Memorandum submitted by the Big Lottery
Fund
The Big Lottery Fund welcomes the opportunity
to contribute to the Culture, Media and Sport Committee's inquiry
into "Community Sport" and I am pleased to enclose our
submission.
The Big Lottery Fund recognises the important
role that community sport can play in the well-being of communities.
To date the Big Lottery Fund (and its legacy organisations—the
Community Fund and the New Opportunities Fund) has committed over
£900 million to projects related to and supporting community
sport. This submission outlines the relevant funding programmes
to this inquiry and also highlights the key findings of the evaluation
reports into this funding identifying areas of (non) participation,
the impact of National Lottery Funding and learning for future
funding.
SUMMARY
1. The Big Lottery Fund welcomes the opportunity
to contribute to the Committee's inquiry into "Community
Sport".
2. The Big Lottery Fund is the joint operating
name for two National Lottery Distributing Bodies— The Community
Fund and the New Opportunities Fund. The Big Lottery Fund aims
to use National Lottery funding to enable others to make real
improvements to the lives of disadvantaged people and to promote
the well being of communities, through fair and open funding of
people, projects and programmes. Between them the two Bodies have
committed over £900 million to projects related to and supporting
community sport:
— The Community Fund has awarded over
£2.5 million in grants to projects concerned with diet and
exercise. These projects typically include exercise clubs for
older people and initiatives targeted at particular ethnic groups.
— The New Opportunities Fund has delivered
programmes to support education, health and environment initiatives
across the UK. There are a number of funding programmes relevant
to this inquiry including: £750.75 million of National Lottery
money committed through the "New Opportunities for PE and
Sport" programme to provide school sport facilities for young
people and the community generally with the aim of increasing
participation in physical activity. To date approximately 2,500
facilities have been funded in the UK; under the joint operating
name, the Big Lottery Fund, £100 million has been committed
to fund country specific projects through the "Investment
into Community Sport in the UK" programme aimed at increasing
physical activity, especially amongst the currently inactive;
the "Out of Hours/School Sport Co-ordinators" programme
has committed £26.29 million to support projects that aim
to increase young people's out of school physical activity; the
Active Places programme has received £2 million of Big Lottery
Fund money to establish a register of sports facilities; and the
Fund has supported a pilot Regional Health and Physical Activity
Co-ordinator post, lessons from which will help inform the development
of such posts in each of the Government regions.
3. The Big Lottery Fund, through the Community
Fund and the New Opportunities Fund has been careful to ensure,
given the large amounts of money involved and indeed the high
impact expectation of such funding, that strong and credible partnerships
are formed in delivering and assessing the impact and effectiveness
of funding. All funding programmes made under the New Opportunities
Fund are subject to independent assessment, the results of which
are outlined in this submission. Future programmes developed under
the Big Lottery Fund will also be submitted to an independent
evaluation process.
4. A number of our funding projects have
not yet reached full evaluation stage. However, nominal findings
to date suggest that partnerships between sports and other sectors
(ie sports and health), the development of new facilities and
the employment of experienced and dedicated staff to develop community
use of community facilities all have a role to play in encouraging
involvement in community sport.
5. As a result of its recent public consultation[1]
the Big Lottery Fund recognises that there is a demand for funding
that relates to and supports community sport. The Big Lottery
Fund has announced some of its new funding programmes to 2009,
elements of which relate to and support promoting physical activity
and community sport.
THE BIG
LOTTERY FUND—BACKGROUND
6. On 1 June 2004, two National Lottery
Distributors, the New Opportunities Fund and the Community Fund,
merged to become the Big Lottery Fund.
7. The New Opportunities Fund delivers programmes
to support education, health and environment initiatives across
the UK. Since the Fund's inception in 1999, we have committed
over £3.5 billion to these areas. The Fund's programmes cover
a wide range of issues relevant to this inquiry, including increasing
participation in physical activity, public health, healthy living
and improving the environment.
8. The Community Fund distributes money
from the National Lottery to projects across the UK to help meet
the needs of those at greatest disadvantage in society and to
improve the quality of life in communities. To date, the Community
Fund has distributed £2.6 billion to 56,000 charities and
community groups across the UK. The Community Fund has awarded
over £2.5 million in grants to projects concerned with diet
and exercise. The Community Fund makes grants to the voluntary
and community sector, who play a vital role in reaching the most
disadvantaged sectors of society. This means that many projects
funded have targeted those communities and areas that most need
support to develop a healthy lifestyle.
