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Have you ever wondered what may help someone feel like they belong in sport? This may sound like a simple question, but the answer is often deeply personal.

For some, it's feeling welcome when they arrive; for others, it's seeing people who share similar experiences, cultures or backgrounds to them. And sometimes, it's simply knowing that a space was designed with them in mind.

The Asian Sports Foundation (ASF) recently announced a new partnership with parkrun UK, which is built around a shared commitment to better understanding the experiences of Asian communities and exploring how more people can feel connected to physical activity.

Starting with conversations

We know that sport and physical activity can have a powerful impact on our health, wellbeing and sense of community.

But Sport England's latest Active Lives Adult Survey highlights that participation levels among some South Asian communities remain lower than the national average, and that health inequalities continue to exist.

While data can help us understand trends, it does not always tell us why people choose not to participate, what challenges they experience, or what would encourage them to get involved.

That is why the focus of this partnership is not to assume solutions, but to listen.

Over the coming months, ASF and parkrun will work together to engage with people from Asian communities, gathering insights and lived experiences to better understand what helps people feel welcome, what barriers may exist, and what opportunities there are to create more inclusive environments.

The importance of belonging

Parkrun has become a familiar part of many communities across the UK.

Every Saturday morning, thousands of people come together to run, walk, volunteer and connect with others.

Yet experiences of physical activity can vary significantly from one person to another, as what feels accessible and welcoming for some may feel unfamiliar or intimidating for others.

Understanding those differences is essential if we want to create opportunities that genuinely work for everyone.

At ASF, we believe that increasing participation starts with understanding communities, not speaking on their behalf.

By putting ‘listening’ first, we can help ensure that future actions are informed by the people they are intended to support.

For too long, efforts to get people active followed a familiar pattern – launch a campaign, start a programme, open a facility and hope people turn up.

When engagement was low, especially in communities facing deprivation, ill health or isolation, the blame often fell on individuals.

But the real issue runs deeper.

Today’s Active Lives Adult Survey data shows overall activity levels are improving, yet inequalities remain – and in some cases are widening – highlighting the limits of this approach.

Through our place-based work, we are flipping that script.

Our approach isn’t about parachuting in with short-term initiatives. It’s about changing local systems and putting power, funding and decision-making into the hands of communities themselves.

It’s about reshaping the conditions that make movement possible.

This is a structural shift – from national delivery to locally-led systems; from fragmented interventions to collaboration; and from doing things to communities to working with them.

Crucially, this way of working is starting to show signs of impact, particularly for adults who have historically been least active.

From programmes to places

At its core, place-based working recognises a simple truth: where you live shapes how active you are.

Access to safe green space, transport, income, health, and social networks all matter. So instead of generic national solutions, we are investing up to £250 million into over 90 communities with the greatest need.

But funding is only part of it. The real change is in how decisions are made.

The system impact is scaling

Across all place-based work, our impact is increasingly visible at scale.

In 10 of our original 12 Place Pilots, physical activity is now embedded into health and care pathways – meaning movement is supported through GPs, social prescribing and community health teams.

In Doncaster, this approach has mobilised 757 organisations and 1,500 local leaders to create a coordinated local system where physical activity is no longer a standalone service but part of how the whole area works.

In places like Essex, our investment has helped them unlock around £65 million in additional funding – turning relatively small seed funding into large-scale investment that reaches far more people and creates longer-lasting change.

Leadership capacity is also expanding. Over the last two years around 1,000 local leaders have been trained through our Leading the Movement programme, strengthening the ability of places to sustain change beyond our initial funding.

This is not just a collection of local success stories. It is a different operating model. It's a quiet revolution – one that is reshaping how communities think about movement, health and wellbeing from the ground up.

Because lasting change doesn’t come from programmes, it comes from places.

The insights emerging from the evaluation suggest that the benefits of these roles stem from how they connect as no partner plays just one role.

The magic of collaborative work

The System Partner investment has given organisations the opportunity to think beyond their primary function, build stronger relationships and adopt more collaborative, system-focused approaches.

We are sharing this emerging learning, and our revised theory of change, so that these insights can be used as a tool for conversation.

By understanding the unique contributions and how they fit together, we hope this evaluation is helping Sport England and others to better understand its place in the system.

Boxing is my religion. Like all spiritual journeys it began with a moment of divine inspiration and my baptism was conducted whilst watching Muhammed Ali defeat George Foreman in “The Rumble In The Jungle”.

I grew up in boxing gyms with the sport giving me purpose, discipline and titles – including representing my country on numerous occasions.

These days it offers me the chance to inspire the next generation of boxers and to help anyone who walks through the gym door, to believe in themselves and choose a positive path in life. 

When people ask me why boxing matters so much to me, my answer is simple: it changes and saves lives.

A safe space for all

Of course, it also improves health and builds confidence, but boxing keeps people – especially young people – away from anti-social behaviour and crime, something that I can personally verify as a former Youth Justice Manager. 

With the number of proven offences committed by children seeing an increase of 4%, change has never been so important and there are many ways boxing helps fight crime.

Firstly, boxing gives young people structure and boundaries.

Many of the children and young people who walk through the doors of a boxing gym – like mine in Oldham, Greater Manchester – come from difficult backgrounds and have challenging lives. 

Having little or no access to opportunities and therefore a lack of agency in the world, may result in challenging behaviours. But not dealing with these pressures means they risk spilling out onto the streets and that’s where crime starts. 

Not because young people are 'bad', but because they have nowhere positive to pour their energy into. But boxing gyms can change that, as these spaces are built on discipline, respect, routine and team spirit.

You don’t just turn up to your gym whenever you feel like it. Instead, you’re expected to train on time, plus you have to listen to your coach, and you learn that effort leads to results and that shortcuts rarely work.

These lessons transfer directly into everyday life and children who understand discipline in a boxing gym are far less likely to make reckless decisions outside it.

Boxing also teaches emotional control, becasue contrary to what some may think, this sport helps a young person understand how to control their emotions, particularly aggression, and how to think and act under pressure.

I’ve seen it first hand – children who once lashed out can calm themselves because boxing gave them an outlet for their emotions and that allows them to thrive.

The many lessons of boxing

Boxing is a good metaphor for life and can help to develop those personal and social skills that people need, contributing to tackling deep seated worklessness and low aspirations.

The sport also fosters the development of positive character, self-esteem, self-discipline, courage, perseverance and resilience.

Instead of throwing punches on the street, they hit the pads, the bags and their coach or opponent inside the ring, but always with respect to the sport’s rules, under supervision and with a reason.

Boxing also teaches respect — for yourself and for others. You shake hands, you follow rules and you learn that real strength comes from self-control, not intimidation. These values reduce crime at its roots.

Another factor that's key is the sense of belonging among those practising the sport. A boxing gym offers identity and loyalty because, at a gym, you’re part of a team.

You train together, look out for each other and you wear the gym name with pride. That sense of identity can pull someone away from a path that leads to anti-social behaviour and crime.

I’ve seen boxing change lives in Oldham and Greater Manchester, where young people that were heading toward trouble now have focus and a reason to stay on the straight and narrow, and I’ve also seen young people who had no confidence, find self-belief.

Not all these children will become a champion boxer and that's okay.

Building better lives through sport

The real victories happen when a young person chooses to stay in school, can find a job or simply chooses not to commit a crime because they don’t want to let their gym or coach down.

At our newly refurbished Greater Manchester Boxing and Development Hub, we’ve been lucky enough to benefit from Sport England funding. 

To my mind, our investors aren’t just putting money into a boxing club and community gym. They’re investing in crime prevention and harm minimisation.

It costs less to fund a gym than it does to deal with the consequences of crime and anti-social behaviour – policing, court cases, prison and reform – as recent estimates place the total economic and social cost of serious youth violence at £11 billion between 2009 and 2020.

For me, boxing is more than titles and trophies, it’s about giving people a chance.

Every time a young person chooses to walk into a gym and away from 'the road', I believe that’s crime prevention in action and that’s why boxing will always matter. 

