Sport

Sport

A major focus for Sport England is to fulfil the Olympic and Paralympic pledge to get one million more people taking part in sport by 2012/13.

Building a successful sporting legacy for London 2012 will only be achieved if we take a strategic approach to developing a world-leading community sport system. This requires:

• Building and maintaining a strong infrastructure of governing bodies, facilities, clubs and providers – to create opportunities and stimulate demand.
• Ensuring attractive, convenient and accessible opportunities for people to take part.
• Providing research and evaluation to partners – allowing us all to track the success of our initiatives, and share best practice.
• Understanding the changing landscape and the many different ways in which people want to participate in sport.

The focus goes beyond 2012. As we look towards the ‘golden decade of sport’, we want to change the sporting behaviours of a nation – ensuring more people take part and reach their potential. We believe that a true Olympic legacy should be judged over a much longer term, as the benefits of the considerable investment in sport really take effect. If the right investment is made in the right places to deliver genuine long term benefits, we will see many more people involved in community sport than the current targets.

Choice and engagement are key to encouraging young people in to sport and preventing them from dropping out at the critical point when they are 16-18 years old. We recognise how important it is to ensure that young people develop a lifelong sporting habit at a young age. To achieve this, sport needs to be seen as an intrinsic life choice. In the same way, sport must take a market-based approach to reach out to more adults. Governing bodies must understand the specific needs and aspirations of young people, if we are to make a generational step-change and achieve our goals.
As part of this ambition, Sport England works with the Youth Sport Trust to deliver the Government’s PE and Sport Strategy for Young People (PESSYP). This strategy sets out how the Olympic legacy aim to get more children and young people taking part in high quality PE and sport will be reached, through the delivery of the five hour offer.

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