Sport England is making up to £195 million of funding available to help the sport and physical activity sector through the ongoing coronavirus (Covid-19) crisis.
The package, which is a combination of National Lottery and government funding, is made up of the following:
- A £20 million Community Emergency Fund, which will be opened immediately for clubs and community organisations to bid into. Grants between £300 and £10,000 are available
- A £5 million pot for existing partners to bid into if they're facing specific financial difficulty
- An additional £55 million to support our sector during an ongoing period of restrictions, to fund new and innovative ways to keep people active and, when the period of restrictions is over, to help organisations get back to business and adjust to a different environment
- A £115 million rollover of current funding into 2021/22 to give long term certainty to over 100 well established partners who play a vital role in the delivery of sport and physical activity in England.
Alongside this, given cashflow concerns in the sector, Sport England has also agreed to consider requests to release six months of the coming year’s funding (50% of awards) to partners, meaning additional funding will be available sooner.
The package follows the organisation’s recent decision to offer major flexibilities to those who currently receive funding – including the ability to change timings, key performance indicators, targets and conditions, and redirect money to new activity in response to coronavirus.
Chief executive Tim Hollingsworth said he hoped the package would help the sector get through these “extremely challenging times”.
“Sporting events are being cancelled, gyms and leisure centres are closed, clubs and community groups are not operating, and children and young people are all at home," added Tim.
“This is impacting the sector financially in a significant way, although it is heartening to see huge amounts of innovation and agility, with many operators getting classes online in a matter of days to enable home workouts for example.
“As the body responsible for the growth of sport and physical activity at a grassroots level, we have an important role to play both in ensuring that we support those with short term cashflow concerns and immediate loss of income, as well as those facing medium and long term survival challenges and financial difficulties.
“We want the sector not just to come through this crisis but to be in a position to thrive again in the future and this package will ease the pressure on a huge number of the organisations who are central to that.”
Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Oliver Dowden, said everything is being done to support the sport sector and keep Britain active through these challenging times.
"This multi-million-pound package of public funding will not only help local sports clubs facing financial concerns but also encourage people to stay fit at home," he added.
"When it is safe to do so, we want our brilliant community sport organisations to bounce back and we will work alongside Sport England and others to make that happen.”
Sport England is also working closely with local authorities and the organisations who run their leisure facilities and have been supporting this part of the sector to access the government support now available.
It will continue to work to consider what support is needed during this period of closure, as well as the remobilisation phase where facilities will reopen.
Cllr Gerald Vernon-Jackson, Chair of the LGA’s Culture, Tourism and Sport Board, said: “This funding will provide real help to grassroots and frontline organisations in these difficult times.
“Councils work closely with these organisations to improve the health and wellbeing of our residents through physical activity, and want to ensure that local communities have activities to return to when this crisis is over.
“We remain concerned about the overall gap in support available for charities and trusts, who are unable to access loan support given the tight margins they typically operate in.
“We urge Sport England to work with the Government to also secure grant funding for these organisations, and to continue working with councils and industry to ensure that every organisation has the best chance of accessing support.”
