Sport England East Blog

Oct 08 Blog - Final Edition

2008-10-28T10:00:00.000Z

Hello and welcome to the October Blog, our final edition, for a month which has seen further work on our new strategy and the final plans from National Governing Bodies of Sport being submitted. Work with County Sports Partnerships continues regionally in supporting ongoing delivery and considering new funding relationships.

Board Finale
The East Regional Sports Board will host its final meeting in the next few months, with awards decision making going national in January 2009. There are details below on the results of our recent funding consultation.
On our own reorganisation, consultation has now closed with colleagues being able to apply for roles in the new structure shortly. We will keep you up to date on this.
Communications Changes
One immediate impact is that Communications Manager and Blog Editor Simon Badman is heading to YMCA England to become Head of Movement Communications. This is a fantastic opportunity for Simon to further develop his skills and abilities on a national stage and I would like to thank him for all his superb work, ensuring that you got our messages over the past 12 years. Updated details of Sport England East media contacts can be found here
The Latest from the Pitch
As mentioned above, this Blog is sadly the final edition for the region. I would encourage you to subscribe to The Pitch email update here. I’d like to thank you all for subscribing to the Blog, some of you since its early days in 2000, as the email update. We’ve appreciated all your comments, feedback and contributions in developing the service over the years.

For all other communication-related enquiries please contact the regional office on 01234 345222.

Chris Perks
Regional Director, Sport England East

Funding sporting opportunities in your community
Sport England is changing the way it distributes around £45m a year of National Lottery funding after a public consultation showed widespread support for our proposals. More

Active Norfolk wins top award for getting more young people into sport
Active Norfolk has won an award for its trailblazing work to get more young people involved in sport. Active Norfolk’s Ben Jones and Vicki Hall picked up the award for “Best Use of Student Voice” for their surveying work for the Sport Unlimited programme which is providing 4000 sports taster sessions to young people nationwide. The awards were presented by Sport England and the Youth Sport Trust to recognise the success of projects delivering parts of the Government’s £2.4 billion PE and Sport for Young People strategy. More

Sportessex at work and play
The team at sportessex has been creating more opportunities for Essex residents to get active. Find out just what they’ve been up to here:
BAA Stansted Youth Adventure Challenge
The Essex Corporate Games 2008

Planning green light for London 2012 canoe/kayak slalom venue
Plans for the world-class White Water Canoe Centre to be used during the London 2012 Games and leave a major sporting and leisure attraction in legacy moved a step closer today as Broxbourne Borough Council granted planning approval for the venue. The plans will now be referred to the Government Office for the East of England to grant planning permission. More

Things can only get better? - Eastern Region Seminar Final Speakers confirmed
The final line up of speakers has now been confirmed for the Eastern Region Seminar on the 20th November with the day focusing firmly on Service Improvement and Delivery, as well as new opportunities for the Active Leisure sector.

Brian King, formerly of the I&DeA, will be heading up the impressive line up of speakers by setting the scene around the emerging improvement agenda for local government, the challenges and opportunities coming up, the potential in developing relationships between local authorities and regional bodies, as well as an overview of service commissioning.

A new speaker just confirmed is Liz Delany - PE and Sport Adviser for Partnerships for Schools. Liz is the National lead for PE and sport within Building Schools for the Future and will be speaking about offering strategic advice about how Local Authorities and their delivery partners can tie into the programme - thereby ensuring wider engagement of the sector.

The morning will focus on the "Road to Excellence" and Commissioning/Procurement, while the afternoon will focus on Service Delivery Options, with a speaker from a Trust, a Local Authority and a Leisure Management Contractor explaining their own particular approach and the advantages it brings. At the end of the afternoon will be workshops looking at some of the big opportunities to the sector at the moment, such as 2012 and Free Swimming.

The event costs just £50, thanks to sponsorship by Alliance Leisure, and is being organised by Leisure-net Solutions on behalf of Eastern Region Ispal, CLOA, ISRM and sporta. It is taking place at the Essex Golf and Country Club at Earls Colne near Colchester just off the A12.

Please find attached a copy of the full programme and a booking form.

Sept 08 Blog

2008-09-30T12:32:00.034+01:00

Welcome to the September Blog, following on the heels of one of the most successful Paralympics and Olympics for Team GB in modern times. “Team East” also came away from Beijing with reasons to celebrate. From St Neots’ Mark Foster and Essex’s Danny Crates carrying the flag on behalf of Team GB at their respective opening ceremonies, to the six Olympic and 10 Paralympic medals won by athletes from the East of England, the region has every reason to be proud of its performance in China. Here’s a quick reminder of who got what:

Olympics:
GOLD:
Victoria Pendleton - Cycling Women's sprint

SILVER:
Emma Pooley - Cycling Time trial
Ross Edgar - Cycling Men's keirin
Rowing cox Acer Nethercott - Rowing Men's eight

BRONZE:
Louis Smith - Men's pommel horse
Sharon Hunt - Eventing

Paralympics:
GOLD:
Jody Cundy Cycling 1km time trial and men's team sprint
Daniel Bentley, boccia team event
Matt Skelhon, shooting

SILVER:
Mel Clarke, women's archery open compound
Fran Williamson, S3 women's 50m freestyle

BRONZE:
Mel Clarke, women's archery open individual compound and open compound
Fran Williamson, S2 women's 50m freestyle
Natalie Jones, SM6 women's 200m individual medley

Closer to home you will be aware that the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has launched an overall strategy “Playing to Win”. A key strand to the strategy is the proposals around free swimming; more on this is contained in Advise below.

Updates on our own strategy can now be received through a new email newsletter. Find out how to subscribe to “the Pitch” in Advise below. National Governing Body work around 2009-13 plans and funding is progressing well with draft plans now received and negotiations on future work of County Sports Partnerships continues. The strategy has led to our own restructuring and this will also affect the East Regional Sport Board. Details will be shared over the coming months as they are finalised.

Finally, a big thank you to all who made submissions as part of our consultation on National Lottery funding.

Chris Perks, Regional Director

Advise

New Mountain Biking venue in Essex confirmed for the London 2012 Games
The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) has confirmed that subject to final contract negotiations, the venue for the Mountain Biking events will be at Hadleigh Farm, Essex.

The alternative site was chosen following the decision in January 2008 to move the competition away from The Weald Country Park in Essex after a change in requirements for the sport that resulted in the need to identify a more technical and challenging course.

This venue change for the Games has been approved by the International Cycling Union (UCI), British Cycling (BC), the International Olympic Committee, and the British Olympic Association.

The new venue covers a 550 acre site situated close to the village of Hadleigh, nr Benfleet in Essex. The site encompasses the outstandingly beautiful grassland and woodland of Hadleigh Farm, land owned by the Salvation Army, and the surrounding countryside of Hadleigh Castle Country Park. More

Free swimming programme
To encourage local authorities to make swimming free for the over-sixties and under-sixteens, the Government has set up a the Free Swimming Capital Modernisation Programme run by Sport England. Find out more about how to apply for funds. More

The Latest from the Pitch
A new newsletter to keep you informed about how Sport England is delivering its new strategy has been launched. To receive “the Latest from the Pitch” email thepitch@sportengland.org

Sport Evidence Packs
Sport England has recently published detailed sport evidence packs, which bring together data from the Active People Survey, the Taking Part Survey, and Sport England's market segmentation.

Each pack includes information on the following: participation rates in each sport across key demographic groups, participation by region, the profile of sports participants, the segments most likely to participate in the sport, young people's participation (11-15 year olds), seasonal variation in participation, drop off in participation by age, latent demand, growth by sport, and participation in organised sport.
More

Sport revealed as priority for local authorities
Promoting participation in sport is now one of the top 20 priorities for local authorities in England. More than half the new Local Area Agreements (LAAs) now include adult participation in sport as a key priority.More

Sport England East has produced a number of resources around Local Area Agreements. There is an online LAA library which contains a wealth of information relating to the world of LAAs, including guidance, information about the national indicators. More

Also located here is the IMD 2007 rankings, including those areas within the top 20% most deprived. More

Invest

The designs for a new world-class White Water Canoe Centre are unveiled
A planning application has now been submitted for the venue in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire. New facilities include a 300m course, with a warm-up course and finish lake; and path and bridge networks throughout the venue to help spectators get close to the action. White-water will be created through a system of pumps and obstacles, all contributing to the venue continuing to be a major sporting and leisure attraction after the Games.A new building will also be built containing a reception, café, changing rooms, shop, offices, spectator viewing area, equipment storage and water pump/filtration facilities. The Centre will be owned and managed by Lee Valley Regional Park Authority, which owns the land. More

Promote

2008 BBC Sports Unsung Hero Award
In 2007 Luton’s Paul Webb picked up the BBC East’s Sports Unsung Hero Award for his work in establishing boxing clubs.

Nominations for the 2008 BBC Sports Unsung Hero Award can now be made at www.bbc.co.uk/sportsunsunghero The closing date is Friday 31st October. BBC East’s winner will be announced at the regional awards on December 8th at Duxford. The overall 2008 winner will be announced on the BBC Sports Personality of the Year show live on BBC ONE on Sunday December 14 from the Echo Arena in Liverpool. Bursaries of up to £2,500 are also available to each regional winner, to help them and their club in their work with sport in the community.

Norfolk Project on ITV Local
Footage of the Active England Extended Schools Project for Norfolk is now available on ITV Local. Find out why the project is such a huge success in getting the community active through the use of school facilities. More

Videos to encourage sports participation
Sport England and sportessex recently commissioned a number of one minute videos which encourage viewers to take part in specific sports. The first four of these videos have just been finished, check them out at the links below:

Video 1: Taekwondo

Video 2: Table Tennis
Video 3: Volleyball
Video 4: Climbing

2008 Events
There are a number of events planned over the forthcoming months.

8 Oct - Herts Service to Sports Awards 2008

17 Oct - Norfolk Youth Games and Partnership Games Youth Games
19 Oct - Suffolk Sports Awards 2008

20 Oct - Norfolk Youth Games and Partnership Games Swimming Gala

4 Nov - Living Sport Sports Awards 2008

6 Nov - Essex Sports Awards

14 Nov - Active Norfolk & EDP Sports Awards

8 Dec - BBC East Sports Awards in association with Sport England

July 08 Blog - Disability Sport Focus

2008-06-30T15:00:00.001+01:00

Hello and welcome to a special blog focussing on the work of the English Federation of Disability Sport and the Inclusive Fitness Initiative and introducing the key regional colleagues from both organistions.

Hi I’m Mark Healy, I’m the East Region Development Manager for English Federation of Disability Sport.