As one of the 10 boroughs of Greater Manchester, Oldham forms part of Sport England’s Place Partnership with Greater Manchester Moving and other local bodies to implement Sport England's Uniting the Movement strategy for getting people active.

I’m proud of what boxing can do to change lives.

In the words of the iconic social activist, pacifist and politician, Nelson Mandela: “Sport can awaken hope where there was previously only despair.”

Every day, I get to see the truth in these great words in action.
 

January is a difficult month for many of us. It’s dark, cold, wet and the glow of the festive season feels a long time ago.

But it’s also a moment when millions of people make a conscious decision to reset – to move more and invest in their health.

That’s why January matters so much for gyms, swimming pools and leisure centres. It’s consistently their busiest month of the year and not just because of New Year’s resolutions.

But beyond the first month of the year, there is a growing understanding that physical activity is preventative medicine and that a healthy population drives a healthy economy.

The places we move are of critical importance.

Earlier this week, alongside ukactive, I visited three very different facilities in one day – across both the public and private sector.

What struck me was how similar the stories were.

Operators talked about strong footfall, rising memberships and people coming through the doors for more than just exercise.

They’re coming for health, of course – but also for confidence, connection, and support.

This feels vitally important in a time that is characterised by increasing isolation, screens and polarised views.

Spaces open to everybody

Another feature which stood out was the remarkable diversity of the people there – from teenagers arriving in their uniforms after school, to the group of retirees who had originally been referred by the next door hospital and now were coming four days a week (and spending as much time over lunch as in the class).

It was also fantastic to see the level of innovation and use of technology to bring health and leisure closer together – with sophisticated health checks, devising personalised programmes for each individual, linking to 'e-gyms' and other virtual support.

This is the preventative health agenda in action. It’s getting active from the ground up and it sits at the heart of our ambition at Sport England, working with our partners to help millions more people become active.

January brings this ambition to life, but the real story is what’s happening year-round.

The scale and growth of the gym and leisure sector are significant.

The UK Health & Fitness Market Report 2025 shows a record 11.5 million people are now members of a health or fitness club – up 6.1% on the previous year – with 616 million facility visits recorded, an increase of 8.2%.

These are not short-term spikes. Participation has been growing over consecutive years, supported by a unique infrastructure of public, private, large, medium and independent operators working across the country.
 

Sport England’s Active Lives Adults survey 2023-24 reinforces this picture.

Fitness activities and swimming continue to be major drivers of physical activity behind walking, with 904,000 more adults taking part compared to the previous year.

Demand is being driven by what people value most.

Polling from ukactive shows that 77% of members join a gym or leisure facility primarily to improve their mental health and wellbeing.

People also cite better sleep, increased confidence, managing health conditions and making new friends. This is about quality of life, not just physical fitness.

We’re also seeing important shifts in who is taking part. Female participation continues to grow, particularly through group exercise and classes.

Projects like Safer Spaces to Move, delivered with This Girl Can, are helping to remove barriers and make facilities more welcoming and safer for women.

Key community assets

Our latest Moving Communities report shows participation in public leisure has increased for every age group over 45, while gym activity is rising among under-16s, over-65s and people living in the most deprived communities.

Since 2017, the number of children and young people taking part in gym and fitness activity has increased by more than 12%.

Standards matter too. Facilities are improving every year, driven by initiatives such as The Active Standard, Quest and FitCert, ensuring that quality, safety and inclusion keep pace with growing demand.

All of this sits squarely within the Government’s priorities for economic growth and improving the NHS through the 10-year plan.

Health drives wealth and the social value created by being active is immense.

The sector contributes £122.9 billion in social value each year, including £15.9 billion in healthcare savings and £106.9 billion in wellbeing value – the equivalent of £2,600 per active adult – and more than double that for people with long-term health conditions or disabilities.

We gain £6 billion in productivity, thanks to a healthier workforce that takes fewer sick days.

The sector creates £5.7 billion in revenue and supports hundreds of thousands of jobs, many for young people at the start of their working lives.

These are extraordinary numbers.

January is important. But the real opportunity lies beyond it.

Gyms and leisure centres are not just places we go at the start of the year; they – and the people that work in them – are essential community assets, powering healthier lives, stronger communities and a more resilient economy all year round.
 

Children and young people today are creative, passionate, and full of potential.

Their energy and ambition feel hopeful in a world that often feels uncertain and unstable.

But they’re also facing new challenges: social media addiction, rising mental health concerns, climate anxiety.

In 2025, parents, teachers, and leaders across the country voiced concerns about a growing disconnect between online and offline life.

School absence is rising; wellbeing is worsening. And physical inactivity remains a stubborn problem: more than half of children aren’t active enough.

The inequalities are stark. Children from less affluent families are far less likely to be active than wealthier peers.

Girls remain less active than boys, and Black and Asian children are less likely to be active than White children.

If these trends continue at pace, we could be heading for a children’s health crisis within a decade.

The Youth Sport Trust’s (YST) Class of 2035 report warns that without robust action, we’ll see soaring screen time, rising obesity, disengagement from education, and more children diagnosed with diseases like Type 2 diabetes – a condition once almost exclusive to adulthood.

But this isn’t a story of despair, it’s a call to action.

And the good news? We are making progress - and 2025 was testament to this.

Promising Signs of Progress

In December 2025, Sport England data shows children’s activity levels are now at their highest since the first Active Lives Survey in 2018.

Half a million more children are meeting the UK Chief Medical Officers’ guideline of 60 minutes of activity a day compared to seven years ago.

That’s thanks to the incredible work of schools, clubs, and community organisations and the people that run them.

Government action has also been integral.

The National Youth Strategy can be a landmark moment, creating more opportunities for young people to connect offline - and sport has a huge role to play.

Its emphasis on being shaped by young people is vital: policy done with young people, not to them.

The commitment to halt the decline in PE and ensure at least two hours of reimagined PE each week is another big step forward, as is the ambition to increase access to enrichment activities.
 

The new PE and School Sport Partnerships Network can build on past progress.

Campaigns like Let’s Move from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and YST’s Inclusion 2028 programme (funded by the Department for Education) show what’s possible when national leadership meets local delivery.

Let’s Move is inspiring families to get active together.

Inclusion 2028 is empowering children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) to thrive through PE, school sport, and physical activity.

These initiatives prove that inclusive change is possible - and it’s already happening.

All this is happening against the backdrop Sport England’s £250m investment in place-based partnerships across more than 90 communities.

Why Movement Matters and Our Vision for 2026

Physical activity is often called the 'miracle cure' by medical experts - and for excellent reason.

It boosts physical and mental health, reduces stress and improves mood. And it’s a social salve too, helping to forge friendships and build connection across communities in the face of the polarising online world.

It’s also fantastic for people and the public purse; every £1 invested in community sport and activity generates over £4 for the economy and society.

School and community sport aren’t 'nice to have'; they’re essential for healthy development.

Research consistently shows us that active children are happier, more resilient and perform better at school.

And building good activity habits young is key for our country’s future health and wealth: active children are more likely to become active adults who enjoy better health, greater productivity and place less strain on the NHS.

That’s why we need to make movement easy and normal everywhere: in schools, communities, families, parks, and urban spaces.

This means working with partners beyond education, like UK Youth and community sport organisations, to embed activity into where young people live and socialise.

Sport England’s place partnerships have some fantastic examples of this happening from the ground up – from JU:MP in Braford to Move Together Blackpool.

Young people must be at the heart of this change. They want experiences that are fun and engaging; not just minutes of activity to be ticked off to hit targets.

Here’s what we think just some of the opportunities to achieve getting every child active in 2026 are:

• a return to longer school breaks to give children more time to move and play.
• increasing uptake of Always Active Uniform, building on new national guidance and making being active easier and more comfortable – particularly for girls and children with SEND.
• greater restrictions on social media use for children, to free up time and attention for real-world play.
• protecting the real-world places and spaces that children get active and play in
• advocate for child-first coaching: supporting coaches to give children and young people voice and choice in physical activity. The Play their Way campaign is a fantastic example of child-first coaching in action.  

