CCPR : Sport England

Sport England
3rd Floor
Victoria House
Bloomsbury Square
London
WC1B 4SE

Tel 08458 508 508 Monday-Friday, 8am to 6pm
Fax: 020 7383 5740
Email: info@sportengland.org
Website: www.sportengland.org

View location map

Information on publications is available from:

Sport England Publications
P.O. Box 25
Wetherby
West Yorkshire
LS23 7LZ
Tel: (08705) 210 255
Fax: (0990) 210 266

The English Sports Council (now Sport England) was set up under Royal Charter in January 1997. Before then the responsibility for development work within England lay with the GB Sports Council - set up in 1972 - which also had a remit for Wales and Scotland (but there was no formal relationship with Northern Ireland), with responsibilities similar to those of the present United Kingdom Sports Council (now UK Sport).

The aim of Sport England is:

· More people involved in sport

· More places to play sport

· More medals through higher standards of performance in sport

Sport England (The English Sports Council) is accountable to Parliament through the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport from whom it receives its funding.

Members of the English Sports Council are appointed by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. The stated responsibilities of these members are:

· Approving all policy matters and operational and corporate plans for Sport England

· Bringing an independent judgement to bear on issues of corporate strategy, performance, resources, key appointments and standards of conduct.

· Ensuring that public funds are properly applied and safeguarded, and that Sport England operates economically, efficiently and effectively at all times.

In order that the members may achieve this, they have set up committees or advisory panels dealing with the following areas:

· Lottery, local authorities, women and sport, disability, racial equality and governing body investment.

Priorities:

The Council's priorities for work and allocation of resources for the period 1998-2002 are:

· Active schools

· Active sports

· Active communities

Equal Opportunities

Although numbers of participants in England are rising, this is less so with some disadvantaged and social groups in some parts of the country.

Sport England is placing a special emphasis on these groups, and they are working closely with the Commission for Racial Equality, the Women's Sports Foundation and the English Federation of Disability Sports in order to achieve success.

Education and Training

Sport England has an education and training programme delivered via a range of workshops and home study materials. The aim is to improve the quality of sports management and sports development.

Volunteers

Sport England recognises that sport depends on volunteers, and they are taking steps to not only pay recognition to them but to:

· Encourage

· Recruit

· Motivate and retain

· Offer practical guidance and support with help to improve the management of their voluntary resources.

Monitoring and Evaluation

The Council's work is supported by an extensive programme of research, monitoring and evaluation to ensure that the lessons from the development of the work are constantly fed into the planning process for new and improved sports development work.

More Places: Provision of Facilities

The object of Sport England's facility development work is to ensure that there are the right facilities - convenient, affordable and high quality.

· Planning - What facilities do we need and where?

· Development - Making sure the end result achieves the objectives

· Design - Ensuring that the facility is fit for the purpose

· Management - Putting the facility to work for sport

More Medals

The More Medals programme has a number of key components, and one of these is England's network of Sports Institutes which is nationally co-ordinated through the United Kingdom Sports Institute (UKSI) all of which is fully integrated with the World Class Performance Programme.

As part of Sport England's efforts to raise performance standards, they support sport-related scientific and medical research.

Advice to Governing Bodies:

All national governing bodies of sport are provided with a range of quality services that cover the development and delivery of excellence, such as performance, planning, advice and also for money, grant-in-aid.

Coaching the Coaches:

Sport England places considerable emphasis on ensuring that individuals involved in coaching have the necessary skills and training. Through its arm, Sports Coach UK (the National Coaching Foundation), Sport England provides governing bodies of sport with a range of services to support the development of a coach education programme.

National Sports Centres

Outstanding sporting talent is developed and honed, and it is in the national sports centres - Lilleshall, Bisham Abbey, Holme Pierrepont, Plas-y-Brenin and Crystal Palace - that this can be achieved with their top facilities, equipment, medical support, rehabilitation and nutrition, as well as comfort and relaxation.

Lottery Fund

The Sport England Lottery Fund was launched in 1994 with four main targets, all of which have been achieved:

· Introduce a scheme for the most deprived communities in England

· 1,000 community projects in the first year

· Provide funding for a new national stadium and a UK Sports Institute

· Persuade the Government to amend its policy directions to allow the funding of our talented young stars of the future

The overall aim of the Lottery Fund is to help everyone - young and old, able-bodied and disabled, black and white, male and female, talented or not - to both take part in sport and to attain their own personal goals through sport.

Over the coming years the Lottery money will be divided into two core funds:

1. Community Projects Fund: For local projects everyone can access

2. A World Class Fund: Targeted at producing the medal winners of tomorrow, delivered in partnership with UK Sport. Both funds contain elements of capital and revenue

English Regions

In order to assist with the work of the London-based Sport England, there are nine regional offices.