9. The new body will build on the experience
and best practice of both organisations to simplify funding in
those areas where they currently overlap, and to ensure lottery
funding provides the best possible value for money. The Big Lottery
Fund wants to enable others to make real improvements to the lives
of disadvantaged people and the well-being of communities, through
fair and open funding of people, projects and programmes.
10. To achieve this, we have six principles
that will underpin all our work: fairness, accessibility, strategic
focus, involving people, innovation, and ensuring that our funding
is additional to Government spending. In addition we have introduced
a set of themes and associated outcomes to provide a framework
for our future funding. The three themes are:
— Community learning and creating opportunity
— Promoting community cohesion and
safety
11. The themes are UK wide but the outcomes
and priorities are related to the needs of each of the countries
in the UK.
12. In England we have recently consulted
on this framework[2]
(consultation in each of the countries is currently underway)
and on the priorities that would help us achieve each of the four
outcomes. Any future programmes that we develop will be based
around the six principles, the themes and outcomes will be guided
by what the public are telling us through our consultation, as
well as building on the experiences and strengths of the New Opportunities
Fund and the Community Fund.
SPECIFIC FUNDING
PROGRAMMES RELATING
AND SUPPORTING
COMMUNITY SPORT
13. Detailed below are a number of funding
programmes relevant to this inquiry. In each case the programme
aims and objectives are outlined, and where available, information
from the evaluation report into that programme summarised.
New Opportunities for PE and Sport (NOPES)
14. In the UK £750.75 million of lottery
money has been invested in the New Opportunities for PE and Sport
programme. Launched in 2001, this is the largest single programme
investment specifically for school sport to date. The programme
aims to bring about a step change in the provision of school sports
not only for young people but also for the community generally.
To this end up to 20% of the funding available may be used to
stimulate and support appropriate community use.
15. By providing new and improving existing
facilities the programme aims to increase participation in physical
activity of both school children, in and out of curriculum time,
and the wider community. The programme also aims to have a long-term
impact on wider social issues facing local communities such as
education, health and crime. The Fund expects that all but the
smallest projects will need to demonstrate how the wider community
will use the facility. This is reflected in the six key outcomes
that have been identified for this programme. These are:
— improved physical education and sport
in schools (supporting the entitlement of two hours (1.5 in Northern
Ireland) of high quality PE and sport each week, within and beyond
the curriculum);
— higher standards across the whole
school through PE, sport and other forms of structured activity
(as set out in school development plans);
— better opportunities to increase
the levels of physical activity among the school age population
and, more generally, local communities (supporting the health
recommendations for levels of physical activity for young people
and adults);
— improved collaboration, co-operation
and partnership between schools and between schools and their
communities;
— promotion of social inclusion through
access to and use of sports and outdoor adventure facilities by
all groups in society; and
— innovation and best practice in the
design and management of facilities.
16. In addition to the above (but included
in the overall sum), in Scotland £36.3 million has been committed
to a separate activities programme which sits along side the facilities
strand. This funding is purely for revenue programmes that aim
to develop physical abilities and improve opportunities to increase
levels of physical activity among young people.
17. The overall programme is on course so
that the great majority of new facilities will be in use by Spring
2006. Policy directions for the programme stated that all funding
should be committed by the end of 2005. However, all funding in
Wales and 98.8% of funding in England (barring those with Building
Schools for the Future issues and specific individual circumstances)
was committed by December 2004—one year ahead of schedule.
This means to date, in the UK just under 2,500 projects have been
funded totalling just over £587 million. In the UK, Just
under 600 projects are now complete. Projects include playground
marking schemes, changing rooms, dance studios, artificial pitches,
fitness suites and three-, four- and six-court sport halls. Examples
of projects funded are given in Annex A.
New Opportunities for PE and Sport (NOPES)—Evaluation
18. The programme is being evaluated by
the Loughborough Partnership, led by the Institute of Youth Sport.