The English Federation of Disability Sport (EFDS) has been helping to improve the range and quality of sporting opportunities available to disabled people since 1998. The Government sees the EFDS as the “Umbrella” organisation for Disability Sport and we have a presence in all nine Sport England Regions.

My primary role is to support Sport England East, the six County Sport Partnerships and the National Governing Bodies in all areas pertaining to Disability Sport. I am a key member of the regional steering group whose responsibility is the planning and delivery of the “Playground to Paralympic Podium” initiative.

The initiative provides a framework for identifying and supporting disabled players and athletes who demonstrate potential in particular sports. Jointly developed with Youth Sport Trust, UK Sport, and Paralympics GB, the initiative plays an important part in Sport England’s wider goal of investing in community sport to create a world leading community sports system.

Mark Healy
East Region Development Manager
English Federation of Disability Sport
Street & Leisure Services
Colchester Borough Council
PO Box 331, Town Hall
Colchester
CO1 1GL
01206 507890
07764 291664
EMail

Website

Hi I’m Carla Raven, I have recently been appointed as the Inclusive Fitness Initiative (IFI) Regional Activator for the East of England.

The main aim of the Inclusive Fitness Initiative (IFI) is to create more accessible services to disabled users within leisure facilities.

Research by the IFI is carried out in conjunction with Sheffield Hallam University and work is done with suppliers to create accessible equipment. Access within facilities themselves also provides a key focus of the programme. IFI Project Coordinators visit sites and conduct access audits on particular facilities that want to reach accreditation standard. Facilities reach accreditation standard once they have made the necessary alterations to the facility, have undergone an access audit, have purchased accessible equipment and staff have undertaken relevant training. This training ranges from disability equality training for all facility staff to NVQ level three qualifications for fitness instructors and allows staff to provide a better service to disabled users.

The Inclusive Fitness Initiative is managed by Montgomery Leisure Services on behalf of the English Federation of Disability Sport Operating Company (EFDS OC), the funding originated from Sport England and as the IFI has progressed funding has been granted from other organisations, for example most recently from the National Sports Foundation.

My role as a regional activator is to “activate” sites once they have been awarded accreditation to ensure that they remain proactive and engage with their local disabled community. The main objective of my work is to support sites to increase usage by disabled people within their facility. I empower sites to develop inclusive marketing strategies, make community links, conduct outreach work, make partnerships with disability organisations and to organise inclusive activities. I also encourage sites to share examples of good practice amongst themselves and act as a link officer between them. In addition to this I tie sites into links that I make with regional networks and disability organisations where possible.

It is important that sites employ an inclusive attitude within the whole facility, starting at reception. In order to ensure a holistic attitude is employed training levels need to be maintained due to staff turnover.

There are national mass participation events that occur throughout the year which act as promotion campaigns to encourage disabled users to take part in exercise and to increase awareness of physical activity opportunities for disabled users and the IFI. The aim is for sites from all regions to work together in promoting inclusive activity. Inclusive Fitness Week was recently held which worked with sites nationally to promote inclusive fitness by encouraging each IFI site to make a contribution to promote inclusive fitness. The activities across the country varied from free inductions to multi activity events (for more details please look on www.inclusivefitness.org) the week was a large success in raising awareness.

The second part of my role is to work with disability, sport and physical activity organisations at a regional level and develop partnerships with public, private and voluntary sector organisations. I will also support the delivery of marketing seminars, and engage with the fitness industry to market in a more inclusive fashion. The aim is for awareness created at regional level to filter through to community level. In turn working with sites to raise awareness of the benefits of physical activity and facilitate the breaking down of barriers which prevent disabled people from participating in physical activity.

Carla Raven
IFI Regional Activator, East Region
c/o Sport England East
Crescent House
19 The Crescent
Bedford
MK40 2QP
07508 033889
EMail
Website

June 08 Blog

2008-06-20T17:30:00.002+01:00

Welcome to our June blog for a month which has seen the launch of three major strategies which will impact on the sporting landscape. Details of the DCMS's "Playing to Win" and London 2012's "Before, During and After" are below, while our own strategy can be accessed through our special blog here

While the strategies herald an exciting new chapter for sport, I'm keen not to lose sight of what has been achieved in the East collectively and would recommend having a look at our annual review (details in Advise). We will be sharing more information with key partners through our usual face to face meetings.

Finally, can I encourage you to vote in this year's National Lottery Awards. Last year saw Bedford's Fit @ Sixty win top prize in the sport category. This year Colchester United Sport Trust's Shrub End facility and outreach programme has made it to the shortlist.

Chris Perks, Regional Director

Advise

Sport England East Annual Review
We are pleased to publish our brief Annual Review for 2007-08 which shows a year of substantial achievements in the East of England. Building on the successes of last year, the system for delivering sport has gone from strength to strength. We intend to produce a review of the East of England Plan for Sport in the forthcoming months. More

Free swimming plan for over 60s at the forefront of sports reforms to spearhead 2012 legacy plans
A new £140 million fund to boost sport and fitness through free swimming for the over 60s has been announced by the Government as part of a drive to get two million people more active by the London 2012 Olympics.

The initiative was part of a package of measures in the Legacy Action Plan: Before, During and After: Making the most of the London 2012 Games.

The DCMS also launched Playing to Win: a New Era for Sport, which outlines roles, responsibilities and the ambitions of partners within the sporting landscape namely UKSport, Youth Sports Trust and Sport England.

Falkner and family make history again
Sport England's Ellen Falkner, her mum Sue Alexander and grandma Dorothy Bowers are thought to have made history after keeping it in the family to win the triples crown for England at the British Isles Women's Bowls Championships. They beat Ireland in the final 18-9, topping their achievement of winning the 2007 English national final. More

Ten facilities in the East make the Pre-Games Training Camp Guide for Paralympic sports
Over 170 sporting facilities from every part of the UK will feature in London 2012’s Pre-Games Training Camp Guide for Paralympic sports.

The London 2012 Organising Committee (LOCOG) has announced the list of successful facilities, which includes ten venues from the East of England. It will publish its Guide of both Olympic and Paralympic facilities which are capable of hosting teams wanting to prepare for the London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games in the summer.

The Guide contains a selection of high quality, sporting facilities that meet the technical criteria of national and international sports bodies and also accessibility and support service requirements to be a suitable venue to host Paralymlpic teams. More

Understanding you markets - Active People & market segmentation bulletin 2
The second Active People and market segmentation bulletin is now available, focusing on using the market segmentation data and running cross tabulation analyses. More

New research to help sports clubs harness volunteer power
Volunteering England and the Institute of Volunteering Research have announced that sports clubs can now measure the impact of their volunteers thanks to a new set of web-based tools.

Laura Ferguson, Head of Sports Volunteering at Volunteering England, said: "These are the first ever tools designed for sports organisations to demonstrate the difference their volunteers are making, and it is fantastic to see those who have already used them promoting the positive impacts of their volunteers and making positive changes to their clubs. More

Norfolk Man appointed Chairman of Snowsports governing body
Barry Spouge, a former Chairman and Director of Norfolk Ski Club, has been appointed Chairman and Director of Snowsport England (formerly known as the English Ski Council).

Barry was instrumental in the presentation for funding and planning of the major £1.4m project completed at Norfolk Ski Club at Trowse, Norwich, which saw the addition of a second ski slope, ski and snowboard fun park, five new lifts and a major clubhouse extension.

Invest

National Lottery Awards - Shrub End makes shortlist
Public voting for the National Lottery Awards 2008 is now open until Friday 4 July and you can decide which projects will progress into the final round of voting later this summer. Vote here

New Facilities Strategy for Herts
Acitve Hertfordshire, a new facilities strategy for the county has just been launched. The executive summary is now available here

Sport England relaunches Sportsmatch
Sport England is delighted to announce the return of Sportsmatch with a new web-based facility enabling applicants to apply online. More

What Sportsmatch can do for you - Hertfordshire Rugby League Coaching Association
Award: £7,500
Sponsor: GT Management Services
Length of scheme: 1 year

The Hertfordshire Rugby League Coaching Association is run primarily for the development of all rugby league coaching in Hertfordshire, including under 18s (known as academy) and open age groups.

They obtained one year's sponsorship from GT Management Services, who specialise in project and programme management, which totalled £7,500. The Association matched this with another £7,500 from Sportsmatch and were able to deliver a rugby league junior coaching programme through the school curriculum and through extra curricular activities.

The Association introduced Rugby League to six secondary schools in the St Albans district. Each school benefited from eight hours of coaching per week with four blocks of six weeks coaching per school, with a specific focus on 12 - 16 year olds. In addition to the curriculum time coaching, after school clubs were set up in schools with club coaches assisting members of staff in the delivery of these clubs.

The project has been a great success, as new links between the local schools, clubs, council and the community has been created through the scheme. The project has also benefited the local community in assisting the creation of a pool of rugby league talent; including players, coaches and volunteers.

Whittlingham included in National Lottery case study guide
The award winning Whittlingham Outdoor Education centre, is one of the innovative projects featuring in a new good practice guide. More

'Lloyds TSB Local Heroes' champions future Olympians and Paralympians
Lloyds TSB, the first Official Partner of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, has launched its nationwide programme, ‘Lloyds TSB Local Heroes’. ‘Lloyds TSB Local Heroes’ will provide up to £1,000 to 250 emerging young sportspeople identified each year across Britain, in the run up to London 2012 and beyond. By investing more than £1 million in ‘Lloyds TSB Local Heroes’ over the next five years, the bank will play a major role in supporting Great Britain’s young sporting talent. Local Heroes will be delivered in partnership with SportsAid. More

Norwich Union Community Sports Fund
The Norwich Union Community Sports Fund is giving you the chance to make a difference to sport in your community. Vote now for your favourite sporting initiative and help them win funding of up to £50,000. You could even scoop a cash prize of £500 and get a special visit from a Norwich Union GB & NI Team athlete
To view all East of England projects click here, then click on vote now and select East of England in the search box.

Promote

"Inspired by" London 2012
London 2012 has launched a 'mark' to recognise outstanding non-commercial projects and events inspired by the Games.

The Inspire mark is part of the London 2012 brand family. Only the most accessible, participative, inspiring and stimulating projects and events will achieve the mark – across sport, culture, education, environment, volunteering and business skills. The Inspire mark will be awarded to specific projects and events which are:

Genuinely inspired by the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games
Well planned and managed
Fully funded from non-commercial sources and with no commercial association.
Innovative and inspiring
Likely to achieve at least one of their key outcomes. (e.g. increased participation in grass roots sports).

