February 2009

Welcome to our first newsletter of 2009.

This newsletter serves many purposes, one of which is to celebrate local achievements so it is pleasing to be able to note the success of a local performer at the recent Australian Youth Olympic Festival; the award of the coveted “Sports Partnership Mark” to the Cotswold School Sport Partnership; the initial impact of the Gloucestershire School Sport Competition Managers and news of a Thanksgiving Service in the inspiring space of Gloucester Cathedral for sports volunteers from across the county. I hope that the many sports volunteers, without whom much sport and physical activity would simply not take place, will be well represented.

The newsletter is also about providing useful information for our partners so in this edition you can learn more about Sport England’s new funding strategy and the work of its new Communities Directorate along with news of many interesting courses and events in the county and further afield.

On a more sobering note you will also find the first analysis of the latest Active People survey which suggests that we will all need to work harder to get more people taking part in sport and physical activity more often. It will not be easy as we all experience the impact of the economic downturn, both organisationally and in our own pockets.

However we should also recognise that there is already a great deal of good work going on across the county and my colleagues and I remain committed to supporting your efforts to bring quality sport and physical activity to more people. By the end of this month the shape of our own reorganisation will be clear. Already it is apparent that there is much to look forward to as well as celebrate so thank you for your continued efforts and best wishes for a great 2009.

By John Stevens
Chief Executive Officer

Cotswold School Sports Partnership awarded ‘Sports Partnership Mark’ 2008.

For the second year running, Cotswold School Sports Partnership (SSP) were awarded the 'Sports Partnership Mark' for 2008. Richard Simpson Cotswold Partnership Development Manager said, "In light of this awesome achievement I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the schools in the Cotswold partnership for their continued hard work. Without their drive, commitment and enthusiasm the Cotswold SSP would not be performing as well as it is!" 49 out of the 52 partnership schools were successful in achieving Activemark and Sportsmark.

Gloucestershire Hockey Player Achieves Gold medal in the Women's 2009 Australian Youth Olympic Festival.

Local hockey player Harriet Pearce travelled out to the Australian Youth Olympic Festival where the women's team secured gold for the second successive tournament with a dramatic golden goal win over hosts Australia.

Harriet played in the final match on Saturday 18th January against Australia which went into extra. This success bodes well for the future and many of these players will be pushing for a place in the 2012 squad.

Gloucestershire County Council Supporting Sporting Talent

Gloucestershire County Council’s Sport and Physical Activity team in Lifelong Learning have made it their key aim over the last few years to try to identify funds to support developing youngsters in their sporting endeavours, either through supporting the person as an individual, or by supporting clubs who have committed to running junior sections.

2006 saw the launch of what were called ‘Every Child Matters Sports Grants’, offering more opportunities for individuals as well as clubs to apply for small grants to help them achieve the next level in their sporting careers.

With the London Olympics and Paralympics on the horizon, the Sport and Physical Activity Team have been fortunate to secure £10,000 per year, for a further two years via the Area Based Grant. They are currently supporting a past grant recipient to a higher level as he works towards future Olympic ambitions in Tumbling. They have also written to all of the individuals who have been supported over the years asking them for an update on their sporting achievements. The team will then consider their progress and hope to identify a small number of these to offer additional support as they progress towards higher and hopefully Olympic and Paralympic standard.

For further information contact Angela James (01452 426676) angela.james@gloucestershire.gov.uk

To view the Every Child Matters Physical Activity Grants Scheme Criteria click here.

Sport Unlimited A Big Hit

A major Sport England programme is demonstrating that when children are given more choice about the sports they play they are more likely to try a sport and stick with it.

Nationwide 84,000 youngsters have already taken up the opportunity to undertake high quality 10-week courses in a wide range of sports through Sport Unlimited – with 74% of them attending most of the sessions. 2,706 young people participated in the initial Sport Unlimited programme in the county. The programme, which was launched last April, is an important part of the Government’s PE and Sport Strategy for Young People.