By rethinking existing policy and being bold, we can create system-wide changes that deliver a healthier, happier future for every child.

Our Mission and Call to Action

Our mission is clear: to inspire a generation that loves to move by making physical activity and everyday movement a normal part of life - giving every child 60 minutes of PE, sport, and play every day.

This is a cornerstone of Youth Sport Trust’s Inspiring Changemakers, Building Belonging strategy and Sport England’s next phase of Uniting the Movement. Working with schools, communities and families, we will redouble our efforts to create experiences that build the foundations for an active life.

Together, we can create a future where every child and young person has the opportunity to move, connect and thrive through sport and physical activity.
 

Safe and positive experiences for children and young people are one of the five big issues at the heart of Sport England’s long-term strategy, Uniting the Movement.

Sport England has supported the NSPCC’s Child Protection in Sport Unit since 2001 and continues to invest in keeping sport safe for children.

Early experiences with sport have the power to make or break a person’s lifelong relationship with physical activity, which can affect physical, mental and social health at every stage of their life: from childhood; to teenage years; to adulthood.  

Simply put, a negative experience could turn a child away from sport, causing them to disengage and miss out on the extraordinary benefits of an active life – from being able to concentrate better at school; to having fun with their friends; to reduced anxiety; to the sheer joy of moving.

Our social value research found that active children and young people generate a wellbeing value (the monetary value that can be placed on happiness, health and life satisfaction) of £4,100 a year (for an active adult, it’s £2,500).

This shows that active children gain more from movement than active adults.

It’s also so important for their development and happiness, and with childhood obesity rising and less than half of children meeting the Chief Medical Officers’ guidelines for physical activity, getting children active is more important than ever – and parents and carers have a vital role to play here.
 

We are supporting the KYCSIS campaign by asking all those who work in the sector to call on parents and carers they interact with, to think about how to support children in sport and to have open conversations about what kind of encouragement helps young people thrive.

Why those in charge matter so much

There are different reasons why parents and carers are key in their life’s kids when it comes to sport:

• Parents and carers shape how children feel about sport. Their behaviour, language and the support they offer can determine whether sport is a positive space for their child. 
• They know what their child needs and what kind of support they respond to. Support looks different for every child. Some want loud cheering, while others may prefer quiet encouragement.
• Parents and carers are best placed to know what their child needs. They can then share this with coaches and leaders.

Positive support from parents and carers helps children reach their goals. So whether that is winning, a personal best, being a good teammate or simply enjoying being active, positive support from parents and carers can build a positive relationship with sport and physical activity.

The TALK steps 

There are four simple steps every parent and carer can follow to ensure their kids enjoy sport in a secure and enjoyable way – it’s what we call the TALK steps and we’d love it if you could share these with those in your network.

• Talk to the child; listen to the child: parents and carers should ask why their child plays and how they want to be supported. Parents can use their answers to guide how they show up at training and competitions.
• Always show respect: we encourage parents to be good role models of sports values by supporting the whole team and treating coaches and officials with respect, even when they disagree.
• Let’s speak out: if adults are shouting insults, criticising, focusing on weight, confronting officials aggressively or pushing children into competitions that are too advanced for them, parents and carers should raise it with the club’s welfare officer or match-day official.
• Keep sport fun: we encourage parents and carers to praise effort and progress as well as results. Offering constructive encouragement when things go wrong can help children learn from setbacks.

What about if my child is in a competitive environment?

For many parents and carers, it’s brand-new territory when turning up at their child’s first sporting event – but they must be equipped and not afraid to ask about anything they feel unfamiliar with.

Here are five questions every parent/carer should ask before signing their child up to a competition:

• What is the primary purpose of this competition for children at this age or level?
• How are children supervised and safeguarded during the event?
• What expectations will be placed on my child and what support is available if they find it stressful?
• How are selection and team decisions made and communicated to participants and families?
• Who is the designated welfare officer and how do I raise a concern on the day if needed?

Asking these types of questions before agreeing to children taking part makes it easier for parents to recognise when something is not right.

Spotting concerns and taking action

Parents and carers know what their child needs to be their best and should be empowered to challenge or call out behaviour that could harm their child’s wellbeing.

Adults shouting from the sidelines, personal criticism of children, pressure about weight or repeated, aggressive challenges to officials are all red flags.

Parents should report concerns the club’s welfare officer or the relevant match official immediately.

If you remain worried about anything that may cause harm, contact the NSPCC Helpline on 0808 800 5000 or email [email protected].

We all have a joint commitment to ensure children and young people feel safe when taking part in sport so let’s make sure, we support parents and carers to make this happen!
 

National Fitness Day is a wonderful celebration of the joy of movement, but also a rallying call – a reminder that if more people, from every walk of life, are moving more often, the benefits ripple far beyond the individual.  

Sport England’s central mission is for everyone to enjoy the life-changing benefits of sport and physical activity.

And those benefits are profound; being active prevents 1.3 million cases of depression, 900,000 cases of back pain, 600,000 cases of type 2 diabetes, 150,000 cases of coronary heart disease and 100,000 strokes each year.

Active lives boost the economy too, saving £10.5bn a year in health and care costs and reducing pressure on our overburdened NHS. 

But behind the numbers are real people. Active children are happier, more confident, and perform better academically.

Active adults take 27% fewer sick days, leading healthier, more productive lives.

For those living with mental health conditions, the impact of exercise is especially striking: ukactive’s new Mental Health in Motion report shows that 72% say being active helps them stay in work and avoid sickness absence. 

Yet we still face an inactivity crisis.

A quarter of the population in England does fewer than 30 minutes of physical activity a week.
 

The evidence above demonstrates that is not just a health issue – it’s a social and economic one as well.

With 2.5 million people out of work due to poor health, the cost to the UK economy is over £100 billion a year. So, the challenge is huge – but so is the opportunity. 

National Fitness Day is about meeting that challenge head-on, by showing people that being active can fit into their lives, whatever their age, background or ability.

From spin classes to swimming, from walking football to yoga, there’s something for everyone.  

It’s also a chance to celebrate the people who make these experiences possible: the instructors, coaches, lifeguards, volunteers and staff who open the doors of their facilities to millions every week.

In 2024 alone, there were over 600 million visits to gyms, pools and fitness clubs across the UK – and a record 11.5 million people are now members.  

At Sport England, we’re proud to back National Fitness Day.

Through our strategy Uniting the Movement, we’re working with more than 150 partners to break down barriers, close the inequality gap in activity (worth £15.6 billion a year to the economy on its own if it can be addressed), and target investment where it can have the greatest impact. 

That means supporting grassroots facilities; putting movement at the heart of every school day, because habits built in childhood last a lifetime; and embedding physical activity across government policy – from prevention-first healthcare to workplace wellbeing. 

And crucially, it means ensuring that the fitness and leisure sector – the backbone of National Fitness Day – continues to thrive.

We know the pressures the sector faces but we also know the immense value it creates, and therefore Sport England will continue to work with ukactive and its members to ensure that gyms, pools, clubs and community fitness spaces remain central to the nation’s health and wellbeing. 

These facilities are lifelines for our communities, facilitating social connection and bringing people together to boost their physical and mental health 

As I’ve stepped into this role, what has struck me perhaps more than anything else is that none of what we do is achieved by one organisation alone.

National Fitness Day shows what’s possible when we come together as a movement, powered by the organisations and people who believe in the vision of a healthier and happier life for all – regardless of background, bank balance or postcode.  

So, whether you’re hosting a free gym class, joining a taster session, having a dip at the pool, cheering on your child at their dance class, or simply going for a walk – you are part of something bigger.

You are helping to build a healthier, happier, more resilient nation. 
 

In February I wrote a blog sharing our first Learning Synthesis Report, which gave a snapshot of how Sport England's System Partner investment is helping organisations across the country tackle inequalities and transform how people access sport and physical activity.