More

Hertfordshire kids gear up for a summer of baseball
An army of kids headed to Grovehill Ballpark in Hertfordshire on Saturday, May 10 for the start of spring training ahead of the inaugural season of the Herts Baseball Little League.

Last year, Herts Baseball Club, with support from BSUK, staged nine summer baseball camps, which were attended by around 50 boys and girls. They have now been joined by many more players who have pre-registered online for the Herts Little League over the winter months.

The season is scheduled to begin on June 14 and all league games will be staged at the club’s baseball complex in Hemel Hempstead. But before this, the players will go through five weeks of intensive spring training, with sessions run by players from Herts Baseball’s three adult teams as well as parents who have shown an interest in getting involved in a coaching capacity. More

Benefits of swimming
The NHS has recently released a promotional video on why swimming and water-based activites are so good for your health and fitness
More

2008 Events
There are a number of events planned over the forthcoming months. For a full listing and further details please look at our events page

20 June
SportsAid Eastern Lunch Club, Bedford Hotel, Newmarket
Speaker : Danny Crates

26 June
SportsAid Eastern Lunch Club, Carrow Road, Norwich
Speaker : Martin Cross, oarsman

6 July
Suffolk Youth Games 2008

11 July
SportsAid Eastern Lunch Club, Jury's Inn Hotel, Central Milton Keynes
Speaker : Paul Dickinson

18 July
East Regional Sport Board

19 & 20 July
The Danbury Bike Festival - Little Havens Mountain Bike Challenge & Mud, Sweat and Gears Mountain Bike Enduro

24 Aug
UK's Cultural Olympiad begins and Olympic Handover

June 08 Blog - Sport England Strategy 2008-2011

2008-06-10T10:00:00.006+01:00

Welcome to a special blog focussing on the new Sport England Strategy. The strategy provides clarity on our new direction and focus and can I thank those of you who have been able to contribute within the consultation process during the past months.

Our Annual Review will come out next week in our regular blog and as always the East Regional office remains committed to quality service in what is a year of transition.

Chris Perks
Regional Director

Sport England's World Leading Ambition

Sport England has published a new strategy to get more people playing and enjoying sport and to help those with talent get to the very top.

The strategy commits Sport England to deliver on a series of demanding targets by 2012/13:

one million more people doing more sport
a 25% reduction in the number of 16 year olds who drop out of five key sports
improved talent development systems in at least 25 sports
a measurable increase in people’s satisfaction with their experience of sport – the first time the organisation has set such a qualitative measure
a major contribution to the delivery of the five hour sports offer for children and young people.

Sport England will work closely with the National Governing Bodies of sport (NGBs) to deliver the new strategy, and will also continue to work in partnership with local authorities and with County Sports Partnerships delivering specific results. It will reduce bureaucracy by combining its multiple funding streams into a single pot of funding for NGBs, and will be consulting on a new, more streamlined method of funding wider community projects. More

May 08 Blog

2008-05-08T11:46:00.017+01:00

It’s that time of year when we look back and again it has been a year of substantial achievements in the east. County Sports Partnerships have gone from strength to strength (can I encourage you to have a look at their websites and sign up for their updates? – details are below), Community Sports Networks have been developed in virtually all parts of the region and there has been excellent work to embed sport into Local Area Agreements. We have also seen a strengthening of our relationship with sport’s National Governing Bodies and the start of the exciting extending activity work aimed at attracting and retaining more young people in sport.

On the investment front we have seen £3.5 million National Lottery funding awarded to projects which have attracted a further £10million of investment. Although early days, the Active People results seem to suggest that participation is heading in the right direction (see Advise below).

We also have a growing awareness of our new direction in responding to the Government’s wishes to see more emphasis placed on working with national governing bodies and a tighter definition of sport. We are conducting consultation exercises across the delivery system and the results from this are being used to shape the final delivery plan, with a potential launch in mid May. We will keep you in touch with developments through the blog and through the key networks.

On the colleague front I’m sad to report that Spencer Harris will be going to work for the University of Hertfordshire in July but really pleased to say that Simon Fairhall has been appointed as Chief Executive of Living Sport.

Lastly, summer provides the ideal opportunity to see what the best of sport has to offer through the forthcoming youth games and I look forward to seeing you around the region.

Chris Perks, Regional Director

CSP Websites:
www.activenorfolk.org
www.sportinherts.org.uk
www.livingsport.co.uk
www.sportessex.com
www.suffolksport.com (new website due soon)
www.teambedsandluton.co.uk

Advise

Sport England reveals sports participation is increasing; with the over 55s leading the charge

The number of adults across England who regularly participate in sport and active recreation has increased, with the 55s and over showing the biggest growth spurt, a Sport England survey reveals.
More

Local Area Agreements embrace sport

All 10 Local Area Agreements in the region have decided to include NI8 (adult participation in sport) in their LAAs. Although targets are currently being negotiated, these will mostly be between 4-4.5% increase in participation in each of the 10 areas.
This means that sport will be part of these important local strategic frameworks providing a great opportunity for all to work collectively and get more people engaged in sport.

Sport Playing its Part
The Spring 2008 edition of the SPIP Quarterly Newsletter is now available on the Sport England website.
More

Invest

Local sports centre is given cash boost by Sport England East
The Burnt Mill Academy of Table Tennis Skills (BATTS) based at the Norman Booth Recreation Centre in Old Harlow, Essex, has been awarded £110,000 of funding from Sport England East to improve its facilities.

The investment has enabled club volunteers to carry out a £148,000 refurbishment including a new semi sprung sports hall floor, modern changing rooms with accessible facilities, an accessible lift and a comfortable and attractive social area for visitors to the club.

Sport England East agreed the funding under the Community Club Development Programme (CCDP) to enable BATTS to provide quality facilities suitable for all ages and abilities within the local community.

New Canoeing venue to leave major attraction after the Games

The new venue for the London 2012 Canoe/Kayak Slalom events has been confirmed as the Showground in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire. It will become a White Water Canoe Centre after the Games - a major lesiure attraction as well as a competition venue for elite events.
More

Promote

West Suffolk College to receive RFU award
West Suffolk College sports academy, Bury St Edmunds was the national winner in the More Than a Game category of the annual awards. There are 15 categories to recognise the most innovative ideas which meet the RFU's Community Rugby themes of More People, Better Places, Access for All and Enjoyment.

West Suffolk College had the distinction of also being joint runners-up in the More Coaches category.
More

2008 Events

There are a number of events planned over the forthcoming months. For a full listing and further details please look at our events page

10-11 May
Herts Youth Games

12-13 May
Relaying the Baton 3

14 May
East Regional Sport Board

18 May
Team Beds and Luton Street Games
Events county-wide

18 May
East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices (EACH) RIDE FOR LIFE

2 June
Gender and BME training workshop conference

13 June
Living Sport Youth games plus

6 July
Suffolk Youth Games 2008

18 July
East Regional Sport Board

19 & 20 July
The Danbury Bike Festival - Little Havens Mountain Bike Challenge & Mud, Sweat and Gears Mountain Bike Enduro

24 Aug
UK's Cultural Olympiad begins and Olympic Handover

March 08 Monthly Blog

2008-03-20T15:38:00.025Z

Welcome to our March blog for a month which sees Sport England’s headline proposals agreed by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport and the Minister for Sport (see Advise below). As you will appreciate, there is a great deal of detailed work to do but we are committed to keeping both colleagues and partners informed.

As we approach the end of the financial year we again will be reporting on many great achievements of the delivery system in the East, as well as our own performance. We will also be reporting on the current Regional Plan for Sport.

Personally, I was pleased last month to see a staggering 65 venues from our region make it into the London 2012 Pre-Games Training Camp guide (see Advise below), many having been funded through the National Lottery.

Advise

Statement from the Chief Executive of Sport England - Sport England's 2008-11 Strategy
Sport England last week submitted its headline proposals for its 2008-11 strategy to the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport and the Minister for Sport. More

Braintree’s Get Back Into Netball launches Thundercats

A successful Get Back into Netball course in Braintree has resulted in a brand new netball team. The newly formed Braintree Town Thundercats has entered the Chelmsford & District Netball League for the summer, affiliated to England Netball, ordered new kit and has joined the Braintree Town club.

Find out more about Get Back Into, including links to local course info at: www.getbackinto.co.uk

London 2012 Pre-Games Training Camp Guide

The East facilities included in the London 2012 Pre-Games Training Camp Guide were announced last month at the Ipswich Gymnastics Centre. Further information can be found on the London 2012 web site.

Search begins for Essex paralympians
A new scheme is being launched across Essex to encourage people with disabilities to get involved in sport and to find potential paralympians.

Sports clubs from across the county are opening up their doors and encouraging people with disabilities to get involved.

The Essex Disability Sports Academy is the brainchild of sportessex, and will co-ordinate a series of taster sessions at clubs across the county. More

Invest

Playing field safeguards secure a better deal for sport

New data from Sport England reveals that 1,176 (97%) out of 1,216 concluded planning applications affecting playing fields in 2005-06 resulted in improved or protected sports provision. The statistics show that only 40 applications (3%) resulted in a detrimental impact to sport. More

Sport England East awards East Anglia Tennis and Squash Club £25,000
East Anglia Tennis and Squash Club is celebrating receiving a £25,000 grant from Sport England East to improve facilities at the club.

The Norwich based club applied for the funding to help improve its squash courts, including replacing floors and adding heating, in a bid to attract more people to the sport and make facilities better for existing members. The work to improve the courts will start in April.

Sport England East provides grants under the Community Club Development Programme to help clubs such as East Anglia Tennis and Squash Club increase participation in sports and to enhance links with local schools and the community. Furthermore, the club hosts fitness classes and pilates, as well as providing a base for the Norwich Runners Club and 10 teams of the Norwich Hockey Club. Local church and scout groups also use the club, with a number of local schools making use of the squash and tennis courts on a regular basis.

Double award joy for Peterborough Milton Golf Club
Peterborough Milton Golf Club is celebrating having just been presented with two awards – the prestigious Golfmark award and a funding award of £50,000 from Sport England East to help develop the club’s practice ground.

Peterborough Milton, set in the grounds of Fitzwilliam Estate, is the latest golf club to be presented with the Golfmark award. The award is a national scheme, run by the English Golf Union, which identifies and recognises junior and beginner friendly golf facilities. Peterborough Milton has been awarded Golfmark status in recognition of the club’s dedication to attracting people, especially juniors, to the sport.

The news that the club has also been granted funding from Sport England East means the facilities to help juniors and beginners improve their skills will be given a further boost. The £50,000 funding award completes the £75,000 needed to develop the club’s practice ground. The rest of the project has been funded by the club.

