The All-Party Parliamentary Group for Sport has met for the first time since the General Election.
Tracey Crouch MP, the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Sport and Civil Society, outlined the progress made since the Sporting Future strategy was launched one year ago.
Mary Lubrano, FSPA Communications Manager, said: “Sporting Future is focussed on protecting and growing the sector so that everyone can benefit from the power of sport. Of course, there are economic benefits but the strategy is also firmly committed to the physical and mental impact that sport can have, as well as its effect on social and community development.”
Sporting Future has joined-up the sector so that it can work effectively to drive up participation in sport for everyone. “Crouch explained that while elite sport certainly inspires participation we need also to future-proof the sector by making sport relevant to people as their habits evolve over coming years," she added. "This means continually identifying groups who are disengaged and finding new and relevant ways of connecting with them.”
The document has also changed the way participation is measured. “Crouch found that, by and large, young children’s participation in sport across the country was not being accurately reflected, and, with the amount of great work being done at grassroots level in children’s sport, this was hugely unfair.
“So, Sporting Future sets out to assess precisely who is doing what to enable funding to be directed where it’s needed most. The work on getting more women into sport is a great example of how accurate assessment has driven the activities of the strategy.
“But it was the government’s work on developing a governance code for NGBs which was, perhaps, the stand-out news story of the day. Crouch was able to report excellent progress on this, saying that the UK will set the gold standard for governance across the world. A press release will be issued next week by the department with further details.
“The strategy has been well-received since its launch and the MP thanked everyone in the room for helping to implement it. Crouch added that it was her intention to grow the grassroots and encourage the elite because they are one and the same thing – both encouraging more participation and a more active nation.”
