We are Sport England partners

Today Get Yourself Active can announce that we have become a partner with Sport England.

We are pleased to announce that we are one of over 120 organisations working with Sport England to increase access to sport and physical activity across England.

Partnering means Get Yourself Active will receive investment and support from Sport England, and we will exchange knowledge and expertise as we work together to co-deliver the ambitions of its 10-year Uniting the Movement strategy.

This funding, which amounts to £1.7 million will ensure we can continue to support Disabled people to get active in ways that are right for them. With this new funding secured, we are looking forward to co-delivering the ambitious of Sport England’s 10-year Uniting the Movement strategy.

Sport England research shows that some groups are typically less active such as women, people with long-term health conditions, Disabled people, people from ethnically diverse communities and lower socio-economic groups.

The opportunities to get involved in sport and activity, and feel its benefits, depend too much on your background, gender, bank balance, and postcode.

We will use this funding to continue to:

• Build capacity amongst DPULOs to provide and support physical activity locally, for example, through financial modelling and impact planning
• Upskill the social work and social care workforce around physical activity and its benefits so that they can better support Disabled people to be active
• Work with the sport sector to embed co-production in practice, ensuring that the sector is working in partnership with Disabled people in the design and delivery of physical activity
• Provide information to Disabled people on ways to get active at home and in the community
• Develop policies that have an impact at a national level

Over £550million is being invested, with the partners like us receiving funding for up to five years. This new funding model from Sport England aims to provide longer-term financial security as organisations recover and reinvent from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Sport England selected all partner organisations due to their ability to influence change and improvement at the heart of the system they are a part of no matter how big or small. This decision is the first step on a journey they are taking to revolutionise their approach to long-term partnerships as it seeks to partner and collaborate with innovative organisations to deliver Uniting the Movement and build a nation where everyone can get active.

Anna Denham, Programme Manager at Get Yourself Active said:

“Since we began in 2015, we have worked tirelessly to increase Disabled people’s participation in sport and physical activity so that we can all experience its benefits. When our work began, we quickly saw how barriers prevent Disabled people from getting active. It wasn’t that we didn’t want to get involved, but that many preventable barriers were stopping us.

Becoming a partner means Get Yourself Active will receive investment and support from Sport England. We will exchange knowledge and expertise as we work together to co-deliver the ambitions of its 10-year Uniting the Movement strategy. It means that we can continue to centre Disabled people’s voices to remove barriers and change lives for the better.

We are relishing the opportunity to make sure Disabled people across the country exercise their right to get active however they want. We know that this support means that more Disabled people will have the chance to feel good and have fun wherever they are.”