Promote

Living Sport launches new website
Living Sport has launched a great new website with advice for clubs, coaches and volunteers, together with information on where to get active.
More:
http://www.livingsport.co.uk/

London 2012 – Cultural Olympiad – Be Inspired
London is the Host City, but the 2012 Games belong to – and will benefit - the whole UK. As part of the Cultural Olympiad a UK-wide festival is being created celebrating the diverse cultures across the UK. It will start over the weekend of 26-28 September 2008 and run right through to the end of the Games.

Be inspired and get involved here

2008 Events
There are a number of events planned over the forthcoming months. For a full listing and further details please look at our events page

12 April
Bedford Healthy Living Fair

10-11 May
Herts Youth Games

12-13 May
Relaying the Baton 3
Details TBC

14 May
East Regional Sports Board

18 May
Team Beds and Luton Street Games
Events county-wide

2 June
Gender and BME training workshop conference
Contact

6 July
Suffolk Youth Games 2008
Northgate Sports Centre, Ipswich

18 July
East Regional Sports Board

24 Aug
UK's Cultural Olympiad begins and Olympic Handover
More

17 Sept
Paralympic Handover

23 Sept
East Regional Sports Board

17 Oct
Norfolk Youth Games and Partnership GamesYouth Games
UEA Sportspark, Norwich

20 Oct
Norfolk Youth Games and Partnership Games
Swimming Gala, School Swimming Gala and School Partnership Games
UEA Sportspark, Norwich

Feb 08 Monthly Blog

2008-02-04T14:55:00.000Z

Welcome to our February Blog for a month which has seen Andy Burnham MP appointed as Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. Work on the new strategy is still ongoing, although there will be some delays to the timescales. Agreeing a way forward is however an important priority for the new Secretary of State.

It was great to see Lord Coe in the region last month, visiting both sporting and cultural venues in Bedfordshire and Luton (more in Advise), helping to launch the Bedfordshire and Luton SportsAid Foundation (more in Invest) and being interviewed for BBC East’s Politics Show (more in Advise).

There are a couple of new faces at present in the regional office. Chris Cutforth left us in December after 17 years to lecture at Sheffield Hallam University. I would like to thank Chris for all his work over the years and wish him well in his new career. Suffolk Sport's John Clough is with us until April as a part-time secondee, undertaking work with the Performance and Improvement Team.

Finally, with Simon Macqueen currently seconded to the National Sport Team, two further secondees are currently part of the East team. Matt Wells joins us from Active Luton and Matt Roebuck joins us from Sport England South West. Both will be working with National Governing Bodies, with Matt Roebuck supporting the Performance and Improvement Team as well.

Chris Perks Regional Director

Advise
Andy Burnham MP appointed Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Jennie Price, Chief Executive of Sport England, has welcomed the appointment of Andy Burnham MP as the new Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. "We know he is a strong supporter of sport and we look forward to working with him to further enhance community sport in England." More

Sport England attends Culture Media & Sport Committee
Sport England Chief Executive Jennie Price has given evidence to the Culture, Media & Sport Select Committee that was meeting as part of its inquiry into the London 2012 Games and their impact on participation in sport. The meeting can be viewed via the Parliament Live web site.

More

2012 Supremo visits Bedfordshire
Lord Coe, Chairman of London 2012, spent a day in Bedfordshire hearing first hand how community sport and cultural initiatives are enriching the lives of local people.The highlight of the visit on Tuesday 22nd January was a trip to Westfield Middle School in Bedford where Lord Coe met youngsters and adults involved in two multi-faith sporting projects. Members of the All Saints Basketball Club and Queens Park Youth Cricket had the chance to show off the skills they have developed since the clubs were set up by the local church and mosque.“It was wonderful to see youngsters from all backgrounds get so much enjoyment from sport,” Lord Coe said. “The two clubs have taken enormous strides in developing the children’s sporting skills and bringing cohesion to the diverse communities in their area.” More

BBC East Politics Show - from Beijing to Bedford
The East Regional Sport Board’s Stephen Castle joined the panel as the BBC East Politics show discussed the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics and what will it all mean to this region.You can view the transcript here or view Lord Coe's interview here

Ellen Brings home a hat-trick of Silvers
Sport England East‘s Ellen Falkner narrowly missed out on adding the World Outdoor Bowls Singles and Pairs titles to her already full trophy cabinet. Both finals held in Christchurch, New Zealand saw her up against local favourite Val Smith. “I’m really pleased to come home with two World Championship medals, especially having been playing in conditions which are totally different to home” said Ellen. During her visit Ellen also won silver at New Zealand’s National Championship in the Women’s Fours. More

Clubmark celebrates CSP success
Clubmark has good reason to celebrate as the number of licensed County Sports Partnerships (CSPs) doubles, bringing the total to six. 2008 has got off to a great start with 3 more CSPs recently awarded a license to accredit Clubmark - Living Sport, sportessex and Lancashire Sport Partnership. More

Invest
Bedfordshire and Luton SportsAid Foundation launches among host of stars
World 400m Gold Medallist Derek Redmond and former rugby internationals Mike Rayer and John Sleightholme joined Lord Coe to celebrate the launch of the Bedfordshire and Luton SportsAid Foundation during January. The Foundation has been set up in partnership between Team Beds & Luton and SportsAid to ensure that commercial sector funding is attracted to help the next generation of sports superstars from the area. Contact

East of England is top of the league for spending on sport
Research commissioned by Sport England shows that per capita sport related consumer spending in the East of England is higher than any other region in the country. Per capita sports related spending (which includes clothing and footwear, participation fees and admission fees) has increased in the Eastern region from £291 in 2003 to £351 in 2005 – higher than the national average of £328. More

Healthy Weight, Healthy Lives
A new £372 million cross-government strategy to help the population lead healthier lives has been published. The strategy includes a review of the overall approach to physical activity, including the role of Sport England, to ensure that there is a clear legacy before and after the 2012 Games. More

Government launches £140million cycling fund
£140 million of government investment in cycling has been announced by Ruth Kelly, Secretary of State for Transport. The investment aims to help half a million children cycle safely and a generation of adults rediscover their bikes. More

£1 million for volunteering projects
vinspired, the volunteering web site for young people, is giving away £1 million to 16-25 year olds in England who want to set up their own volunteering project in their community. The funding called vcashpoint can be utilised for sports events and projects. More

Suffolk and Essex Clubs set to benefit from Cash for Clubs
Suffolk and Essex Clubs can now benefit from a new funding initiative set up in conjunction with the Cash for Clubs scheme and the East Anglian Daily Times. This will give a much needed cash boost to the most deserving sports clubs in the region and there are five jackpots of £1,000 up for grabs. The opportunity is open to all sports clubs in Suffolk and Essex, as long as they have a constitution and a registered bank account. More

Promote
Get Local with Sport England Market Segments
Ever wondered what types of people live in your area and how sporty they are? New maps covering the East region are now available on our website. These show the dominant market segments at Middle Super Output Area level for County and Local Authority Areas. More

Sport Playing its Part newsletter
The latest edition of the Sport Playing Its Part newsletter has been published by Sport England's Policy Team. Contents include the Olympics to health inequalities, including the new Public Service Agreements and the latest news on 'place shaping'. More

Sport - a positive activity
Sport England’s new publication, Sport – A Positive Activity, describes how sport and those involved with sport can work with local authorities to meet the needs of young people. It demonstrates the contribution sport can make and provides information on the key sporting partners who can help. More

2012 – How Local Authorities can Join In
London 2012 has recently produced a guide on how local government can make the most of the opportunities for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. More

2008 Events
There are a number of events planned over the forthcoming months. For a full listing and further details please look at our events page

19 Feb - East National Governing Bodies of Sport Forum
24 Feb - Hertfordshire Coaching Conference
27 Feb - Rural Sport and Recreation Training Event
28 Feb - Sport England Market Segments Training for National Governing Bodies of Sport
1 Mar - England Athletics Club Seminar
4 Mar - Promoting Physical Activity with Older People
13 Mar - Public Health Conference in East of England
17 Mar - Essex Legacy Conference
18 Mar - East Regional Sports Board
27 Mar - Sport England Market Segments Training for National Governing Bodies of Sport
More

Dec 07 Monthly Blog

2007-11-21T11:24:00.000Z

Welcome to our December Blog for a month which has seen further developments around the future Public Service Agreements for sport and related funding through the Comprehensive Spending Review. The up to date position is as follows:

James Purnell has stated that Sport England's prioirty will be to deliver a world class community sports development, with a particular focus on talent development and excellence
Sport England will have to develop a strategy (08-11) for this (facilities, clubs, coaches, volunteers and clear pathways to excellence). A headline strategy will be prespared for DCMS by the end of January 2008, followed by a more detailed business plan which must be in place by March 2008 and will be subject to external scrutiny
A scrutiny group will work with Sport England on the strategy. The group's members include Steve Grainger (Youth Sport Trust), Richard Lewis (Rugby Football League) and Ged Roddy (Chair of the South West Regional Sports Board)
The new strategy will include plans to increase partcipation in sport as a contribution to getting two milion more people active by 2012
Sport England's future investment will focus on the "tighter definition" of sport. The precise definition of sport has yet to be agreed
James Purnell also underlines the critical role National Governing Bodies will play in delivering our strategy and has spoken positively of a "whole sport" approach to a single stream of funding
Sport England will continue to work with adults and young people (age five upwards). Sport England will continue to play an important role in school sport and the 5 hour offer

You may also know that Derek Mapp has resigned as Chair of Sport England. More

In this end of year edition we celebrate the East's sports achievers and unsung heroes receiving the recognition they deserve at the first BBC East - Sport England regional awards (see Promote below), the launch of the Facilitiy Improvement Service and the region getting together for the Rising to the Challenge conference (see Advise below).

All that remains is to wish you a Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year.

Chris Perks
Regional Director

Advise

Annual Review for the East of England 2006-2007 and Half Year update
Find out how we have been doing in sustaining and increasing participation in community sport. More

Also now available is our Half Year Update (2007-2008). More

Rising to the Challenge of 2012 with Jonathan Edwards

Jonathan Edwards was guest of honour to launch the Rising to the Challenge Business Plan at Newmarket Racecourse on Nov 13. The annual conference featured presentations and workshops on making the most out of 2012 for the East of England and included interactive displays and demonstrations in the marketplace area. Find out what Jonathan thought of the conference, including his dancing experience, on his London 2012 Blog. More

New alliance to build culture and sport into communities
Living Places, a powerful new partnership of cultural and sporting bodies and Government departments, has launched an eight point action plan to bring the benefits of culture and sport to communities. More

England's survey of children's leisure, culture and sport
The latest Taking Part Children's Survey is now available via our website. One of the Government's aims is to improve the quality of life for everyone, by providing people with the chance to get involved with a variety of sports, arts and cultural activities. More

Invest
Creating Active Places

Creating Active Places, the sports facilities strategy for the East of England has been launched. Check out the strategy and executive summary here.

