How Sport England are Uniting the Movement

Last month, Sport England shared their impact report into the work they’ve been doing, alongside their partners such as here at Get Yourself Active, to improve physical activity. 

The report, entitled Uniting the Movement, highlights just how far we have collectively come to bring participation in sport to record levels. 

Sport England’s chief executive, Tim Hollingsworth, commented as follows: 

“While this report represents a good start and highlights some real successes, there is still a lot more work to do to reduce inequality of opportunity in accessing sport, physical activity and all the health and social benefits they bring.” 

Some of reports key stats:  

• Record high physical activity levels – 1.02 million more active adults. 
• Improving children’s experience – 1.4% increase in children in Years 3-6 reporting three or more positive attitudes to sport and physical activity**. 
• Return on investment – every £1 spent on sport and physical activity in England returns £3.91 of social and economic value. 
• Progress against goals – at six months in, almost 90% of our system partners reported significant or some evidence of progress against their steps and goals. 
• High-quality facilities – we’ve funded 250 more high-quality football and multi-sport pitches over the last quarter. 
• Tackling inequalities – 90% of the funding from our open funds that’s gone to football or multi-sport projects has gone to engaging under-represented groups. 

“The reports shows how Uniting the Movement is starting to grip with participation at record levels.” 

The report exemplified the foundations Sport England are building to achieve their (and our!) mission of creating an active nation that will lead to increased activity levels, decreased inactivity levels, narrowing inequalities within sport and physical activity and an improvement in the experiences of children and young people when being active. Get Yourself Active are proud to play a part in this, working together to achieve a world where class, race, gender and disability barriers are deconstructed and don’t stand in the way of physical activity.