The Government has announced a new strategy ‘Sporting Future: A New Strategy for an Active Nation’ to strengthen sport from the grassroots to the elite on Thursday 17 December 2015.
The strategy will see Sport England’s remit change from investing in sport for those aged 14 and over to supporting people from five years old right through to pensioners, in a bid to create a more active nation.
Investment will be targeted at sport projects that have a meaningful, measurable impact on how they are improving people’s lives, from helping young people gain skills to get into work, to tackling social inclusion and improving physical and mental health.
The Parks Alliance has welcomed the strategy. Mark Camley, Chair of The Parks Alliance, said:
‘We welcome ‘Sporting Future: A New Strategy for an Active Nation’ published today as parks have a crucial role to play in increasing physical activity.
‘Parks are already key in getting the UK active as organised as well as non-organised sport typically happens in parks rather than sporting grounds. Parks, largely free at point of use offer a low cost means of grass roots participation to draw in hard to reach groups. With regular participation better than one-off, reducing barriers such as costs is an important driver to deliver continued participation.
‘We support the finding that support for sport and physical activity infrastructure should not just be restricted to pitches, sports halls and buildings. We are pleased that for future investment, Sport England will balance the need for, and existing provision, of all spaces not just built facilities. Having an invested park infrastructure such as making areas safe and secure, good way finding and signposting both, physically and on-line is crucial for encouraging new and lapsed users.’