£500,000 refurbishment at world class sports club unveiled
Hunts County Squash Club (HCSC), the centre of squash excellence for the eastern region, unveiled its world class refurbished facilities at a launch event in October.

The development at the Pavilion at Hemingford complex is the result of a £500,000 investment programme supported by Sport England and England Squash. HCSC is home to The Sports Academy, which has nurtured many of the UK’s leading young squash players, many of whom have gone on to compete at the very highest international level. More

Promote

The East's sporting achievers and unsung heros honoured at Duxford

Look East's Stewart White compered the first joint BBC East and Sport England Sports Awards which took place at the magnificent setting of the American Air Museum at Duxford. Under the wings of Americian Aviation history, 180 guests saw awards across ten categories celebrating both sporting achievement and the unsung heroes.
More

Active Norfolk launches marketing toolkit

A new resource and training programme from Active Norfolk is aiming to help sports clubs and facilities survive and grow in an increasingly competitive and demanding market. The new toolkit and accompanying courses and clinics are designed to tackle some of the issues they face such as how to attract new members and retain the existing ones, become a hub of the community, grow sponsorship revenue, increase attendances, improve the social life of the club, increase media coverage, benefit from new technology and introduce new revenue streams. More

Oct 07 Monthly Blog

2007-09-28T11:13:00.000+01:00

Welcome to our Blog for a month which has seen announcements by Government on their future priorities and spending plans through the Comprehensive Spending Review. What these plans and priorities mean for community sport is currently being worked out and we will publish details as soon as they are known.

Work continues on the new regional plan and I would like to thank those of you who have submitted responses through county and National Governing Body forums in particular.

I am constantly impressed by the good work that our partners do and I'm thrilled that one of our funded projects Fit @ Sixty (see Invest) has been both recognised and rewarded in this year's National Lottery Awards.

Chris Perks
Regional Director

Advise

New scheme gets Tendring on the move
A new scheme to get individuals and businesses in Tendring, Essex on the move was launched during September with the help of Sport England East, England Athletics East and Fitter Futures. More

Sport England Market Segmentation
Sport England market segmentation provides an insight into sporting behaviours and the barriers and motivations to taking part in sport or enjoying a more active lifestyle.

The segments are now live here and will prove really useful for those working in community sport. For further information please contact spencer.harris@sportengland.org

Sport playing its part
The latest quarterly Sport Playing its Part Newsletter has now been published

Creative Programmer appointed for region
Liz Hughes has been appointed Creative Programmer for the East. Liz is one of eight appointees across England who will take forward plans for the Cultural Olympiad in the run up to the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Contact: liz.hughes@goeast.gsi.gov.uk or 01223 372683.
More

Working Together to Excellence goes national
“Working Together to Excellence”, a pilot project developed by Sport England to test the viability and sustainability of a new peer supported approach to sport and cultural service improvement, is to be adopted nationally, following independent evaluation by the Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA).

The pilot project which took place between April and July 2007, involved 10 local authorities in Essex plus Sportessex. Key features of the project included:

Values, habits and techniques of organisational excellence and continuous improvement, including self assessment and improvement planning

A ‘peer challenge’ process to challenge and enhance each authority’s self assessment
Management of improvement teams and managing change, including the use of coaching skills and techniques

Methods of sharing best practice and learning between organisations (best practice benchmarking)

Creation of an improvement network through a collaborative approach within and between Essex Local Authorities

For further information please contact Chris Cutforth chris.cutforth@sportengland.org

Invest

Fit @ Sixty project wins National Lottery Award
The Sport England funded Fit @ Sixty project in Bedford scooped first prize in the Best Sports category in the National Lottery awards. Fit @ Sixty, which has received National Lottery funding of £87,500 from Sport England, encourages older people in Bedford to participate in leisure activities on a weekly basis, improving their health and well-being.
More

£3.44m invested by Sportsmatch
By November, Sportsmatch will have allocated its total budget for 2007-2008 of £3.44 million. Together with match funding, this means investment of nearly £7 million into community sports projects since April – a major achievement.

As a result of unprecedented demand for funding, Sportsmatch is unable to accept applications for funding for the remainder of the financial year 2007-2008.

This fantastic investment is testament to the hard work of the Sportsmatch team and the commitment of its partners and sponsors. Most importantly, it means clubs across the country have secured funds and are delivering projects to drive up participation in community sport.
More

Sport England funding is pitch perfect
Hockey clubs in the East of England have been celebrating three new pitches as a result of funding from the Community Club Development Programme.

In Bedfordshire, the Bedford Sports and Hockey Centre has been awarded £100,000 by Sport England East to refurbish its double artificial pitch and to create top class facilities at its Chester Road site in Bedford. In Norfolk, Dereham Hockey Club received £60,000 and Harleston Magpies £35,000 for pitch improvements.

BIG Lottery gives the East a £3.9 million health kick
More than 130,000 people across the East of England are set to feel the health benefits of a whopping £3.9million investment to improve well-being and encourage healthier lifestyles in schools, homes, workplaces and communities throughout the region
More

£5 Million drive to recruit army of sports coaches
A campaign to recruit 10,000 voluntary community sports coaches in 70 of the most deprived areas of the country was launched in September by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport James Purnell. More

Promote

Celebrate community sport with us at Wembley
Come along to Wembley on 13 November to help us celebrate community sport and hear more about Sport England's recent achievements and plans for the future at our Annual Open Meeting. You can also watch martial art demonstrations and go back stage on the Stadium Tour. More

Do you know an Unsung Hero?
The American Air Museum at Duxford will host the inagural BBC East - Sport England Sports Awards on November 12th 2007, where the region's top sports and community sports stars of the year will be announced. Some of the nominations will come from County Sport Partnership awards, while others are available for regional public vote, such as the BBC's Unsung Hero award.

If know someone who helps others take part in sport within your community why not nominate them for the BBC’s search for “Sports Unsung Hero of 2007” ?
More

BHF 30 a day toolkit
Earlier this year, the British Heart Foundation launched the 30 a Day campaign to encourage older adults to get active to safeguard their heart health. The Active for Later Life Toolkit is designed to be used by a wide range of national and local agencies and it can be accessed for free.
More

Forthcoming Events

July 07 Monthly Blog

2007-05-18T15:27:00.001+01:00

The National Lottery Awards – vote NOW!
With three of the ten sports projects coming from the East of England, it's time to vote for the country's favourite Lottery project. [see below]

Advise

Sport England welcomes new five hour offer
Sport England’s Chairman, Derek Mapp, and Chief Executive, Jennie Price, have warmly welcomed the Prime Minister’s children and young people’s sports announcement.

“The injection of another £100m is good news for school sport and good news for community sport. It means more coaches working across schools and community sports clubs and extends the offer to 16-19 year olds. Sport England will do its part in getting 5-16 year olds to do 5 hours of sport each week and 16-19 year olds to do 3 hours”.

More

Together for Sport
Sport England’s ‘Together for Sport Conference’ took place on 27th & 28th June at London’s Royal Lancaster Hotel, with three of the region's County Sport partnerships presenting and the legal and communications sessions being led by regional office colleagues. The event focused on opportunities for partners to create new and strengthen existing ways of working collaboratively to increase participation in community sport through the Delivery System for Sport.
More

Relaying Sport in the East
Relaying Sport in the East, our own regional version of "Together for Sport", was a two-day conference held for National Governing Bodies of Sport and other partners, at Lakeside Lodge Golf Centre, Pidley, Cambridgeshire on 16 - 17 July 2007. Papers and presentations are now available from the event.
More

Sport playing its part
The latest quarterly Sport Playing its Part Newsletter has now been published.

Free managing successful projects training
Having successful project management skills are essential in assisting the smooth running of an organisation or business. This workshop will develop project management skills and explain the role of them in developing an organisation or a business.

To be eligible to attend, you must be involved in the sport and leisure sector AND live in and/or have an office/work base in one of the six counties in the East of England
This workshop will help you to:

develop an understanding of project management and its role
identify how to initiate a project by defining the needs of all those involved and creating clear aims and objectives
understanding the phases of a project through effective project planning
identify how to execute a project through effective resource allocation, developing roles and responsibilities and through efficient communication methods
understand how to monitor the project through simple monitoring tools and techniques.
Dates
21 July Newmarket, Suffolk
13 Sept St Ives, Cambridgeshire
27 Sept, Bedfordshire

For event programmes and venue information visit www.acer.ac.uk/events or contact Jenny Rodgers at ACER by phone on 01480 468885 or email jenny@acer.ac.uk

Sport England East Changes
Since our last blog, we are pleased to welcome Kirsty Clarke to the Sport England East team from Youth Active. Kirsty is primarily leading our work in setting up and developing Community Sports Networks. Contact: kirsty.clarke@sportengland.org or tel: 0207 273 1827. Also we say goodbye to Marie Yates who has left the English Federation of Disability Sport as East Regional Officer, to join UK Athletics. For all EFDS enquiries in the interim, please contact 0161 247 5294.

Invest

David Blunkett opens latest phase of golf academy

David Blunkett MP was in Luton during July to open the latest phase of developments at the Kevin Duggan Golf Academy, which is now able to offer golf to blind players with the help of a mentor.

The latest developments at the course have been funded by a £70,000 grant from Sport England together with £18,000 from the Ryder Cup European Development Trust. In fact, the Ryder Cup itself was one of the VIPs, together with Kevin Whately from ITV's Inspector Morse and Luton South MP Margaret Moran.

Opened in 2005, the golf academy is named in memory of 19- year-old keen golfer Kevin Duggan who died in a car accident.

The National Lottery Awards – vote NOW!
With three of the ten sports projects coming from the East of England, it's time to vote for the country's favourite Lottery project.

The National Lottery Awards aim to celebrate and recognise the difference that those projects – both large and small – have made to people, places and communities all across the UK. But hurry voting closes on 3 August
More

£30,000 for WASP
WASP– the West Anglia Sports Partnership – is celebrating an award of £30,000 from Sport England’s Community Investment Fund.

The funding received from Sport England will be used to develop a range of projects aimed at increasing the number of people using sport and physical activity as part of a healthy lifestyle. One such project is aimed at getting people back into sport after a break to start a family. There is also a plan to work with local sports clubs to hold school sports fairs in each of the main towns in the district, whilst pedometers will be issued to members of the public to monitor how active they are and to use the results to encourage people to walk and cycle more.

