be that walking or short workouts at home – significantly increases people’s confidence in their physical health, and their intent to join a health club, gym or leisure centre.
Plus our latest consumer polling shows that sense of community, connection and friendship is also found in our nation’s gyms and leisure centres, across all generations.
Of course, it’s the first step that can be the hardest, followed by the consistency needed to turn those first efforts into regular, life-long habits.
Our industry has many great pathways so activity levels are slowly trending upwards, but activity is unequally distributed with many barriers still existing.
These barriers can be cost and convenience, but they exist in areas super served by facilities as well as those where they’re few and far between.
The biggest barrier is in the mind – it's the uncertainty about where to start, the fear of not fitting in and the gap between wanting to change and actually showing up. National Fitness Day exists to collapse that gap.
This year we're working with organisations across the sector, as well as schools, community groups, employers and others to make that first step easy, fun and frictionless.
Free taster sessions, beginner-friendly groups, times that fit real life – all ‘Powered by You’, our theme for this year.
Because that's what National Fitness Day is for – not for people who've already decided they're fit, but for the millions like my 16-year-younger self who have a reason to be active but are looking for a way to start.
If you've been thinking about it, this is the week! This is the perfect time to take that first step.
Studio You releases three new sessions for 2026, in partnership with Nike, to support girls' confidence and participation in PE.
Children and young people
Gender
This Girl Can
We've linked up with the Youth Sport Trust and Greenhouse Sports to launch Elevate, which aims to identify and develop 45 talented young people in sport, whatever their background.
Children and young people
Funding
Coaching children and young people often takes place on the move in parks, halls, pitches or sports halls.
Those involved know these sessions can happen after work, before school, during busy evenings or as part of already-packed weekends. But regardless of when or where, they often happen with very little time to stop, reflect and ask, “what part of this process could we adapt so it feels more child-first?”
The only certain thing is that coaches need practical, quick-to-access and trusted support.
The question Play Their Way often gets asked is: "how can child-first coaching reach coaches in ways that work in the real world?"
Now, thanks to our growing community, ideas are being shared between peers but we wanted to make this more accessible for all coaches. This is one of the reasons we developed the new Play Their Way app.
The app gives trainers a simple place to go when they need support, whether they need a quick idea before a session or afterwards, while reflecting on what went well and what they want to do differently next time.
In any case, the aim of the Play Their Way resources is to ensure that child-first coaching can be applied in a practical context, and the app is a step towards delivering this objective directly into the pockets of coaches.
Every coach needs support and at the centre of the app is Joy – our new AI coaching assistant.
Coaches can ask Joy questions about child-first coaching and get quick answers based exclusively on trusted Play Their Way and Children’s Coaching Collaborative partner content.
This ensures that when coaches get support from the app it is always rooted in the Play Their Way philosophy, rather than generic advice.
The app gives trainers a simple place to go when they need support, whether they need a quick idea before a session or afterwards, while reflecting on what went well and what they want to do differently next time.
The app is there for you whether you need ideas specific to a particular age group, an activity or the time you have for any given session. Just tap in a few details and Joy will share child-first ideas you can use straight away.
Joy can also answer different questions, such as:
Alongside Joy, the app brings together practical articles, coach stories, learning content and updates from across Play Their Way.
Coaches can also track their progress and unlock badges as they go with the new gamification element.
We think this is a great tool that will help coaches and will benefit kids too, so if you work with trainers we encourage you to take a look, download it and try it.
And if you think it could help the people you support, share it with them because in doing so you can help make child-first coaching more available without having to start from scratch.
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