It is structured around the following dimensions of the programme:
— effectiveness of partnership working;
— quality of individual projects in
stimulating increased participation; and
— capacity of greater levels of participation
to generate social change.
19. A key element of the evaluation is to
capture participation in physical activity of young people and
men and women from the wider community. This is primarily achieved
through the distribution of a survey to all projects before opening
(to capture a baseline) and then one and three years after opening
(to measure any change that has occurred).
20. In England, baseline findings to date
indicate that NOPES facilities have been built in schools where
facilities were sorely needed, with respondents rating their existing
facilities before the programme as below average.
21. With regards participation of children
and young people in physical activity, in England the current
findings show that pupils in primary and secondary schools (that
have returned a baseline survey to date) receive an average of
101 minutes of PE and sport in curriculum time per week. Across
schools that have been given a grant of more then £125,000,
and who have returned the baseline survey to date findings show:
— 73% of boys and 70% of girls are
receiving their two hours of PE and sport entitlement within curriculum
time.
— Approximately 80% of schools already
run lunchtime and after school PE and sport opportunities, with
an average of approximately eight hours after school and over
four hours lunchtime activity available in a typical week.
22. Early evidence from five fast track
projects, that began before the main projects in the programme,
suggest that school-based facilities have had an immediate and
positive effect on curriculum PE and extra-curricular activities.
Providing high quality facilities has meant that pupils have been
able to have lessons at the same time and the range of activities
offered to them has been increased. At one school for instance
this has meant girl only activities are now offered. At another
extra curricular activities now include activities where able
bodied and disabled pupils can mix and participate with friends
and relatives. More data on impact will be available in January
2006 which we will be happy to share with the Committee.
23. With regard wider community use, there
is an expectation in the programme that all but the smallest projects
will be used by the community. Early findings indicate that project
staff often see the programme as a catalyst for schools to becoming
the hub of the community—in fact, of the larger projects,
95% state one of their aims is to improve collaboration, co-operation
and partnership between schools and their communities. Current
community use is low, showing that the programme has the potential
to make a significant impact in this area. However while being
committed to increasing community use, in the first six months
of opening the evaluation has found that impacting on participation
in the wider community is often a big and new challenge for these
schools. Funding for experienced, dedicated staff to develop community
use has been instrumental in successfully embedding community
use for some fast track projects. The evaluation will consider
whether this finding can be generalised across other facilities
in the programme.
24. Qualitative case study work in local
authorities will seek to explore in more detail the three main
dimension of the evaluation noted above. In particular, the evaluators
will explore why some people participate while others don't. This
will be supported by a discrete piece of work with excluded young
people. It is hoped that all this work will contribute to the
current evidence base about what works in encouraging further
participation. Early data from the case study work suggests how
new facilities have enabled greater community participation. At
one school for instance parents are able to use the new fitness
suite while their children are participating in net ball.
25. The evaluation is set to run until January
2009. Regular updates on findings to date are made available through
quarterly newsletters and evaluation website: www.nopesevaluation.org.uk.
I have enclosed, for your information, a summary of the evaluation
that covered the first 18 months of the programme. I am happy
to provide the Committee with the full report on year two findings
on request.
INVESTMENT INTO
COMMUNITY SPORT
26. The Big Lottery Fund has invested £100
million into community sport in the UK. Although each of the countries
in the UK have developed their own programmes, to reflect their
local context and need, all the programmes are focused on increasing
physical activity, especially amongst the currently inactive.
A summary of the UK wide investment is provided in Annex B and
an outline of the country specific programmes are detailed below:
Active England
27. The Government strategy for delivering
its sport and physical activity objectives, Game Plan[3],
set a target of 70% of the population in England being reasonably
active (eg 30 minutes of moderate exercise five times per week)
by 2020. The Active England investment programme seeks to begin
the step-change required in physical activity and sports participation
levels by supporting a number of innovative projects that demonstrate
their ability to work towards this target.
28. In total The National Lottery is investing
£108.5 million in Active England, £77.5 million from
the Big Lottery Fund and £31 million from Sport England.
Launched in December 2003, the programme aims to encourage creative
approaches that will begin to drive up physical activity levels
and sports participation rates in England. Although aimed at increasing
participation among all the sections of society, it focuses in
particular on those sections of society that are typically under-represented
in sport and physical activity participation.