WASP is a partnership of organisations that have links to sport or who seek to use sport and physical activity to achieve their own objectives. It is a not-for-profit organisation covering the area served by Forest Heath District Council and the fringes of neighbouring authorities, and aims to promote increased opportunities in sport and physical activity for residents of and visitors to the area.
More

Funding Boost for Emerging Athletes in Build up to London 2012
UK Sport and SportsAid, the sports charity, today unveiled a strategic partnership designed to offer enhanced support to emerging athletes across 35 sports in the build up to the London Olympics and Paralympics in 2012.

The new partnership is as a result of changes to the TASS (Talented Athlete Scholarship Scheme) scheme introduced to bring more clarity and certainty to the way in which the scholarships are awarded. The changes were immediately welcomed by Gerry Sutcliffe MP, Minister for Sport.
More

Community Amateur Sports Club Scheme
4,309 clubs are now benefitting from an estimated £19 million in savings according to Deloitte, thanks to the Community Amateur Sports Club Scheme. The cascinfo web site provides clubs with the key information required to make a decision on joining the scheme.
More

Promote

London 2012 Roadshows hit the East
Sport England, Active Norfolk and Suffolk Sport have been hosting the London 2012 roadshows which will see 125 sporting taster sessions held nationwide to help people get the sporting habit.

The roadshows saw olympians Goldie Sayers and Victoria Pendleton at the Suffolk Youth Games, and Jonathan Edwards, Karen Pickering, Alison Mowbray and Paul Evans at the Royal Norfolk Show.

You may have missed the roadshows, but you can still "join in" and set a challenge to achieve by 2012.
More

Active Norfolk web is second only to Nike
The highly acclaimed Active Norfolk website came second to Nike in the New Media Age Effectiveness Awards, sport category.

Active Norfolk has over 2000 members, and has generated almost 60,000 page views, with a healthy returning visitor ratio of 35% and average page of 6 views per session.

In conjunction with the public facing site there is an extranet, which is a members-only website open to all organisations and individuals involved in sport and physical activity in Norfolk. The extranet is used to inform, educate and provide the opportunity for organisations to promote their activity and events onto the public site, engage in discussion forums, get up to date on relevant news and happenings and enable a means to collect data and information. The extranet is also used to collect data on all of Norfolk sports activity.

To see what impressed the judges click here.

Promoting Equality in Sport and Physical Activity
The Sports Equality East team recently published a guide to help everyone providing services in sport and physical activity to think about some considerations that will help their services be more accessible to under-represented groups.
More

April 07 Monthly Blog

2007-03-30T12:44:00.000+01:00

Advise

What we do and how we do it
This new document sets out Sport England’s role (what it does, how it does things and how it measures the difference it makes) and its links and interaction with the Youth Sport Trust and UK Sport. More

Further information on Sport England's future way of working was recently annouced by Derek Mapp, Sport England Chairman (see Sport England to seek £50m in private sector funding below).

Active People Bulletin
The first edition of the Active People bulletin is now available, aiming to raise awareness of the Active People survey and present headline data relating to activity and inactivity across the East of England. It shows regional and local participation data by gender, age and other socio demographic factors. More

Planning Across Boundaries
In 1999 Sport England published ‘Planning across Boundaries’, providing guidance to local authorities on the production of sport and recreation strategies.

This guidance has now been completely revised and re-launched as an electronic toolkit, taking into account significant policy changes since 1999. More

Invest

Sport England to seek £50m in private sector funding
Derek Mapp has announced his intention to enter into sponsorship agreements with the UK’s leading companies to raise an additional £50 million for community sport. More

Setback to community sport legacy
Derek Mapp has described the Government's decision to divert a further £55.9 million of Sport England’s share of Lottery income between 2009 and 2012 to fund the 2012 Olympic/Paralympic Games as a cut too far that seriously endangers the creation of a sporting legacy from the 2012 Games. More

NGB funding criteria to be reviewed
Sport England is reviewing the way it funds sport’s national governing bodies (NGBs) to make sure its investments are focused on driving up participation. More

Funding Ideas in Beds and Luton
team BEDS&LUTON has now been operational for a year and in this time has successfully secured funding to help increase participation in sport and physical activity. team BEDS&LUTON are inviting clubs, organisations and individuals involved in sport and physical activity in Beds or Luton, to share ideas on how this funding can be used to encourage more people to play sport and be physically active.The event is to be held at Barton Rovers Football Club (Sharpenhoe Road, Barton Le Clay) on Thursday 26th April 15.00 – 17.00 or 18.00 – 20.00. Please R.S.V.P. to lisa@teambedsandluton.co.uk by Monday 16th April.

Promote

Count Me In
With just over 9000 people registered with the English Federation of Disability Sport's Count Me In campaign, the challenge is to hit the 10000 target by the end of March. Signing up means showing your support to raise the profile of disability sport, create and extend access to sport and physical activity for disabled children, young people and adults and encourage all organisations involved in the provision of sport to demonstrate a commitment to giving disabled people the same opportunities as non-disabled people. Sign up now at http://www.efds.co.uk/

On Your Marks
The OCS Young Sports Person Awards are now open. These Awards give out over £35,000 to up and coming young sports people. The Awards are now in their tenth year and have supported the likes of Beth Tweddle, James Willstrop, Kate Haywood, Louis Smith and Paul Drinkhall in the past.
The deadline for applications is 1st June, following which interviews will be made in September. The Award ceremony will be held in the OCS Stand at the Brit Oval on Thursday 22nd November with a whole host of celebrity guests. For more information visit the website at www.ocsyoungsportsperson.co.uk or call 0870 442 0990

East Coast Kiting

2007-03-15T10:06:00.000Z

Marten Payne, East Coast Kiting

East Coast Kiting is a community sports initiative in Great Yarmouth. This project came about via Active England, a three year lottery-funded project. The primary objective of the project has been “to increase the number of local residents participating in physical activity and strategically build the capacity of Great Yarmouth’s sporting framework”.

Utilising statistical information available through Sport England, the national statistics database and the Great Yarmouth Sports Partnership, we have been able to address local priorities and issues of equity within the community. Within the East of England 36%* of the general population are deemed active. The term “active” is defined as five sessions of physical activity per week, 30 minutes for adults and 60 minutes for youths. Within Great Yarmouth, only 14 % of the population fall in to this “active” demographic. It is widely accepted that good health and physical activity go hand in hand, it is therefore no surprise that Great Yarmouth is nationally ranked among the top ten locations for obesity, heart disease, and diabetes, all attributed to a direct effect of a sedentary life style. It is now being argued that the 18 to 35 year old demographic within the Yarmouth borough are the first for whom it is now a statistical probability and not a possibility for their parents to out live them.

Why Choose Kite Sports?
Within Great Yarmouth there is an existing network of sporting clubs and societys, however the majority are associated with traditional sports such as football, rugby, hockey and athletics, all of which are part of the national curriculum. Existing sports development in the region is also heavily focused around these traditional activities. Globally sport has become very segmented with over 250 recognised individual registered sports. Out of all traditional school based sports only football remains in the top five fastest growing globally. It is proven that over 68% of all school leavers become inactive, one reason being their experiences are limited to that of curriculum-based traditional sports.

Minister for Sport Richard Caborn at the project during 2005

Following national behavioural trends, Great Yarmouth has growing issues surrounding a decline in activity levels and a rise in anti-social behaviour. Many young people choose to rebel and take an “anti-establishment” stance in line with modern culture. They are unresponsive to any sport seen as "traditional" with defined boundaries. Skate boarding has proven a popular alternative to traditional sport as it is perceived as different, unstructured and suggests a lifestyle which young people can easily associate with and become attached.

East Coast Kiting was able to offer itself as an easy solution to engaging non-active young people and in doing so help the local School Sports Partnership (SSP) and Community Sports Network (CSN) in achieve their primary objectives:

Getting more local people active.
Providing a structured extended schools programme and moving each student closer to the required two hours per week of activity.

Project Partners

County Sports Partnerships and Community Sports Networks
All County Sports Partnerships (CSPs) will actively contribute to increasing participation and widening access to sport and physical activity and the achievement of sporting success. CSPs will be pivotal in delivering the 1% per year participation target set by government particularly with a focus on:

Developing more community sports opportunities for young people by supporting the delivery of the PESSCL strategy

Helping develop more opportunities for hard to reach groups and those not already engaged in community sport.

Under each CSP will be a series of Community Sports Networks. These networks are currently coming on line across the country as part of a new restructuring of national sports framework a single “structure for sport”. CSNs are responsible for local strategy and delivery of sports on the ground. This could include:

Local council services and sports development
Local school sports partnership
Local Primary Care Trust / NHS
Community safety teams and local constabulary
Community empowerment networks
Children’s services

The list of partners can be vast, but is restricted to community or statutory organisations that have similar objectives, or would be involved in the delivery or organisation of activities in their communities.

School Sports Partnerships
At the head of each School Sports Partnership is normally the Specialist Sports College. These flagship schools are at the hub of the Government’s strategy to enhance young people’s opportunities to participate in a wide range of sports as well as raising the standards of teaching and learning of PE and school sport.

Specialist sports colleges position PE and sport at the centre of the curriculum, using it as a vehicle to develop and improve learning opportunities for all. This also includes the delivery of extended school sports clubs that are targeting an increase in out of school participation linking to local club membership.

By 2006 the government hopes to have 400 specialist sport colleges, 411 SSP’s (School Sports Partnerships), 2464 SSCOs (School Sport Coordinators) and 14,397 PLTs. (Primary Link Teachers)

East Coast Kiting Performance
Working closely with the support of the community sports network and using the local School Sports Partnership as a vessel to gain access to schools in the cluster, we were able to roll out a structured programme of kite sports. At first, this was centred on problem schools with low participation figures, but as the appeal and success of our pilot after school clubs increased we were able to move into other schools in the partnership.

During the first and second year of delivery we were able to take advantage of our regular school users and start to deliver half-term and holiday-based activities, all focused on kite sports. Summer 2006 saw over 2000 project visits during the six week holidays.

Due to limited project staffing recourses we were unable to massively increase the number of sessions delivered between year 1 and year 2. The exception being our summer holiday sessions that saw a 50% growth from 1 session per day in year 1 to 2 sessions in year 2.

The Project Age Split shows that we appealed to all school ages however, the 6 to 8 year group were not able to progress as quickly as others due to safety issues and attendance numbers dropped after a six week teaching block.