That initial report, produced by Ipsos, NPC and Sheffield Hallam University, highlighted different aspects within the sector and Sport England:

• There is an ongoing shift from transactional relationships to more open, trusting partnerships with a more diverse range of stakeholders.
• Identifying and engaging local champions can accelerate system change as these often hold the keys to unlocking new opportunities and relationships.
• There are ongoing challenges where qualitative data is not valued as it is difficult to track and evaluate over time.
• It is challenging to embed evaluation and learning into our work, and barriers like language, staff turnover, strategic planning and the complexity of demonstrating impact are very real.

Why this matters

As we reach the half-way point of our long-term strategy, Uniting the Movement, it’s vital that we reflect honestly on what’s working, where progress is happening and what barriers still stand in our way.

That’s why we’re sharing this second round of learning, which is based on extensive interviews, workshops and feedback from more than 130 system partners.

How this new report builds on the first

The original synthesis captured the foundations: diverse partners, new ways of working and the initial cultural shift towards greater collaboration and shared purpose.

This new report, which you can download below, shows how those ideas are taking root and where more focus is needed.

It also provides a clearer picture of how different organisations are playing unique roles – as connectors, deliverers, influencers or governance improvers – all contributing to system change.

What are we learning?

There are different lessons that have come up from our research:

• A diverse portfolio of partners playing different roles: No single organisation can change the system alone. System Partners are taking on roles such as improving governance and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI), influencing policy and local decisions, delivering programmes to underrepresented communities and connecting local networks – all working together to drive system-wide change.
• Capacity remains a key challenge: many System Partners, especially smaller organisations, are telling us that their staff and volunteers' capacity is stretched. This can limit their ability to collaborate, deliver on compliance requirements and influence wider system change. Building stronger partnerships and investing in people is helping tackle this but it will need ongoing focus.
• Delivery funding pressures are real: even with Sport England’s investment, partners face funding constraints that limit their ability to deliver activities in communities. Rising costs, limited local authority budgets and competing priorities mean that generating strong evidence and insights to influence other funders is becoming increasingly important.
• Culture change takes time: shifting mindsets and ways of working to fully realise the vision of Uniting the Movement isn’t quick. System Partners are seeing the benefits of having time and space to innovate and build the right skills but changes in politics and performance expectations can slow their progress. That’s why ongoing support for organisations to recruit, develop and embed new ways of working is vital.
• Consistency and coordination matter: partners report that inconsistent ways of working across Sport England teams can lead to duplication, extra workload and missed opportunities for collaboration. Clearer, more joined-up processes will help everyone work better together and make the most of Sport England investments.

Looking ahead and building on our learnings

The report contains recommendations for Sport England and questions for System Partners (overall and with different roles – influencing, delivery, connector).

Sport England should commit to improving consistency, supporting partners in their distinct roles and keeping the focus on long-term, systemic change.

Over three years into our five-year, more than £600million investment in System Partners, we’re seeing the difference this collective effort can make across the system.

And here’s what we’ll do next:

• Keep listening and adapting by using insight from the evaluation to refine how we support, fund and connect partners.
• Back system enablers by investing in people and organisations that help others collaborate, learn and grow.
• Improve how we convene by making our events, communications and shared spaces more purposeful and coordinated.
• Act on feedback by being open about where we can do better and using your insights to improve our role.
• Stay focused on system-wide impact by keeping the long-term view in mind as we plan for the next funding cycle and beyond.

Some considerations for partners are:

• We ask all partners to continue sharing evidence of impact – especially where it aligns with Uniting the Movement through their evaluation and reporting. This will be vital as our ability to demonstrate the value of working in this way and having compelling evidence and insight to support our shared mission and vision continues to be key.
• Encourage partner-led collaboration​ – we ask all partners to create new, and continue existing, collaboration and to deepen the way they work with others, creating shared spaces and goals on the things that matter most and sharing their learnings around with other partners.​

Why this matters to us all

Together, these insights reinforce the belief that transforming access to sport and physical activity isn’t just about delivery – it’s about culture, partnerships and everyone playing their part in the system.

We hope this report prompts reflection, sparks ideas and encourages all of us to keep challenging ourselves to do better for the communities we serve.

If you’d like to read more or share your thoughts, please get in touch.

We’d love to hear from you.
 

For more than 10 years, I’ve had the privilege of being part of a partnership between Sport England and the National Trust that’s been quietly but powerfully changing lives.

This is more than just getting people outdoors – it’s about creating real, lasting opportunities for everyone, especially those who need it most, to connect with nature and feel the benefits of being active in green and blue spaces.

Being outdoors and connected to nature has demonstrable health and wellbeing benefits.

Studies have shown impact such as lowering stress levels and reducing cortisol and inflammation, which are increasingly seen as factors in depression, autoimmune diseases and cancer.

Our work at the National Trust is shifting towards a more ‘place-based’ approach, but what exactly do we mean by that?

Rather than parachuting in with one-size-fits-all solutions, we’re considering what’s already happening in local communities, at National Trust properties and on their land, and finding ways to make those spaces more accessible, more welcoming and more connected to the people who live nearby.
 

Whilst we consider how to be more locally responsive, we continue to work at a national scale on initiatives such as improving navigational and orientation signage to ensure paths are easy to find and follow, and refining path-grading methodologies to better reflect the diversity of users.

This work focuses on describing the path itself rather than the person using it and it goes in line with the Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) principles and the Equality Act.

What I love about our work is that it’s about making meaningful connections between the land and the community.

It’s not just about trails or facilities – it’s about creating safe, natural, traffic-free environments where people can walk, cycle, run, paddle or simply be.

I’ve seen firsthand how many barriers can stand in the way of people accessing the outdoors.

Things like fear of getting lost, finding themselves in unfamiliar terrain, safety concerns, challenges around travelling to our places or just not knowing where to start.

We’ve worked hard to design experiences that support people who are new to the outdoors and it’s making a real difference.

For that we’ve been able to capitalise on the strength of the National Trust brand.

Our properties are trusted spaces, with essential facilities like cafés and toilets, which makes them perfect for families, groups or individuals who might be taking their first steps into nature.

The multi-use trails that have been developed are a great example. They’re accessible, enjoyable and range from three to 5km, which makes them ideal for walking, wheeling, running or cycling.

And the impact has been incredible!

We’ve seen a 23% rise in visits from people of ethnic backgrounds, which indicates we’re reaching new audiences and helping more people feel like they belong in these spaces.

This is fantastic news since we strive to improve the experience for communities that often find barriers to exploring the great outdoors.

I’ve also been inspired by the way this work helps those who may need deeper support.

Whether it’s supported paddling sessions, inclusive activities for families with SEN, or community-led cycling groups like the Muslim Cycle Sisters at Osterley, there’s a real commitment to inclusion.

And it’s not just about participation but about representation, too.

The Trust is working with partners to tackle underrepresentation in the outdoor workforce, for example through our walking leaders programme, which is such an important step toward long-term change.

Nature restoration and biodiversity play a big part in our work.

Our infrastructure developments are designed to improve visitor experience and get people active whilst protecting some of the most sensitive nature areas.

We are strengthening our knowledge and skills in designing experiences that deliver real, meaningful and lasting nature connection to inspire more people to care for nature and their local environment.

Looking ahead

As I reflect on the past decade, I feel proud of what we’ve achieved and even more hopeful about what’s to come.

Our partnership with Sport England shows that when we focus on people, place and purpose, we can create spaces that are not only beautiful, but truly inclusive and life-enhancing.

And that’s something worth building on.

There has never been more opportunity for young people with a disability to access and thrive in cricket.

In my short time as Chair of Lord’s Taverners, I’ve been privileged to witness the transformative power of our disability cricket programmes, not just for the young people who take part, but for their families, schools, and communities.

These experiences aren’t just inspirational, they are life-changing.

The need for our work has never been greater. That’s why I’m proud to be leading an organisation committed to making cricket the UK’s most inclusive team sport. And few moments capture that ambition more powerfully than the recent Disability Cricket Day at Lord’s.