29. Funded projects, which are currently
being developed until March 2006, will aim to address the perceived
barriers to participation in sport and physical activity. Barriers
include lack of money, lack of transport, cultural differences
and constraints of time. It is also hoped that Active England
projects will create new working partnerships both between sports
and between sectors, eg sport and health and create new training
and development opportunities for key enablers such as coaches
and voluntary workers.
30. The Government is keen that these facilities
are seen as the regional dividend of the 2012 London Olympic Bid.
This allows an excellent opportunity to promote grassroots physical
activity alongside any promotional work undertaken by the London
bid.
31. To date, £102 million has been
committed or spent on just over 250 projects. Examples of projects
can be found in Annex C.
Active England—Evaluation
32. The programme is being evaluated by
independent research and evaluation consultants, Hall Aitken and
Bearhunt. The evaluation will measure how the programme has increased
participation in sport and physical activity for all sections
of society but in particular those sectors of society that typically
do not take part in physical activity. The evaluators will be
working with individual projects to develop monitoring and evaluation
frameworks for measuring the success of each project and feed
the information into the overall programme evaluation.
33. Good practice will be identified on
both a project basis and by themes. This information will be disseminated
through a variety of techniques including, national conferences,
the Active England Learning Zone website, learning groups where
like projects share ideas either virtually or in organised cluster
groups, DVD presentations and through the Sport England Innovation
exchange
34. The first evaluation report will be
available by March 2006.
Active Futures and Youth Football in Scotland
35. In Scotland £6 million is going
towards supporting the Scottish Executive's objectives for youth
sport development in particular increasing the number of players
and raising the standard of all levels of youth football in Scotland.
A further £5.5 million will fund Active Futures which will
support projects that increase or sustain participation in sport
and physical activity among 17-24 year olds. Active Futures was
launched in November 2004. Projects are due to begin in 2006,
with all funding to be committed by December 2006.
Mentro Allan in Wales
36. Launched in November 2004, Mentro Allan
is committing £6.5 million to develop a number of co-ordinated
schemes across Wales aimed at getting hard to reach groups more
active using the natural environment. A national level partnership
will be appointed to deliver a strategic portfolio of 10-15 local
schemes across Wales. The successful partnership will be announced
in June 2005 with all grants awarded by June 2006. Project funding
will be for four years, and there is a strong emphasis on evaluation
to build up a body of evidence that can inform future policy.
Active Lifestyles and Community Sport programme
in Northern Ireland
37. In Northern Ireland £2.4 million
has been committed to the Sports Council for Northern Ireland's
(SCNI) to develop and enhance their existing pilot Community Sport
programme. Launched in September 2004, Active Lifestyles commits
a further £2.1 million to fund activities that aim to increase
grassroots participation in physical activity. Projects are due
to begin in 2005, with all funding to be committed by December
2006.
Country Community Sport—Evaluation
38. A single evaluation contract will be
commissioned to assess impact of the community sport investment
in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. This work will seek to
compliment and build on other work measuring participation in
sport and physical activity.
OUT OF
SCHOOL HOURS
LEARNING/SCHOOL
SPORT CO
-ORDINATORS (OSHL/SSCO)
39. In addition to the above the Fund has
committed £26.29 million to support projects that aim to
increase young peoples out of school hours physical activity.
40. In England, funding has been put towards
supporting the joint DfES/DCMS School Sport Co-ordinator programme
(now known as School Sport Partnerships). The purpose of the programme
is to increase sports opportunities and promote competition for
young people through co-ordinated PE, school sport and out of
school hours learning activities that link with local community
sports facilities and development programmes. It focuses particularly
on areas of disadvantage and recognises the role that schools
and sport can play in addressing dissatisfaction among young people
and how physical activity and sport can assist in improving well
being and learning.
41. The Fund's strand of the programme is
funding sport related learning activities for young people outside
of school curriculum time. In line with Government targets set
for the programme in 2001, the OSHL/SSCo programme has supported
activity in School Sport Co-ordinator Partnerships with the first
1,000 SSCos. In addition it should be noted that the Fund has
invested £205 million to the main Out of School Hours Learning
programme. A great many of the projects supported in this programme
were sports based. Examples of projects can be found in Annex
D.