A key feature of Sport Unlimited is that the sports on offer are driven and determined by young people themselves. The encouraging start to the three-year programme demonstrates how across the country, county sports partnerships are bringing together the skills and expertise of governing bodies of sports, local councils and local sports providers to help make the five hour sports offer for children and young people a reality.

Over the life-time of the programme, Sport Unlimited aims to offer sporting opportunities to 900,000 young people - and get a third of them to join clubs where they can continue with regular sport when the 10 weeks are up.

By introducing young people to the fun and fulfilment of playing sport in an organised club, it is hoped to reduce the drop-off between the ages of 16 and 18, laying the foundations of lifelong participation and help to achieve the goal of getting one million people playing more sport by 2012.

An example of the opportunities on offer is the Street Dance courses provided by Gloucestershire Dance at City Works (Gloucester), Rednock School, Dursley Community Centre and youth centres in Tewkesbury, Tetbury, Churchdown and Cirencester. Between January and March weekly classes will give participants the chance to explore a host of youth dance styles including Hip Hop, Break Dance, African and Bollywood.

The involvement of Gloucestershire Dance means that participants will have the chance to be taught by some of the best teachers in the South West. There will also be Masterclasses provided by professionals and a chance to perform at Gloucestershire Dance’s annual youth festivals. Participants will learn from the likes of 'AmazingTetteh' from Ghana, who has toured Africa and Germany with the Akomopa Dance Company, 'World Jungle', and the Gloucester Hindu Cultural Association. For further details e-mail education@gloucestershiredance.org.uk

Rhiannon Herbert from Active Gloucestershire said: “Sport Unlimited has helped us work much more closely with governing bodies of sport and their local clubs, local sports providers and other organisations to attract less sporty young people into sport. Through providing a high quality experience it becomes much easier to support participants to join local clubs in their communities - some for the first time in their lives.”

As the programme in Gloucestershire gathers pace we are looking for more partners and participants to get involved in Sport Unlimited, so please contact Sam Kloos at skloos@glos.ac.uk. For more details on the Sport Unlimited programme and projects running in your area click here.

Results from Active People 2 (APS2), the latest national survey of sports participation, have just been published by Sport England.

Nationally the picture is encouraging. In 2007/08, 6.85 million adults (16.5%) (aged 16 and over) participated in sport for 3x30 minutes a week at moderate intensity). In 2005/6, this figure was 6.3 million adults (15.5%). This represents a statistically significant increase of 552,000 adults.

Participation among females increased from 2.57 million (12.3 %) to 2.81 million (13.2 %), an increase of 240,000 over 2 years. Male participation increased from 3.73 million (18.9%) to 4.04 million (20.0%), an increase of 311,000 over 2 years.

Sports participation among adults with a disability increased by 48,000, from 387,000 (6.0%) to 435,000 (6.8%) and participation among adults from lower socioeconomic groups increased by 100,000 from 1.81 million (11.8%) to 1.91 million (12.7%).

In Gloucestershire, however, the picture is much less encouraging. Whilst the data only provides a direction of travel when compared with the first survey, and is not statistically significant, the evidence suggests that, at best, participation in Gloucestershire has plateaued and the gap between where we are and where we need to be if we are to achieve the target of a 1% annual increase is getting wider. We will not know until the results form the third survey, due in 12 months time, whether this is a confirmed trend or just an anomaly. Certainly the survey period for Active People 2 started in the immediate aftermath of the 2007 floods. These caused long term damage to two leisure centres and countless sports pitches as well as the massive disruption to the daily lives of people forced out of their homes for a lengthy period, so it is not unreasonable to speculate that this will have had some lasting impact on the way that people use their leisure time.

Irrespective of potential reasons the message of Active People 2 for Gloucestershire is that we must all maintain our efforts to get more people undertaking sport and physical activity more frequently than is currently the case. To see a summary of the data for Gloucestershire click here.