The event closed with history being made: the first ever international disability cricket fixture played on the main ground at Lord’s, a mixed-disability T20 between England and India. It was a moment that united grassroots passion with elite aspiration, showing every young person in attendance what’s possible.

This remarkable alignment – national youth competition and elite international showcase, side-by-side – is a beacon for what sport can be when inclusion is placed at its heart. It’s a demonstration of the pathway that exists and is strengthening year-on-year for cricketers with a disability, and a reminder of the importance of representation. Because when young people see others like themselves competing at the highest level, they begin to believe: this is for me, too.

The success of the day was only possible because of the strong partnership between the ECB, MCC, and the Lord’s Taverners – a spirit that reflects Sport England’s Uniting the Movement strategy. Together, we’re not only creating unforgettable moments; we’re laying the foundations for long-term change.

Cricket – like all sport – holds the power to change lives. But that power is only realised when it’s accessible to all. Too many young people with a disability still face barriers: lack of opportunities, inaccessible environments, or simply not seeing themselves reflected on the field. The message they hear can all too often be: this isn’t for you.

At the Lord’s Taverners, we are here to change that.

And thanks to events like Disability Cricket Day – and the partnerships that make them possible – we’re showing that our sport can lead the way in making inclusion not just a principle, but a reality.
 

We’re pleased to announce the launch of our latest Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan (DIAP), which sets out our renewed commitment to creating a more diverse, inclusive and supportive workplace.

The new plan builds on the progress we’ve already made and reflects feedback from colleagues across the organisation, while setting out the priorities and the practical steps we’ll be taking over the short, medium and long term too. 

The DIAP meets the standards of our own Code for Sports Governance and our Public Sector Equality Duties, which require us to publish our equality objectives and report on progress.

Our vision

Sport England’s vision for sport and physical activity is at the front and centre of Uniting the Movement, our 10-year strategy.

Through it and our day-to-day actions, we’re determined to help people in England live happier, healthier and more fulfilling lives, and we are deeply committed to delivering the real and lasting change needed to achieve that. 

Our approach to equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) (or to Equality Objectives, using the terminology of the Public Sector Equality Duties) is embedded in all areas of our work, both nationally and locally, because everyone deserves a positive experience when they are playing sport or being physically active, although this is not always what they feel.

How we will work

‘We are Inclusive’ is one of Sport England’s core values and because we have to practice what we preach, we firmly believe that we are at our best when everyone feels included.

We encourage every colleague to set an individual goal for themselves about being inclusive and we also want our teams to model inclusive behaviours in every interaction and decision.

These need to be everyday actions like respectful conversations, fair decision-making or real opportunities for development and progression.
 

Plus, we try to always to speak up, challenge non-inclusive behaviours and celebrate the diversity and strengths of our people.

But this plan goes well beyond any individual, internal goals for Sport England.

Uniting the Movement means we need to lead the sport and activity industry with intent and create national impact in a way that surpasses positive changes within our own organisation.

Our Tackling Inequalities Roadmap and Inclusion by Design work are examples of our leading from the front.

We’re committed to sharing our learnings with partners, in order to help spread good practice, and to deliver meaningful change.

A focus on equality, inclusion and belonging is our standard, and not as an added extra because, particularly when all the people taking part feel valued and supported, sport and activity have the ability to change lives.

Our equality objectives

Our latest Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan highlights four new equality objectives that have been developed in partnership with colleagues and are based on evidence and insight. 

These equality objectives are:

• To take proactive steps to build and sustain a workforce that reflects the diversity of wider society and the communities that we work with.
• To develop the awareness, confidence and skills of the Sport England workforce to drive forward our ambition to provide leadership to the sporting sector on inclusion.
• To promote a culture of inclusivity across Sport England by prioritising actions that create meaningful engagement with the ambitions and actions in the Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan at every level across the organisation.
• To act on new upcoming legislation, ensuring all our policies and practices align with evolving equality and inclusion legislation.

These goals will guide our actions over the next four years and everyone in our organisation has a role to play in our success.

Together we will remove barriers, measure progress with published targets and build a culture that supports equality at every level.
 

We're here to champion the life-changing impact of being active and ensure everyone across the nation can benefit from it.

So opens Uniting the Movement – Sport England’s 10-year vision for change for the sport and physical activity sector. 

We published the strategy towards the end of January 2021. In the teeth of the third Covid-19 lockdown. A fully online launch, brilliantly brought together by my team that, at one stage, clocked over 5,000 attendees.  

It felt like a huge moment – but also one that couldn’t afford to be just a moment in time.

It is also the central mission of Uniting the Movement, born of that extraordinary time, that remains for me the greatest element still to be delivered.

Whilst we have done much together to set the conditions and change the language used across grassroots sport and activity, we have not yet meaningfully moved the dial.  

The challenges ahead

Action is now needed truly to start to close the gaps that exist – for the near-quarter of the population that still do fewer than 30 mins of activity a week; and in particular those from historically marginalised parts of the country and communities who have previously been less well served.

We need to do more to align being active with the provision of public health and recognise that the power that a more preventative approach can take.  

We need to continue to protect our playing fields and the places and spaces where people can play.  

More than anything, we need to make sure that as a nation we prioritise provision and opportunity for our children and young people so that they can build the physical and mental resilience and sense of purpose and agency that we know sport can provide.

All of this will mean being ever more effective and efficient in a world where resources are scarce and demands on the public purse remain huge.

The future health of The National Lottery is vital here – two thirds of Sport England’s funding is received via its returns to good causes. Sport England itself will need to change to become better and slicker in its delivery and use of data and digital services.

Ultimately though, it will depend on a sector’s willingness and ability to collaborate effectively. Truly to understand the communities in which we are seeking to deliver and how best to serve them.

In the words of a man called Majid Hussain, from Clemency House in Oldham, whom I met on my very first visit in the role, to strive everyday to ensure we “don’t make us more like you”.

It has been the greatest of privileges for the past seven years to lead Sport England.

With a fantastic Chair in Chris Boardman, a great new CEO in Simon Hayes and a wonderful team of people in place, I have no doubt that the next stage of its delivery and the collective journey of Uniting the Movement will achieve amazing things.    

The health and happiness of a nation depends on it.
 

For many, the beginning of June is the unofficial start of the summer.

Holidays are on the horizon, Wimbledon and the Tour de France are getting closer and we get to celebrate volunteers in the best week of the year – Volunteers Week!

The latest data from our Active Lives Adult Survey Report shows that almost 10.5 million adults volunteered to support sport and physical activity across the 12-month period from mid-November 2023 to mid-November 2024.

This is an increase of 488,000 over the last 12 months and it shows a continued recovery of volunteering since the pandemic in 2020.

This huge contribution of people’s time, energy and skills in sport and physical activity is really something to celebrate, and everybody in Sport England wants to say a massive thank you to everyone who volunteers to keep the nation active. 

Volunteering not only enables participation opportunities for others, but it significantly boosts the wellbeing of volunteers themselves.

Our research into the social value of sport and physical activity demonstrated that adult volunteering in England is worth £8.2 billion annually in social value and these benefits to wellbeing are in addition to any value that comes from being physically active.

The present of volunteering

The recovery we’re seeing post-pandemic is positive and it demonstrates the resilience of sport volunteering, and that millions of people are still motivated to give their time.

However, there are also some more worrying trends that we need to take note of.

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.

Today we’ve published our Active Lives Adult Survey Report, which looks at the results from November 2023 to November 2024, so let's dig beneath the surface to understand a little more about what the data is telling us and why that matters.

As a reminder, activity levels are up and inactivity levels are down since we started the survey in 2015.

In fact, levels of activity in England are at their highest since the survey began – with 2.4m more people active since 2015.

That growth is coming from a number of different places, with really big gains coming from fitness activities like yoga and pilates.

More people have also been visiting leisure centres and gyms in the last couple of years, and more and older people are getting and staying active, suggesting some fundamental changes in how people are choosing to engage in physical activity.