42. In Scotland, the fund awarded sportscotland
a grant to manage and co-ordinate the OSHL/SSCo programme. Sportscotland
is delivering the programme through its existing network of school-based
SSCos to compliment its Active Schools Strategy.
43. In Northern Ireland, the money is being
used by SSCos in Education and Library Boards to deliver activities
to pupils who do not normally take part in sport activities and
those at risk of exclusion from school and also young people with
special needs.
44. In Wales this funding has supported
a programme of extending school sports activities particularly
in primary schools and in the transition to secondary schools.
The Programme complements the Welsh Assembly Government's PE and
School Sports strategy and the Dragon Sport initiative.
OUT OF
SCHOOL HOURS
LEARNING/SCHOOL
SPORT CO
-ORDINATORS (OSHL/SSCO)—EVALUATION
45. The evaluation of the School Sport Partnership
programme, led by the Institute of Youth Sport is collecting data
on participation in curricular and out of school hours PE &
sport activities within School Sport Partnerships in England.
46. The end of year one report, out in April
2005, shows that the partnerships are having considerable success
in increasing participation amongst pupils at the partnership
schools, and provides a detailed breakdown based on gender, ethnic
minority and disability. By 2006 it is planned that all schools
in England will be in a School Sport Partnership, so a more comprehensive
picture will become available when they're all included in the
annual surveys.
ACTIVE PLACES
47. A total of £5.2 million (£2
million from the Big Lottery Fund and £3.2 million from Sport
England) has been invested from the lottery into the Active Places
register of sports facilities. This has established one authoritative
register of sports facilities in England, in place of current
systems where many different organisations with an interest in
sport collect and separately maintain information to varying definitions,
formats and completeness. In addition to helping members of the
public to locate facilities and activities that they might wish
to participate in, the Register and the information contained
within it will have an invaluable role to play in the planning
and delivery of new sport and active recreation services.
REGIONAL HEALTH
AND PHYSICAL
ACTIVITY CO
-ORDINATOR
48. As part of the Healthy Living Centre
programme, the Big Lottery Fund has funded a Regional Health and
Physical Activity Co-ordinator (RHPAC) three year pilot project
in the North West to bring together Regional Government Offices
and Development Agencies, the Regional Sports Board, Local Authorities,
Primary Care Trusts, the voluntary sector and the fitness industry.
A key strand of the co-ordinator's role is the establishment of
a regional physical activity task force charged with co-ordinating
delivery of the physical activity aspects of the regional public
health plan in tandem with the Regional Sports Board plan. The
project has been awarded £286,000 lottery funding.
REGIONAL HEALTH
AND PHYSICAL
ACTIVITY CO
-ORDINATOR—EVALUATION
49. The evaluation of this position will
seek to provide robust evidence of the effectiveness of the post,
whether it has made a significant contribution to joined-up working
between physical activity and health programmes/initiatives in
comparison to working methods already in place and whether the
post has offered significant return for the investment. The evaluation
will also inform any decision to introduce similar projects in
other Government regions.
FUTURE PROGRAMMES
50. As detailed above, the Fund is committed
to the broader agenda of increasing participation in grassroots
sport. This commitment will continue into our new programmes.
Emphasis in the future will be on "healthier and more active
people and communities' and increasing participation in physical
activity is seen as a core element of this. To this end the Fund
have made a commitment to allocating £165 million from 2005-09
to strategic programmes around well being that will include the
support of projects that promote community sport, physical activity,
walking and cycling as part of everyday activities[4].
FURTHER INFORMATION
51. Further details, including evaluation
and research information, about the programmes can be found on
www.biglotteryfund.org.uk.
1 Big Lottery Fund Consultation Phase 1 findings,
February 2005. Back
2
Big Lottery Fund Consultation Phase 2. The Results will be published
in May 2005. Back
3
"Game Plan: A Strategy for delivering the governments'
sport and physical activity objectives", was jointly
published by the government's Social Exclusion Unit and the Department
of Culture, Media and Sport on 19 December 2002. Back
4
For more information see press release "Big Lottery Fund
Confirms New Funding Programmes for England" 30 March
2005. Back
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