Sport England have also published a further analysis that gives a more detailed picture of the current market for different sports. This sport-by-sport evidence will help NGBs respond to the needs of current participants as well as helping them to attract more people to their sport.

The new research includes comparisons with results from the first Active People Survey and covers the following areas:

• Once-a-week participation by key demographics
• Latent demand
• Once-a-week participation by region
• Analysis of club membership and the number of people taking part in competitions and receiving coaching.

Further analysis of APS2 will be published shortly. This will be for each local authority area and will include the demographic split for overall participation in 354 areas as well as breakdowns for club membership, tuition and volunteering. Sport England also plans to do more work on the trends identified within the survey by examining local factors affecting participation rates.

Click here to read the new sport-by-sport factsheets

European Championships Come To The County

The best of European Synchro will arrive on these shores in April as the UK plays host to the European Junior Championships. The event marks the first time UK Sport's National Lottery funded World Class Events Programme has supported synchronised swimming.

The competition will be held in Gloucester. It is also the first ever European Synchronised Swimming Championships to be held in the UK and looks set to help further promote the sport throughout the country.

Lucy Crickmore, UK Sport Acting Events Consultant, said: “We are delighted to be supporting the hosting of a major synchronised swimming championship in the UK for the first time. Not only will this event give our junior team a wonderful opportunity to compete in an international competition on home soil, it will also provide an excellent opportunity for British officials to hone their skills in the run up to London 2012.”

The four-day event (22nd – 26th April) is the elite competition for synchronised swimmers aged 15 – 18 in Europe. With many of the world’s best synchronised swimming nations hailing from Europe, a significant amount of the World and Olympic medallists of today attended the European Junior Championships in their formative years.

Between 25 and 30 countries are set to compete and each country is permitted to enter one solo, one duet and one team into the competition.

British Swimming’s Events and Sponsorship Director Katie Brazier highlights the importance of the event as the national governing body begins its preparations towards London 2012:

“With the support of our partners, UK Sport, Gloucester City Council and the South West Regional Development Agency British Swimming aims to deliver a top quality, successful event and provide the best environment for our athletes to compete against Europe’s finest young athletes on home soil.

"Hosting international events is an important part of our international strategy building towards the London 2012 Olympics and the 2014 Commonwealth Games. It's key that we continue to build our knowledge and expertise in staging high profile events and further develop our relationships with our key partners in the world of synchronised swimming.”

Gloucestershire School Sport Competition Managers

The Gloucestershire team of Dan Garbutt, Ellie McCammick and Will Parker have been in place now for nearly 7 months and feel that this is a perfect time to share news of their progress to date.

With the help of partners they have ran a number of successful new competitions and projects. As a result over 1,000 new children and young people have taken part in inter-school competition and over 150 Secondary School sport leaders were involved in delivering this programme.

The Competition Managers have built productive working relationships with numerous county partners and are delighted to be fully embedded within the five Gloucestershire School Sport Partnerships and Active Gloucestershire. They have attracted considerable National Governing Body (NGBs) interest in competitive school sport in the county and identified a great willingness for NGBs to work closely with schools to develop school based competition in the long term.

The team has also demonstrated a commitment to inclusion and ensuring that there is equal opportunity for all to access competitive sport. They are determined to continue to increase both the quantity and the quality of competitive opportunities for all children and young people in the county. If you would like to know more about their work please contact wparker@glos.ac.uk

Unearthing Gloucestershire’s Talent

On Friday 16th January, Oxstalls Indoor Tennis Centre in Gloucester witnessed the successful running of the first identifying ability day of the year for children and young people with a disability. All attending were from schools within the Gloucester City & South Tewkesbury and Forest of Dean School Sport Partnerships. Special thanks go to the staff from both Partnerships for supporting the day. 60 young people attended and undertook various sports skills and assessments.