There’s also really positive news for sports like football, netball, cricket and swimming, with increases across the board since the pandemic, meaning that team sports have recovered from the huge and lasting impact of lockdowns and restrictions.

At Sport England we’ve been working closely with partners across all these sports to help support new and different ways to reach people and break down barriers to participation.

A great example of this is the revolution seen in women’s football, which continues its long-term growth.

It’s also really satisfying to see levels of enjoyment of sport rising faster for those that have typically enjoyed it the least – evidence, we think, that our collective work to make sport more open, welcoming and accessible to everyone is starting to show its impact.

Of course, the picture isn’t perfect – there are still too many people who don’t feel like sport is for them, especially those people who share two or more characteristics of inequality.

We make no apologies for disproportionately targeting our work and our investment to better support those groups to get active.

But I also wanted to share why this is so important.

We know that current activity levels save the NHS £10bn a year, add £87bn to the economy every year and increase people’s wellbeing in a way that’s valued at £107bn annually. You can find all these stats on our website.

What that means is that if we can close the gap between those that are active and those that aren’t, we can further reduce costs to government, boost the economy and improve wellbeing even more than we do right now.

Lastly, I want to say thanks to the thousands of organisations and millions of individuals that have joined us in our vision to make sport and physical activity accessible to everyone – we haven’t finished the job, but the story so far looks like a positive one.

Imagine a world where physical activity behaviours are as routinely discussed within your NHS consultations as smoking, or 'prescribed' as routinely as medications.

One where your healthcare professional (HCP) helps connect you into ways of being active that work for you.

That’s the aim of the work we are doing with our health and physical activity partners, through our Uniting the Movement strategy, to strengthen the connections between sport and physical activity, and health and wellbeing.  

Through cross-sector collaboration we’re enabling the conditions for systemic change, the spread and scale of effective interventions and a coherent joined-up movement for change.

Working together for people's wellbeing

The NHS is one of the most trusted sources of physical activity advice for people with long-term health conditions and for disabled people who, according to our latest Active Lives Adult survey, are almost twice as likely to be inactive than those without health conditions or disability.

Modelling undertaken by our health team, using Active Lives data and the social value of sport and physical activity data, concluded that supporting the one in four people who say they would be more active if advised to do so by HCPs would mean 2.9 million fewer inactive adults and 550,000 fewer less-active children and young people in England, saving up to £0.9 billion from the healthcare system.

“Our voices were the most important thing in the room.”

This comment – part of the feedback from one of the 16 amazing young people that took part in the Youth Voice Design Jam in August 2024 – made me smile.

The Jam was a collaborative, joyful and intense three days where young people teamed up with Sport England and a range of sector partners.

At Sport England, collaboration and learning are at the heart of what we do.

That’s why we’re excited to share the highlights from the recent interim evaluation of our investment into system partners – the Learning Synthesis report – a document that offers valuable insights and lessons for organisations tackling inequalities through system change.

In short, our system partner investment is a new approach that’s aligned with our Uniting the Movement strategy by committing over £500 million since 2022 to more than 120 partners. 

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.

Learning together – why this report matters

It’s important to highlight that this investment by Sport England is about more than funding. It’s about building a movement for change and the Learning Synthesis report is key in this mission.

The report was conducted by Ipsos, New Philanthropy Capital (NPC) and Sheffield Hallam University, and it sheds light on what’s working and where challenges remain within the sector.

But it goes beyond that by posing questions – and presenting answers – about how we can work together to tackle inequalities so everyone can enjoy the benefits of being active.

What we’ve learned so far

The result? Insights that are key for our work at Sport England and for critical points of reflection to anyone striving to make a difference through systemic change at local or national level.

Some of the main findings of the report are:

Overcoming challenges to collaboration is key

System partners build partnerships with diverse stakeholders – from local councils to schools and community groups – that create a more cohesive and integrated approach to system change.

We know that Uniting the Movement has provided a framework for building trust and encouraging alignment and shared goals, but we also know that collaborative working takes time, and that this is often hindered by financial constraints, recruitment challenges and cultural barriers.

These obstacles are further exacerbated by political and leadership changes, which can disrupt momentum and require the continual rebuilding and realignment of relationships.

Change champions make a difference 

System partners have found that identifying and engaging local champions can accelerate system change as these often hold the keys to unlocking new opportunities and relationships.

It is important for us and our system partners to think strategically about how we can influence the system, through engaging with these individuals and groups moving forwards, and how we can best identify them within our communities, places and/or organisations.

Quantitative and qualitative data together tell the full story

While numbers are important, stories and case studies provide rich context for understanding our impact and uncovering learnings about why things work, for whom and in what context.

We need to tackle the ongoing challenges within the system, where qualitative data is not valued as it is difficult to track and evaluate over time.

Learning from challenges

System partners recognise that system change isn’t easy. Barriers like language, staff turnover, strategic planning and the complexity of demonstrating impact are very real. But recognising these hurdles allows us to address them head-on with a mindset of learning and growth.

Looking ahead – building on these learnings

As an organisation, Sport England is on a journey to reshape its relationship with its partners and develop a more relational approach to working together to tackle inequalities in physical activity.

Our evaluation to understand the impact of this ‘new way of working’ is therefore very complex and it's represented in an evolving theory of change.

This hypothesis sets out how and why we think change will happen over the short, medium and long-term, and guides our evaluation accordingly.

The interim evaluation findings we’re sharing today provide a foundation for reflection and learning on our progress so far.

The conclusions and the improvements achieved by our partners, plus the challenges these partners and also us at Sport England still need to face, underscore the importance of adaptability, transparency and a long-term perspective in driving system change.

As we move forward, we think it will be essential to:

• continue sharing what works and what doesn’t work when addressing the challenges that arise through our collaboration between our partners and colleagues
• use our successes and our innate value in our work with system partners to continue to build new partnerships and engage with diverse stakeholders, whilst nurturing those we’ve already established
• focus on sustainable approaches to evaluation, learning and insight that balance the immediate need to demonstrate impact, whilst recognising that true systemic change is a long-term impact.

Join the conversation

We're already working closely with our system partners to share and act on these findings through our capability and capacity-building sessions, and our learning and knowledge exchange work.

We also think the findings have wider value to anyone who’s part of a complex system and exploring how to reduce inequalities. Is this you?

If that’s the case, we’d love to hear your thoughts on these findings, what resonates most with your work or what lessons we can learn together.

And if you have any questions, reflections or feedback on this report or any other element on this blog, please get in touch.

When we are travelling it is easy to get impatient and start wondering how long we’ll still have to go before we reach our destination.

And this edginess often appears even more so when we are on a long journey – like our quest for sustainability in the sport and physical activity sector.

But it is not just sustainable sports centres (to name one example) that we’re after.

We also want more sustainable homes, more sustainable businesses and more sustainable communities – so we are in for a long ride!

Looking back as we celebrate

And just to finish with the journey metaphor, it’s true that sometimes a trip can take you through breathtaking and inspiring places, while other times it drags on with no apparent progress being made.

The efforts around the sustainability journey are no different.

Cynics amongst us may say we are not making any progress with our sustainability efforts but I’d like to disagree.

At Sport England sustainability is a key part of our work, so I thought that as we celebrate the fourth anniversary of our long-term strategy, Uniting the Movement, it’d also be a great moment to reflect on the steps we’ve made so far and how we can keep moving ahead while ensuring we make the most of our natural resources without damaging or limiting our environment.

In 2022, we committed to ‘stepping up on environmental sustainability’.

Back then we highlighted three key points:

• We recognised there was considerable work to do not only to reduce our negative impact on the environment but also to prepare our sector for a changing climate.
• We committed to being clear on what actions we needed to take and to improving Sport England’s own environmental performance.
• We said we’d collaborate with other organisations to make these things happen across the sector.

So, can we say we are nearly there? I’m afraid not quite, but we we’ve taken our first steps and we’re not alone, so we can’t stop now.

Plus we’ve done what we said and more. Much more!
 

We listened to our partners and our internal teams and produced an environmental sustainability strategy and action plan, which we called Every Move.

We have a small team to deliver the action plan and embed sustainability across all our work but we can see people across the sector getting constantly involved with our efforts, like when almost 200 organisations signed our Going for Green Pledge last summer after our our Chair Chris Boardman cycled for eight days from Manchester to Paris to inspire action for climate change.

But perhaps the biggest change I’ve noticed is the cultural attitude to sustainability across the sport sector.

Our partners have embraced sustainability and a sign of this is that the language around sustainable development is dropped into everyday conversations.

As a collective we’re really beginning to understand the inter-connection between climate change, inequalities, participation in sport and our role in tackling that.

Environmental social governance is now included in the Code for Sports Governance, setting out levels of transparency and integrity for our funded partners.

Working together for everybody's future

In addition, many of our partners have developed, or are developing, their own sustainability action plans and these recognise the importance of tackling climate justice - addressing the unequal impacts of climate change on disadvantaged communities.

There are shining examples of projects across the country which reduce emissions, increase biodiversity, improve the sustainability of the things they buy and improve the accessibility and quality of our natural environment.

Projects include recycling, second-hand buying or looking at repairing broken items before buying brand new ones, using LED flood-lighting and solar panels on facilities, improving access to natural environments, purchasing goods without plastic packaging and medals made from bamboo, re-distributing good quality kit, cleaning up our natural surroundings or sowing wildflower gardens around cricket pitches.

These initiatives invariably make sport more accessible and appealing to a wider audience by creating inviting natural environments, reducing utility costs or providing the kit to enable sport to happen, plus these are ventures most of us can get involved with.

In England there’s over 75,000 sports and physical activity centres and, according to our latest Active Lives Adult Survey, our sector is powered by 10 million volunteers.

These numbers show that we have the perfect vehicle to spread the word around sustainable action being able to improve the quality of everyone’s life.

The journey ahead looks exciting but it looks tough too as, let’s face it, we still have a long way to go!

The focus must now be on delivery and ensuring we talk about it and share good work practices.

We need to make sure that we tackle sustainability at place-level, underpinning our actions with sustainable approaches.

Sustainability is inextricably connected to deprivation and will become even more so as our climate continues to change.

We must prepare for the future ensuring the places where we are active do not overheat or flood, have clean air and clean water, and are welcoming and accessible for all.

We also need to ensure energy security for our communities, building confidence in the ability to budget and plan.

So no, we’re not there yet, but will we ever get there? I believe the answer is yes.

Happy fourth anniversary, Uniting the Movement. Let's keep working to ensure we have even more to celebrate for your fifth!
 

By becoming a Disability Confident Leader, we are not only aiming to lead by example within our industry.

We also want to support other organisations in their journey to build inclusive practices.  

We are delighted that our inclusive hiring practices and workplace activities have earned us the recognition as a Disability Confident Leader.

This was very much a collaborative project across a number of functions, and I was especially pleased to have representation from our staff disability Network, STRIDE, and our recognised staff trade union, PCS.

Our work involved a level of challenge, with insights gained as part of the process.  

All in all, the journey to becoming a Disability Confident Leader has involved:

• evidencing our approach to attract, recruit and retain disabled people
• building an inclusive workplace culture, including disability awareness equality training and policy development
• guiding staff to information and advice on mental health conditions
• collaborating with external partners to ensure that our workplace practices align with inclusion
• through our procurement, encouraging our suppliers to be Disability Confident
• a commitment to publicly reporting the percentage of staff who consider themselves a disabled person or are living with a long-term health condition
• providing networks for staff, valuing their feedback and providing occupational health services if required
• providing human resources staff with specific Disability Confident training.

Our work continues

Sport England has now joined a growing list of organisations recognised as Disability Confident Leaders and we’re truly happy and proud of all the work we’ve done to get to where we are.

We look forward to our ongoing commitments and to continuing our work to ensure that everyone can thrive in a truly inclusive environment.

We’ll be working through recommendations and guidance from our validator – the Business Disability Forum – and ensuring improvements continue to be made through regular assessments.  

This accreditation signals our core values – we are ambitious, we are collaborative, we are inclusive and we are innovative – and demonstrates a forward-looking commitment to maintaining the scheme and evolving practices.

We will be voluntarily reporting about our Disability Confident work in the coming 12 months, as part of our commitment to being a Disability Confident Leader, because we are happy to grow and we want all our employees to be able to contribute, participate and benefit from that growth.

It is with deep pride and excitement that I step into the role of chair of Sport England’s Talent Inclusion Advisory Group (TIAG).

For me, this appointment represents much more than a professional milestone – it embodies a lifelong commitment to breaking down barriers, creating opportunities and harnessing the power of sport to inspire and unite communities.

All of this, because I believe sport has a unique ability to transcend differences, bring people together and build a future where potential is realised, no matter where it comes from.

A personal journey rooted in passion

Sport has always been part of my story.

Growing up in Hackney, I dreamt of becoming a professional athlete and I wasn't too far from making that dream a reality!

But while life eventually led me into the courtroom rather than onto the track, my passion for sport never faded.

Sport also taught me some invaluable lessons like discipline, resilience and the belief that no goal is out of reach if you’re willing to work for it.

These are learnings I carried with me as I pursued a career in law, determined to fight for justice and equality for those whose voices too often go unheard.

If given the choice between talent and potential, which would you go for? Think about it. We’ll come back to this later.

Most of us might be able to recall a fellow pupil, teammate or athlete who appears to subdue the opponent just by their mere presence, maybe because of their previous performance or perhaps because of a preconceived perception.

I remember taking part in school competitions and over hearing hushed whispers, pupils from other schools saying "the Black girl will win".

I was the only Black girl in the competition and hearing others talking about me like that felt strange.

Not because of the pressure of the assumption, but because of the pointing out that I was different. 

Because it’s not until it’s pointed out to you, either deliberately or via an innocent remark, whether about ethnicity, race, gender or disability, for example, that your sense of belonging to a group, a collective or a sport can come crashing down.  

The comment didn’t make sense to me at the time but it’s something that I have never forgotten and often recall when working on our talent pathway.

Breaking barriers and assumptions

I consider that assumptions on someone’s ability, based on their belonging to a particular background, should be eradicated.

Even if – like in my case – they predicted a positive outcome (they thought I was going to win!) these kinds of predictions are false.

And this falsehood is something that we want to eradicate so we can be successful in supporting national governing bodies (NGBs) and our partners in identifying and recruiting talent from under-represented groups in the UK by understanding their barriers and ultimately broaden the potential pool of talent.
 

Talent can often be misunderstood with the assumption that a commitment to work hard is not required, the need to be disciplined unnecessary and the element of resilience, irrelevant.

Usain Bolt, otherwise known as the greatest sprinter of all time having won eight Olympic gold medals, summed it up flawlessly when he said "hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard”, reinforcing the importance of dedication and perseverance in achieving success.

Our talent inclusion programme

This is because whilst hard work may count for an element of the talent pathway, so does, for example, economics, geography and fundamentally the opportunity to take part in sport in the first place. 

And so our seven guiding principles were designed to provide a strong foundation on which to build our talent inclusion strategic intent.

A system that confines itself solely to the identification of talent based on current performances (such as winners of junior competitions) will not necessarily pick up those with the most long-term potential. 

So, what do we mean when we talk about talent inclusion? 

Maybe a better place to start is what we don’t mean.

Inclusion in talent doesn't mean we have to forfeit winning medals or creating a high-performing environment, but it does mean a renewed emphasis on the culture and environment created within talent pathways so athletes feel comfortable being open about themselves.  

For example, during Ramadan, sports settings may need to adapt the training demands of athletes who are fasting, or need to pray, with conversations about how to best accommodate these religious schedule of prayers.

Inclusion in talent doesn't mean NGBs having to match the UK/England demographics of age, gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, disability and gender identity to the exact percentage.