This chart shows that prior to joining East Coast Kiting 71% of all our users did not participate in more that 1 session of activity per week outside of curriculum PE.
This proves that we were successful in recruiting project members from the non-active demographic.

This chart shows that there is a steady increase in the amount of physical activity undertaken after people become project members.

Crime Reduction
No single organisation can hope to reduce the incidence of crime and tackle underlying causes of criminal and anti-social behaviour. East Coast Kiting has worked closely with community wardens and community safety teams taking a number of low to medium priority referrals on to our projects. In the areas where these referrals originate there has been a staggering 12% to 17% reduction in criminal damage, anti-social behaviour and drugs and alcohol offences committed by young people during their project engagement time.

By scheduling further clubs at key offending times and utilising crime reduction and community safety funding, we have been able to contribute to the safety of Great Yarmouth. These strategies are dependent on every organisation working together, the users are identified via our links with Norfolk constabulary, children’s services, youth offending teams and community wardens.

Project Summary
A total of 4849 project users have attended East Coast Kiting sessions over a two year pilot in Great Yarmouth. This has been achieved via access to schools through the local school sports partnership. We have successfully offered a large number of after school clubs to both middle and high schools in the partnership averaging 11 school clubs per week between April to October attracting an average of 22 students per club.

70% of all participants do not attend any other sporting club and participate in no other organised sessions of activity. After completing a four month cycle of activity with East Coast Kiting we have seen a 50% increase in activity rates from participants including club membership outside of the project.

East Coast Kiting Project Expansion
2007 will see the expansion of East Coast Kiting into Active – X. This is a new umbrella club that will look to develop the success of our kite sports project. We are expanding our kiting activities to include a kite surfing club, kite buggy – land board club, kayaking club, power boating, water-skiing and wake boarding. This will all be centred from a club base attained from a current funding application through Sport England. It is hoped that as well as continuing to work with our core users we will appeal to an older and wider demographic.

I would also recommend you check out my site www.kitesportsinschools.org This is my one stop shop including videos, case studies, equipment information and advise from a range of partners supporting this initiative. As East Coast Kiting was the first project of its kind I am able to advise and help other projects set up.

* The Active People survey has since revealed this figure as 20.5% in the East of England for 3 x 30mins per week in Sport and Active Recreation.

Feb 07 Monthly Blog

2007-01-19T16:10:00.000Z

Advise

Paralympic hero dies
Nine times Paralympic gold medalist Isabel Newstead has sadly passed away after illness. Isabel's golds were won across three disciplines, shooting, swimming and discus, with her Paralympic career starting in 1980. Up until her illness, Isabel had been an active member of the East Regional Sports Board.

Chris Perks said: "Isabel will be missed greatly by the East's sporting community. Although quiet and unassuming, Isabel's determination to succeed and make a difference is reflected in her Paralympic Games achievements spanning three decades".
More

Sport England names its new CEO
Jennie Price has been named as Sport England's new CEO. Jennie, a barrister by training, has extensive senior management experience in the private and public sectors and a track record of working with Government. She is currently Chief Executive of WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme).
More

New trio join East Regional Sports Board
We are pleased to welcome to the Regional Sports Board David Hills, currently a partner in Hornagold and Hills; Sarah Kellett who runs her own Management Consulting business, Jacobite Limited and Karen Pearce, currently Assistant Director of Physical Education at Cambridge University. Full biographies are are available, together with meeting dates and minutes of the Board.
More

East Region changes
Karl Read leaves Sport England at the end of February to become Head of Leisure at North Norfolk District Council. Many thanks to Karl for all his work and in particular his help in establishing Community Sport Networks.

Marie Hartley of Great Yarmouth Borough Council is currently with us on part-time secondment, working on Community Sport Networks, while Jane Hannah is now leading our equity work. Harlow District Council's Chris Purvis has also joined us on secondment working on Active England projects.

Mark Ormerod (Head of Delivery) is currently on secondment to the Regional Sport Operations Unit at Sport England’s Support Centre in London. During this time Mark will lead work nationally on future-proofing County Sports Partnerships and developing a Performance Management Framework for CSP. Adam Rigarlsford is a currently interim Head of Delivery until Mark returns in April 2007.

You advise us
Your views on Sport England are important in improving what we do and how we do it. Our annual customer satisfaction survey is to take place in March and we would welcome your open and honest views on our work.

Ellen misses out on world title triple crown
Scotland's Caroline Brown pulled off the performance of her career to end Ellen Falkner's bid to retain the World Matchplay Bowls Championship for the third time. Facing some impressive bowling, Ellen found herself 9-0 down in the first set, finally losing in straight sets 9-4, 10-5.

"Caroline is a very worthy winner and thoroughly deserved her victory," said Ellen. "I'm obviously disappointed, but I have no complaints as I was outplayed on the day. In sport, you have to learn to deal with both success and failure and put things into context - I have appeared in four finals in the last five years, which is an achievement that I am very proud of."
More

Sport Playing its Part newsletter
Read the second Sport Playing its Part newsletter and get the latest information on a number of policy initiatives across government, giving sport a greater chance to play its part. It should be read by anyone who has an interest in community sport.
More

Active People update
Following the launch of the Active People data and initial training sessions, Sport England East is working with the East’s County Sports Partnerships to deliver a series of Active People Diagnostic training sessions. These will be take place in March and April across the region, on a county by county basis. More details will be emailed to all local authorities in the region.

From the Active People data, local area activity profiles are currently being produced. These will give local authorities and other partners more specific details about participation amongst different sections of the community, as well as useful comparators against local authority neighbours. These will appear on our website in the next few months.
Also, Sport England East is currently exploring collaborative opportunities for secondary research around the active people data to undertake individual and collective research into the factors around high and low participation.

For more information contact Spencer Harris
Active People Diagnostic

Invest

Funding Your Vision - a guide to the Sport England Community Investment Fund
Do you need help with a new community sport project?
If you have a vision and plan to help increase your community’s participation in sport through a new club, activity or the development of facilities (new or existing), have you considered applying for funding from Sport England’s Community Investment Fund?
The new guide "Funding your Vision" is now available.
More

Building Schools for the Future
The Building Schools for Future Programme (BSF) is the biggest single government investment in improving school buildings for over 50 years. The aim is to rebuild and renew the secondary school stock in England over a 15 year period with an estimated £45 billion national investment in total. We believe that co-ordinated approach is needed so that delivery system for sport can shape the investment of the programme to:

Maximise community access to school sports facilities
Avoid duplication of facilities and to help address deficiencies
Provide advice on the design and management of new/improved sports facilities aid community use of facilities
Ensure that appropriate partners are engaged in the process
Maximise the sports development benefits to facilities
Protect previous investments on school sites
Minimise the impact on playing fields through Sport England’s role as a statutory consultee

For further information please contact either Ellen Falkner or Roy Warren.

Many Clubs still missing out on tax breaks
Only a fraction of the nation's sports clubs are benefiting from tax breaks by becoming Community Amateur Sports Clubs (CASC). However, those that have become CASCs have made combined savings of £16.8 million. A new website has been set up to encourage and help more clubs to become CASCs.
More

Promote

Living Sport Launched - now carry on Living Sport
At 12 noon on Wednesday 17th January, thousands of people across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough helped to launch Living Sport, the new County Sports Partnership, by getting active. From Nordic walking at Hinchingbrooke Country Park, to "Top Banana" grabs at Castle Mound, Cambridge there was something for everyone to start Living Sport in 2007.
More

Hertfordshire is getting fit for free with Everyday Sport
Residents of Hertfordshire have been encouraged to participate more in sport and physical activity by a series of Everyday Sport roadshows across Hertfordshire this January. Herts Sport Partnership has been running activities and demonstrations in the county's major shopping centres, together with free activities county-wide until 28 Feb.
More

Active People Survey - Stats: Partcipation & Volunteering

2006-12-07T11:39:00.000Z

Levels of regular participation in moderate intensity sport and active recreation

LA Participation 3x30 Volunteering

Babergh 23.00 5.31
Basildon 17.56 4.06
Bedford 22.06 6.42
Braintree 20.95 5.15
Breckland 19.62 5.88
Brentwood 22.74 6.39
Broadland 20.10 3.92
Broxbourne 17.73 3.19
Cambridge 26.46 4.74
Castle Point 18.33 4.22
Chelmsford 20.91 4.74
Colchester 22.95 4.99
Dacorum 20.45 5.52
East Cambridgeshire 21.34 5.68
East Hertfordshire 26.20 7.07
Epping Forest 20.87 4.96
Fenland 16.51 6.28
Forest Heath 24.39 5.07
Great Yarmouth 17.25 4.64
Harlow 18.48 5.06
Hertsmere 20.73 4.02
Huntingdonshire 23.53 5.10
Ipswich 16.63 3.68
Kings Lynn & W Norfolk 18.16 4.50
Luton UA 17.85 4.76
Maldon 20.95 6.24
Mid Bedfordshire 22.69 5.48
Mid Suffolk 19.48 5.02
North Hertfordshire 20.93 5.56
North Norfolk 18.23 5.87
Norwich 22.42 2.52
Peterborough UA 20.02 4.16
Rochford 19.91 4.30
South Bedfordshire 20.84 5.32
South Cambridgeshire 20.07 5.41
South Norfolk 20.96 4.56
Southend UA 20.95 4.42
St Albans 26.81 4.86
St Edmundsbury 19.22 5.65
Stevenage 19.21 3.55
Suffolk Coastal 21.59 5.29
Tendring 16.15 3.87
Three Rivers 22.90 4.09
Thurrock UA 16.63 5.80
Uttlesford 23.06 8.27
Watford 20.71 4.08
Waveney 17.23 4.85
Welwyn Hatfield 18.48 4.14

Active People Survey - Headlines: Participation, Volunteering & Satisfaction

2006-12-07T11:13:00.000Z

Active People Survey[i] Headline Results

EAST REGION
Participation

20.5% of the adult population (915,913) take part regularly in sport and active recreation[ii] – the national figure is 21%.
29.5% or 1,317,721 people have built some exercise into their lives[iii].
50.0% of adults (2,231,445) have not taken part in any moderate intensity sport and active recreation of 30 minutes duration in the last 4 weeks – the national figure is 50.6%.
Regular participation in sport and active recreation varies across different socio-demographic groups:
Males - 22.5%; Females - 18.7%.
People with a limiting longstanding illness or disability[iv] - 9.1%; those without - 22.5%
Black and other ethnic minority groups - 19.1%; Adults of white origin - 20.6%.
Lowest socio-economic groups[v] - 16.2%; highest socio-economic group - 23.8%.
Regular participation ranged from a high of 26.8% in St Albans to a low of 16.2% in Tendring.

Volunteering

4.9% of the adult population (220,770) contribute at least one hour a week volunteering to sport - national figure is 4.7%.
Volunteering levels ranged from 8.3% in Uttlesford in Essex to 2.5% in Norwich.
Club membership[vi], receiving tuition[vii], taken part in organised competition[viii]
26.2% of the adult population are members of a club where they take part in sport – the national figure is 25.1%.
19.0% of adults have received tuition from an instructor or coach over the last 12 months – the national figure is 18%.
16.0% of adults have taken part in organised competitive sport in the last 12 months – the national figure is 15%.

Satisfaction with sports provision in the local area

71.0% of adults are fairly or very satisfied with sports provision in their local area - national figure is 69.5%.

Footnotes

[i] The Active People Survey was carried out by Ipsos MORI on behalf of Sport England. It is the largest sport and recreation survey ever undertaken. In total 363,724 people were interviewed (a minimum of 1,000 in each local authority area) by telephone across England between the period mid October 2005 to mid October 2006. The sample was random stratified and the results are representative of the total adult population in England, the English regions and local authorities in England.

[ii] Regular participation in sport and recreation is defined as taking part on at least 3 days a week in moderate intensity sport and active recreation (at least 12 days in the last 4 weeks) for at least 30 minutes continuously in any one session. Participation includes recreational walking and cycling. Over 200 different sports and recreational activities were counted in the survey. Moderate intensity is defined by having walked at a brisk or fast pace and for sports having raised the breathing rate.

[iii] Those described as building some exercise into their lives did at least 30 minutes of moderate intensity sport and active recreation on between one and eleven (inclusive) days in the previous 28 days.

[iv] Disability is defined in terms of: ‘do you have a longstanding illness, disability or infirmity? By longstanding I mean anything that has troubled you over a long period of time or that is likely to affect you over a period of time.’

[v] NS-SEC is the National Statistics Socio-economic Classification. It is derived by combining information on occupation and employment status. Employment status is created by combining data on whether an individual is an employer, self-employed or an employee, size of organisation (where collected) and supervisory status.
[vi] Club membership is defined in terms of ‘being a member of a club particularly so that you can participate in sport or recreational activity in the last 4 weeks’.

[vii] Receiving tuition is defined as: ‘having received tuition from an instructor or coach to improve your performance in any sport or recreational activity in the last 12 months’.

[viii] Taken part in organised competition is defined as: having taken part in any organised competition in any sport or recreational activity in the last 12 months’.

Active People Survey - What is it?

2006-11-16T13:32:00.000Z

Please note – the results of the Active People survey will be published on Wednesday 7 December 2006.

What is the Active People Survey?

The Active People Survey is the largest single survey of sport and active recreation ever undertaken in Europe and provides more detail on sports participation than any previous research. It was commissioned by Sport England and has been carried out by Ipsos MORI.
It provides statistical information about the levels of participation in sport and active recreation in England. It includes robust data for all 354 local authorities across the country, providing a picture of participation by local authority area for the very first time. The survey also gives a breakdown of levels of participation in different sports and the proportion of people volunteering to support sport.

Why has it been commissioned? What will it be used for?

The Active People Survey gives us a detailed picture of participation in sport across the country – by geographical area, age group, sex, and ethnicity, along with a wide range of other socio-demographic information. This provides Sport England, local authorities and other partners with a new and accurate baseline measure for levels of participation in sport and active recreation, and volunteering.
The survey results will help Sport England and its partners target future investment to areas of greatest need and where it will have the greatest impact. This will help us succeed in the drive to create an active nation through sport. Sport England will work with its national and regional partners, with County Sports Partnerships at the sub-regional level, and through them with local partners to take forward this work.
The Active People Survey will work in tandem with information on sports facility provision available via www.activeplaces.com (public web database) and www.activeplacespower.com (available to registered users in partner organisations). Together this will help us identify gaps in provision and address barriers to access.
The background to the Active People research includes the Government’s Chief Medical Officer’s 2004 recommendation that people should do at least 5 x 30 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity to benefit health. Sport England has clearly articulated that sport and active recreation can contribute 3 of the 30 minute activity sessions per week; with other activities undertaken as part of an active lifestyle (gardening, walking to work etc) contributing the other 2 x 30 minutes.
The survey results provide an opportunity to highlight the impact of inactivity on health, for the individual and the nation and launch a call to action, encouraging more people to get active through sport. The survey is also a platform for all partners to highlight the role that sport and active recreation can play as part of the drive to combat obesity and improve health.

How many people have been surveyed? Who was surveyed?

A total of 364,501 people were surveyed between October 2005 and October 2006. This includes a minimum of 1000 people in each of the 354 local authorities in the country. This is the minimum required to provide statistically valid data at a local authority level.
The Active People Survey surveyed the English population aged 16 years and over – it did not have an upper age limit.

What level of information will it provide?

The results of the survey will provide Sport England and its partners across the Delivery System for Sport with the following information:
The percentage of people participating in at least 30 minutes moderate intensity sport and active recreation in England on three or more days a week (‘3 x 30’) including by geographic area, right down to local authority area.
Information about sports participation broken down by age, gender, ethnicity, disabled/non-disabled and by socio-economic group.
The percentage of people volunteering in sport and active recreation for at least one hour a week.
The percentage of the adult population who are members of sports clubs, receiving coaching tuition, taking part in competition and participating in recreational walking and cycling once a week.
Levels of overall satisfaction with sports provision in respondents’ local area.

When will the results be published?

The Active People Survey results will be published on Wednesday 7 December 2006. Sport England will publish headline findings on its own website and on www.activepeoplesurvey.com that day.
Designated contacts in partner organisations will be able to access the full results through the Active People Diagnostic. This is a sophisticated online reporting and analysis tool enabling users to access full survey results at the touch of a button.
Registered users will be able to access Active People Diagnostic shortly after 6 December 2006. The precise date will be communicated to nominated users nearer the live date. This site is password protected and only nominated personnel in each local authority and partner organisation will have access to the Diagnostic. After the site goes live, others will be able to register, subject to the terms and conditions of the site.
For more information on Active People Diagnostic, click here: http://www.sportengland.org/active_people_diagnostic_pdf.pdf

How will the survey results determine CPA scores for volunteering and participation?

The participation and volunteering indicators within the CPA are derived from the Active People Survey. To generate the CPA scores, the Audit Commission uses the participation and volunteering rates from the Active People Survey, and applies an adjustment for levels of local deprivation based on a statistical formula. Additional information is available on the Audit Commission website http://www.audit-commission.gov.uk/cpa/index.asp?page=index.asp&area=hpcpa

Nov 06 Monthly Blog

2006-11-08T12:01:00.000Z

Advise
DEREK MAPP TO CHAIR SPORT ENGLAND
Derek Mapp has been named as the new Chair of Sport England. With London 2012 on the horizon, interest in sport is at unprecedented levels. The Chair will play a crucial role in ensuring we capitalise on this huge opportunity to create a lasting community legacy for 2012 and beyond.More

MORE NEW STARTERS IN THE EAST
World Bowls Champion Ellen Falkner has joined Sport England East, leading on work with clubs and education. Ellen joins Sport England from Living Sport where she was the Workforce Development Manager. Spencer Harris took up his post of Head of Improvement on October 30th.

Jenny Negus has started as Sports Partnership Development Manager for Sport and Crime as part of the Sports Equality East team. Information on the project and Jenny's contact details can be found here (foot of page).

OLYMPIC HERO BACKS SPORTESSEX
Derek Redmond, World, European and Commonwealth gold medallist in athletics has put his backing behind the drive to increase participation in sport across Essex.The Holiday Inn, Basildon was the venue for the launch of “Building a winning future together in Essex”, a strategy to take forward sports development in Essex. With just 22% of Essex residents actively participating in sport, the strategy and its action plan will seek to increase participation in the coming months and years. More

ACTIVE NORFOLK UP AND RUNNING
Sky Sports News and ex-Blue Peter presenter Simon Thomas was one of the many guests on hand at the launch of the new County Sports Partnership for Norfolk, Active Norfolk. Active Norfolk will focus on raising awareness about the benefits of an active lifestyle with the aim of increasing participation in sport and active recreation in the county by one per cent year on year.

The intention is that this will have a significant impact on the health of the county and lead to a reduction in health problems due to stress and sedentary lifestyles, lower absenteeism rates, lessen obesity, bring about a higher utilisation of leisure, sports and health facilities and develop the realisation that we all need exercise of some kind in our lives. More

Invest
REGIONAL FACILITIES STRATEGY
Sport England, in partnership with the East of England Development Agency and the Herts Sports Partnership, has commissioned a project to prepare a regional Facilities Strategy for the East of England.
The Strategy will be prepared by Strategic Leisure Limited with a completion date of March 2007, and will be a two Phase study. Phase 1 will constitute an audit and assessment of existing sports facility provision within the region, with Phase 2 developing a 10 year strategy for facility development and options appraisal for delivery (ie up to 2016), taking into account the regional growth agenda, projected rises in sports participation and key external factors such as the 2012 Olympics.
The process will involve comprehensive consultation with key regional stakeholders such as local authorities, County Sports Partnerships, NGBs and regional agencies. Further information on how to get involved in the proposed stakeholder workshops, which are scheduled to take place in January and February 2007, will be released shortly.

Further information on the aims and objectives of the study can be obtained from Philip Raiswell on (0207 273 1824)

LATEST PLAYING FIELDS STATS SHOW INCREASED INVESTMENT IN SPORT AND BETTER PROTECTION THAN EVER BEFORE IN THE EAST
Figures released by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport show that better protection in place for playing fields is reaping rewards for sport, bringing in substantial investment and improvements in the East.

Of 197 applications for development in the East region in 2004/05, the figures show that 64 outdoor and 18 indoor new or upgraded sports facilities were created. This includes two brand new playing fields.

ED MILIBAND PLEDGES £1.1 MILLION TO PROMOTE VOLUNTEERING AMONG HARD-TO-REACH GROUPS
Ed Miliband, Minister for the Third Sector, has pledged over £1million of funding to spread the best ideas for recruiting and retaining volunteers from hard-to-reach groups. More

Promote
COUNTY SPORTS PARTNERSHIPS HONOUR THE EAST'S UNSUNG HEROES
Suffolk Sport, Living Sport and sportessex have all run successful sports awards within the last month, with all three awards schemes being jointly hosted by BBC local radio. To find out who won in each county, please click the links below:
Suffolk's winners
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough's winners
Essex, Southend and Thurrock's winners