The event was aimed at encouraging participation for all and motivating the young people to try their best. The sport skills on the day were run by leadership students from St Peter's and Ribston Hall High Schools. The day was also supported by University of Gloucestershire students from the Adapted Physical Activity module and all the volunteers did a fantastic job.

This marked the first step of the national Playground To Podium initiative in the county. This aims to take young people with a disability from the school playground to the podium stage of London 2012.

From this event some young people will be identified and selected to join the county squad. After joining the county squad the next step is to attend a County Athlete Assessment Development Centre lead by the National Governing Bodies from the six sports currently in the programme. These are Athletics, Football, Swimming, Table Tennis, Boccia and Wheelchair Basketball.

We also want to improve the community based opportunities for young people with a disability to participate in sport and for students at these schools there is now the 'No Limits Oxstalls Sports Club' based at the University of Gloucestershire Oxstall Campus, where they can now follow their interests and practise their skills. For more details about No Limits Sports Club see the separate article in this newsletter.

Funding Sport in the Community

Sport England has recently published details of the future investment programmes available to community sports groups. Funding sport in the community sets out how Sport England will focus their future investment on grassroots organisations and projects that can deliver the key outcomes of their 'Grow, Sustain and Excel' strategy.

From April 2009 Sport England will be accepting applications to four “open” funding streams worth a maximum of £45 million per year:

• Up to £30 million will be invested via regular themed funding rounds that meet specific needs of community sport.
• £7 million will be available in small grants of between £300 and £10,000 to support sporting projects across England.
• £3 million will be distributed through Sportsmatch, enabling community clubs to make the most of the funding they receive from the private sector by matching that investment
• £5 million will be invested, through a new Innovation Fund, in projects that identify and pilot new ways of promoting and supporting grassroots sport.
• A further £10 million per year of capital funding will also be invested in projects that promote a sustainable approach to community facilities. This capital funding will be on top of the facilities funding award to national governing bodies of sport (NGBs).

The development of all of these programmes has benefited from the input of the many partners who took part in Sport England’s recent public consultation on National Lottery investment in grassroots sport.

Funding sport in the community also sets out the £120 million funding for 46 NGBs announced just before Christmas, as well as how Sport England will fund other partner organisations to deliver specific objectives:

• £10 million will be invested in county sports partnerships, which will support NGBs to deliver their outcomes and Sport England programmes
• £10 million will be distributed to our national partners such as Sporting Equals and the Women's Sport and Fitness Foundation to support the delivery of agreed outcomes
• £18 million of Exchequer funding will be invested in programmes and organisations that contribute to the Government's five hour sports offer for 5 to 19-year-olds.

Click here to read Funding Sport in The Community, which includes more details on each of the funding programmes and a timetable of further announcements.

Please note that Sport England will now no longer accept stage 1 applications for funding from the Community Investment fund, which has been closed. All applications already being considered by Sport England will be processed as normal.

The Awards for All England programme will also come to an end in its existing format on 31 March. Until then applications can still be submitted to the existing scheme, which is run as a joint programme supported by the Big Lottery Fund, Sport England, Arts Council England and Heritage Lottery Fund. Click here for more details on Awards for All and the changes being made to Lottery small grants schemes.

From April, applications for small grants to support sporting projects should be submitted to either Sport England's new small grants scheme or Sportsmatch.

Sport England’s new Communities Directorate has taken a major step in its development with the appointment of a new Executive Director, Judith Dean, to lead its work. The new team is focussed on partnership, bringing key players together to achieve the best outcomes for sport – from non-asset owning NGBs seeking access to facilities to councils looking for support in growing sports participation to meet local targets.

There are nine regional teams within the directorate – based in Sport England's existing locations - supported at a national level by three teams with a specific focus on: Building Schools for the Future; local government; and the funding and development of county sports partnerships (CSPs).

One of the team’s priorities is helping NGBs to deliver their plans at a local level in a number of ways, including: