Scenario: You are investigating the role of organisations involved in sports development

In 2003, Sport England changed the way it funded sports. It’s money is now used for:

• Community investment – the money is distributed through the regional sport board. They provide the money for the active England campaign. The money comes from both the National Lottery and the Government grant. The aim is to develop sporting facilities and activity project in local communities across England
• National investment – the money is distributed through the national governing bodies of sport. These are 30 sports that receive priority for support and development

Members of the Sport England council are appointed by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. Sport England has a London head office with full-time staff and nine regional offices across England.

The roles of the regional offices are to:

• Promote Sport England policy through regional sports boards
• Keep Sport England in touch with needs at grassroots level
• Have close links with local authorities, local sports councils, national governing bodies and other organisations involved with sport, education, recreation and the environment

The local sports councils are supported by Sport England but they act independently. Their role is to:

• Bring together local people, clubs and groups interested in sport
• Discuss problems, exchange views and plan for the future
• To promote developments in local sports in the best interests of the community

Sport England is also responsible for a network of ten centres run by the English Institute of Sport (EIS). These help the national governing bodies and their elite sportspeople on World Class programmes to reach their medal-winning targets.

Sport England’s vision is to make England an active and successful sporting nation and its mission is to work with others to create opportunities for people to get involved in sport, to stay in sport, and to excel and succeed in sport at every level.

Their Objectives are:

1. Opportunities to play sport: to increase participation on sport in order to improve the health of the nation, with focus on priority groups.
2. Opportunities to stay in sport: to retain people in sport and active recreation through an effective network of clubs, sports facilities, coaches, volunteers, and competitive opportunities
3. Opportunities to achieve success in sport: to make sporting success happen at the highest level

The role of Sport England is to lead the development of sport in England. They aim to do this by:

• Making England more active
• Influence decision makers on sport
• Distribute funds

Sport England’s objectives are to:

• Increase participation in sport in order to improve the health of the nation.
• Retain people in sport and active recreation through an effective network of clubs, sport facilities, coaches, volunteers and competitive opportunities
• Make sporting success happen at the highest level

The role of UK Sport is to deal with high-performance sport at the UK level and aim to achieve sporting excellence for Britain. In order to do this, it:

• Gives full support to top performers through the World Class Performance Programme and the UK Sports institute
• Distributes National Lottery money to projects which promote and support sporting influences
• Extends the UK’s international sporting excellence
• Encourages the world’s major sporting events to come to the UK
• Promotes ethical standards of behaviour
• Is the UK’s national anti-doping agency