Education CommitteeWritten evidence submitted by the Big Lottery Fund
1. Executive Summary
1.1 The Big Lottery Fund (BIG) is the largest Lottery distributor, responsible for distributing 40% of funds raised for “good causes” from The National Lottery. Since June 2004, BIG has awarded over £6 billion to projects supporting health, education, environment and charitable purposes. In 2011–12 92% of our funding went directly to the voluntary and community sector (VCS).
1.2 BIG has a long history of delivering effective funding for community sport, including school sports through a range of organisations, such as Local Authorities, schools, the Voluntary and Community sector and in partnership with other Lottery Distributors. In total, BIG (and its predecessor bodies the Community Fund and New Opportunities Fund) has committed over £1 billion to community sport across the UK.
1.3 Beyond the £638 million transferred from BIG to the Olympic Infrastructure we contributed £29 million to the Legacy Trust UK, including £24 million from the Millennium Commission. The Legacy Trust UK provided £6 million to the UK School Games, which replicate the feel of major multi-sport events such as the Olympic Games and seek to encourage more young people to take part and succeed in sport.
1.4 In September 2012 BIG announced that it would establish a trust to deliver an Olympic and Paralympic legacy for communities across the UK, the “Spirit of 2012 Trust”. The Trust will receive between £30–40 million from the funding BIG receives from the sale of the Olympic Village.
1.5 Other major investments include over £160 million through our Well-being programme, £750 million through New Opportunities for PE and Sport programme (NOPES), £90 million from our Community Sports Programme, £26.9 million for School Sports Co-ordinators, as well as funding to community sports through Awards for All, Reaching Communities, Young People’s Fund, People’s Millions and Parks for People.
1.6. This submission seeks to make a contribution specifically to the last point of the Education Committee inquiry, namely what further measures should be taken to ensure a sustainable and effective legacy in school sports following London 2012. It is informed by BIG’s experience from the programmes we have funded supporting community and school sports and funding the Voluntary and Community Sector more generally. BIG’s funding is required to be additional to that provided by government and we are keen to share learning from our investments about the ways that National Lottery income can complement Exchequer funded initiatives.
2. Investing in Grassroots Sport Legacy
2.1 BIG announced in September 2012 that we would establish a trust to deliver an Olympic and Paralympic legacy for communities across the UK. The aims of the Spirit of 2012 Trust are:
Firstly, it should help volunteers involved in the Olympic and Paralympic Games to maintain their commitment and energy for the benefit of their local communities.
Secondly, the trust should help inspire communities to think about how they can build on the Olympic and Paralympic values which, through events such as the Torch Relay and the Cultural Olympiad, went beyond sport and reached out to the whole of the UK.
Thirdly, it should build on the huge shift in perceptions brought about by the Paralympics to promote greater understanding of the issues facing people with disabilities.
Finally the trust needs to provide a source of long term focus and support to carry this UK-wide spirit of engagement through into Glasgow 2014 and the great events that will mark the coming decade. BIG hopes that the Spirit of 2012 will attract funding from other sources with a view of at least doubling the amount it has to spend in communities.
2.2 BIG is keen to collaborate with partners across the Lottery and within government, charities and the private sector to see whether they might be able to help us achieve the goal of attracting match funding for the Spirit of 2012.
2.3 In December 2012 BIG announced the first appointments to the team of “Spirit of 2012” Trustees, including representatives of UK Sport, the Youth Sport Trust and the Legacy Trust to help with the development of the Trust. The Trust will ensure that effective links are made between work associated with London 2012 and efforts already underway to build and sustain community related activities in the run up to the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow 2014.
2.4 BIG also announced that we will make available at least a further £5 million to support nationally significant community-related activities that embody the spirit of 2012. These investments will sustain essential momentum and build on existing successes while the Trust itself gets established. BIG is in discussion with a number of organisations, including Join In, Get Set, Sustrans and Britain’s Personal Best about how this momentum might be sustained.
2.5 2014 Communities Scotland was launched in 2008 and it aims to build a legacy of well-being before and beyond the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. In its third year, 2014 Communities offers grants of up to £2,000 to local voluntary & community groups and schools. Through the programme BIG aims to encourage more people to take part and volunteer in physical activity with a specific focus on those people who are less active. 2014 Communities will invest £6.8 million in grants over the life time of the programme. We hope that by ensuring the Spirit of 2012 Trust takes a long term view that it will build on sporting events in future years, including the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
3. Engaging Inactive and Hard to Reach Young People in Sport and Physical Activity
3.1 Evidence shows that people from hard to reach groups find it difficult to stay engaged in physical activity in the longer term. This can be due to low self- esteem, leading chaotic lives or cultural pressures. Providing on-going support is key to keeping hard to reach groups engaged in physical activity long enough to establish a habit. BIG’s investments have helped to engage inactive and hard to reach people into sport and physical activity.
3.2 BIG’s £160 million Well-being programme in England funds initiatives that promote physical activity, improve eating habits and tackle mental health across the country, targeting areas, groups and people experiencing the starkest health inequalities. An additional £40 million was recently made available to Voluntary and Community Sector organisations. The funding will build on the Well-being projects funded by BIG over the last five years, including working with children and their families to improve healthy eating during and after school.
3.3 Learning from our different studies shows that non traditional or novel approaches of promoting physical activity is a good way of getting inactive people active. Findings show after participating in well-being projects beneficiaries were taking part in more physical exercise and doing it on a more regular basis. This can be seen, particularly with older people and children who benefited most in terms of increased activity and enjoying undertaking exercise. Primary school children were most likely to say that they enjoyed physical activity at the end of their time with projects than any other group, with 72% enjoying activity at the start of a project, rising to 83% at the end.
3.4 Our previous investment in the Community Sport Initiative (CSI) found that key factors that contributed to the success of the programme included: assessing the needs of the target group and offering activities based on their needs and aspirations; packaging activities in a way that makes them seem less like sport and more like fun; and making the activities relevant to the target group.
4. Investing in Sport Facilities/Capital Infrastructure
4.1 BIG has invested in a range of capital facilities for sport. Our New Opportunities for Sport and PE (NOPES) programme invested £750.75 million for building and improving PE, sport and outdoor facilities to make them fit for purpose. Almost 3,000 facilities have been funded across the UK, ranging from outdoor activity centres to new or refurbished facilities at schools. The investment supported wider local strategies to improve PE and school sport and to connect sport, education and health outcomes.
4.2 Key findings from the programme evaluation show that the percentage of pupils receiving two hours of PE and school sport increased by 10% after the new facilities opened. The quality of PE and school sport was enhanced and the new facilities attracted pupils who were previously inactive. The facilities also had a positive impact on pupils’ attitudes and behaviours and led to young people becoming more engaged in school. The new sports facilities were also seen as symbols of change in local areas and acted as “hubs” for communities to come together and break down social barriers and engage people in sport.
4.3 BIG’s People’s Millions programme has also invested in a number of sports project to support young people. For example the Hillcroft Special School for young people with learning difficulties received £42,000 to create a special outdoor arena for ball games.
5. Investing on Out of School Hours Sport
5.1 There is strong evidence that out of school hours learning (OSHL) can deliver a range of positive outcomes in areas such as education, health, crime reduction and community regeneration. Sport and physical education are major components of OSHL. Over 12,000 schools in the UK benefited from £73.38 million BIG investment in Schools Sport Coordinators and OSHL, helping to extend the range of out of school hour activities and make these accessible to many more children. Activities helped to encourage and motivate pupils, build their self-esteem and help them reach higher standards of achievement. Most schools felt that providing revenue funding of the kind offered by OSHL alongside capital funding is essential to ensure that sports facilities are used to their full potential the Out of School Hours funding was very important to the success of their NOPES project.
5.2 BIG continues to invest in a wide range of out of school hours sport activities through our open funding programmes—Awards for All and Reaching Communities. These ongoing open programmes can be accessed by schools to support projects that use sport as a motivator for broader community outcomes. Often the projects funded through these programmes support schools and communities to come together to achieve a wider goal. Activities must be not be part of the school curriculum and core hours.
Ounsdale High School in Wombourne brought the community together with their very own Olympic games attracting over 1,500 attendees. The school received £9,689 in funding through BIG’s Awards for All programme which they used to put on a series of activities, competitions and events for the local community, held only two weeks prior to the actual 2012 Olympic Games.
The day started with a parade featuring one of the actual Olympic torches and the torch created especially for the day, followed by various track events. Competitors ranged in ages with the youngest being just one and the oldest being over 90 years old!
6. Partnership Working
6.1 BIG’s programme funding criteria often stresses the importance of local collaborations. Partnership working between organisations such as schools, local authorities and sports clubs has been critical to the success of many of our projects.
6.2 Effective partnership working made a substantial contribution to the achievement of the NOPES outcomes. Projects have made strong links with other initiatives such as School Sports Partnerships, Active Schools, Every Child Matters and Extended Schools.
6.3 The evaluation of the Community Sport Initiative found that the projects that showed the best results in attracting their target participants were those that had strong partnerships, with all the partner organisations advertising and encouraging target groups.
Sharing Learning and Good Practice
New Opportunities for PE and Sport final evaluation summary: www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/er_eval_nopes_final_eval_summary.pdf
New Opportunities for PE and Sport Initiative (NOPES) evaluation: The Loughborough Partnership Final Report (2009) www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/er_eval_nopes_final_report.doc
NOPES Working Paper: Evaluation of 10 Football Foundation Projects. Key findings and lessons learnt (July 2008) The Loughborough Partnership. www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/ff_working_paper_july_2008_ab.pdf
New Opportunities for PE and Sport: Year five summary (June 2008) www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/er_eval_nopes_yr5_summ.pdf
New Opportunities for PE and Sport: Year five evaluation report (Jan 2008) The Loughborough Partnership: www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/er_eval_nopes_yr5_rep.pdf
Community Sport Initiative final year evaluation report Community Sport: Year Three Report (May 2009): www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/eval_csi_annual_report_yr3.pdf
Well-being evaluation reports www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/research/health-and-well-being/evaluating-well-being
April 2013