Inclusion in talent does mean NGBs and partners should know who’s in their talent pathway and know who their wider participants are so they can understand barriers that prevent people progressing into the talent system. 

This knowledge will help our partners attract participants, develop athletes in our talent system and increase NGBs' talent pools.

I'll repeat: a system that confines itself solely to the identification of talent based on current performances (such as winners of junior competitions) will not necessarily pick up those with the most long-term potential. 

In summary, we risk missing out on potentially talented athletes and coaches unless we take a broader and more long-term view.

So talent or hard work?

And so back to the question we opened with – if given the choice between talent and potential and you can only choose one, which would you go for? 

Perhaps both, because talent by itself won’t win you first places, but hard work will.

And because talent and hard work don’t just belong in a particular protected community.

They can be found everywhere and we’ll work hard to make sure we find it.
 

Today we've launched our brand new Accessible and inclusive sports facilities (AISF) guidance.

It is aimed at anyone who is involved in designing, updating or operating sports and leisure facilities in England.

The guidance is available on our site as a suite of screen-reader-friendly, accessible PDFs and is soon to be available in easy-read format.

An essential tool for our long-term strategy Uniting the Movement, AISF signals a step change in our standards for designing and maintaining the sector’s built environments.

Our 10-year strategy imagines “a nation of more equal, inclusive and connected communities” in which everyone can enjoy the benefits of being active.

Yet for far too many people, the places and spaces designed to support physical activity are the very barriers that prevent them from taking part. For example, we know that:

• almost half of disabled people (49%) say they lack suitable options for taking part in sports or physical activity in their local area
• only 8% of disabled people would choose to be active at a sport-specific facility (e.g. a football, tennis or cricket club, climbing centres, etc.) compared to 15% of non-disabled people.

What’s different about AISF?

In the past, we’ve produced guidance that focused solely on meeting people’s physical access needs and, rightly, AISF continues to set the industry standard for accessibility.

This year marks three years of Uniting the Movement and, while as a sector we’re moving towards more open and equal access to physical activity, tackling inequalities remains a central part of our work.

The volunteering workforce – a key group for many clubs and sports and physical activity organisations up and down the country, and for the sector in general – is key in this endeavour and that’s why we’re so excited to release the report from the Workforce Diversity Fund.

The document covers the learnings from the fund and acts as a handbook for projects looking to reach new communities and increase the diversity of their volunteer teams.

Over the last four years we have worked closely with 19 funded projects and one learning partner to explore and address barriers faced by women and those from ethnically diverse communities when trying to get started in coaching and volunteering.

The report was produced by CFE Research and outlines the actions projects can take to reach new communities, along with real life examples from the funded projects.

The learnings are presented in line with Sport England’s innovation principles and we hope this structure will make action easier and more accessible for everyone.

The funded projects, such as like Vandyke Upper School in Bedfordshire, ranged from small to large organisations.
 

The centre worked with their local Active Partnership to engage 40 mums as volunteers at the school gate.

Another example is England Boxing, who supported the implementation of a new workforce diversity strategy with a new development qualification with the Open University.

This variety of projects means the report covers a wide range of topics and is universally applicable over the entire sports and physical activity sector.

To produce this report, we worked with independent and not-for-profit research company CFE Research to review project reports from the Workforce Diversity Fund and compile key learnings.

Learnings for all

The report has had a great impact on everyone involved.

The CFE team highlighted how being able to talk to those behind the projects made it possible to bring their work to life, which allowed for the report to be written in a relatable voice.

They also said that hearing about the impacts on participants and the commitment to social change and diversity in sports was inspiring, and that this experience has helped them to get insights and realistic recommendations for other projects and organisations. 

They even share our hope that the report will find an audience among people who might otherwise shy away from a traditional research report, or who feel daunted at the thought of tackling workforce diversity. 

The launch of this report marks a key moment for our volunteering insight and we look forward to working with more partners and projects in the future as we continue to deliver Uniting the Movement.
 

I’ve been part of Sport England’s evaluation team for many years and multiple strategies, but the dawn of Uniting the Movement marked a real step-change for how we evaluate and learn from our work.

Following an extensive consultation with partners and colleagues, our approach and action plan set out a shared vision for how evaluation and learning could support our long-term strategy.

This included ambitions to improve how we embed, conduct and use evaluation and learning and the actions that would help us achieve them.

Stepping back to reflect

A year and a half on from publishing this plan, I wanted to reflect on the steps we’ve taken whether big, small, forwards, backwards or indeed sideways.

In short, I can say we’ve done a lot (though not as much as we’d hoped) and often in different ways to what we expected – a good learning in itself!

Some of the highlights include:

• Evaluation and learning has a stronger internal profile, meaning greater desire from senior leaders to evaluate our major investments, so we’re investing more time and resources into evaluations of greater depth and breadth than ever before.
• Evaluation and learning is better integrated into Sport England’s internal performance reporting with evidence from our evaluations directly feeding into our performance framework. We also talk about evaluation and learning more and more honestly with senior external stakeholders including the government.
• We’ve experimented with new and developmental evaluation methods that fit the context and values of Uniting the Movement. This includes co-designing an impact and learning model with System Partners, pioneering the emerging configurational comparative analysis to evaluate our Place investments, and trialling ripple effects mapping in the evaluation team itself to evaluate our work.
• We’ve updated our webpages, including a new tab with details of our current evaluations and a report library that houses over 50 publications.
• We’ve improved how the team operates, including team accessibility training, changing how we run team meetings, a skills-development audit and updating our day-to-day processes.

Stepping up to the challenges

Despite all the positives, it’s in my nature and the team’s to also notice the things that haven’t gone so well too – we are evaluators after all!

Some of the difficulties and challenges we’ve faced include:

• Finding time for the action plan whilst managing our daily work and all the major evaluations. We care about the plan but too often it’s had to give way to higher priorities.
• We’ve sometimes struggled with the complexity and scale of the work. It’s an ambitious improvement plan containing many interconnected actions and objectives, set against the backdrop of a sector-wide strategy to reduce inequalities. The context is anything but simple and knowing how best to make progress hasn’t always been straight forward, obvious or easy.
• The tailored, context-driven nature of our work made it difficult to communicate our overall priorities for evaluation and learning in a clear and simple way. Our research and evaluation lead, Tim Fitches, reflected on this with a LinkedIn post last year.
• Some discussions with senior decision-makers have felt too narrowly focused on accountability, thus limiting opportunities for learning and improvement.
• We know there’s lots more we can do to share, interpret and act on what we’re learning from our evaluations, in a way that’s more visible, accessible and useful to the people and organisations who can use them.

Taking learning steps

These challenges, as well as contextual changes within Sport England, our partners and the sector, have shaped how and what we’ve delivered through the action plan.

We’ve learned that it’s ok to change course when we need to and to see changes as windows of opportunity.

Other things we’ve learned include:

• moving away from seeing the action plan as a list of standalone tasks to be ticked off. Instead the plan is seen as a connected, ongoing and long-term effort to live our principles by and realise our ambitions. In other words, we’re tying the action plan more closely to our wider work programme, delivering it within our major evaluations rather than separately
• using a more pragmatic and disciplined way of managing the action plan, like Microsoft Planner to organise our work, allocate tasks and log updates, plus regular structured team meetings to make decisions, reflect on progress and move things on together.

Next steps

We still firmly believe that the ambitions and areas of work in our approach and action plan are the right ones but the last 18 months have taught us that we need to change how we go about it.

We’ll continue to learn from the plan and adapt how we deliver it in response to changing circumstances, but always with our long-term ambitions in mind.

We hope this update sparks ideas and starts conversations, firstly because we think our experiences are likely to be echoed elsewhere and secondly because we know we can only achieve our ambitions and realise the true value of evaluation and learning for Uniting the Movement by working together.

We’ll get there. Step by step.

And if you’re interested in finding out more and working with us, then we would love to hear from you so make sure you get in touch.