4 Sport governing bodies
143. Throughout this Report, we have made numerous
references to sport governing bodies or NGBs. This is because
they form the main conduit through which public money is channelled
to individual sports, they provide the strategy and targets for
their sports, they handle issues such as commercial partnership
and promotion, and they are the central organisations to which
local sports clubs look for money, guidance and support.
144. As mentioned earlier, Sport England is investing
£100 million a year through 46 NGBs. This investment is focused
on four development areas set out in each sport's Whole Sport
Plan (WSP), three of which involve increased participation by
specified groups. There is no specific target for participation
by women and girls.
145. Sport England told us that there were some shining
examples of NGBs who had succeeded in growing participation by
women in their sport. In its written evidence to us last autumn,
it said netball was one of the star performers and athletics had
shown a healthy growth among women due to the running boom. It
also singled out for comment boxing which, thanks in part to the
Nicola Adams's success, had seen a rise in participation of more
than 50% in the previous year.[210]
However, sustaining this performance over time has proved difficult.
As previously described, the 2014 Payment for Results Review withdrew
funding from six sports governing bodies for failing to meet their
targets (The Football Association, England Golf Partnership, England
Hockey, British Mountaineering Council, England Netball and British
Rowing), and gave warnings of possible future cuts in grant to
three others (Badminton England, the England and Wales Cricket
Board, and Rugby Football Union), which had failed to show growth
but were considered to be doing the right things to encourage
people to play their sport. UK Athletics, despite its initial
success, had not achieved its growth target but had, nevertheless,
increased the number of people participating, so its grant was
not reduced. The British Equestrian Federation was also encouraged
to work harder on increasing adult (26 years and over) participation
in the sport, and to form a partnership with the British Horse
Society to achieve this.[211]
146. Sport England commented that many of the NGBs'
programmes for women and girls "take a traditional approach
and are based on an adaptation of the male offer. This is one
of the main reasons why we have engaged with a wider range of
partners in this area, including StreetGames and a number of women's
organisations." The money being withdrawn from the NGBs under
this year's review is to be reinvested in the same sports through
local authorities or charities.[212]
147. Judging from the written and oral evidence we
received, NGBs vary widely in their strengths and weaknesses.
In general, the more traditional team sports appear to have more
to do to adapt to meet the needs of women: the football authorities,
in particular, have been slow to do more than promote the same
products,[213] whereas
cycling, netball, tennis, badminton, cricket, boxing and even
rugby are developing new forms of the sport designed to encourage
women to start playing.[214]
However, women's football has developed significantly in the last
20 years, being now the third most popular team sport for participation
after men's football and men's cricket; and both football and
cricket have achieved more comprehensive and regular media coverage
of the women's game than other sports, and less popular sports
like rowing and rugby are displaying considerable enterprise in
tying the men's and women's sport together in media or sponsorship
packages.
148. Sport England's written evidence to us asked
the question: Should we add a specific target for women's participation
into WSPs?[215] It
noted that, when the Youth and Community Strategy
was created, the Government decided to focus on overall participation,
with an emphasis on young people and those with a disability.
The rationale for not having further specific targets was twofold:
first, it was thought that to achieve an overall target NGBs would
have to engage a reasonable cross-section of the adult population
as a whole, and therefore groups such as women, BAME groups and
those in less advantaged communities would be included in the
NGBs' plans as a matter of course; secondly a proliferation of
targets would mean NGBs' efforts would be fragmented and less
effective overall, and the two chosen were felt to be the priorities
at that time.
149. Sport England suggested that the advantages
of introducing specific targets for women would include more specific
focus on women by many NGBs and a greater acknowledgement of the
difference between men's and women's preferences and motivations,
and so perhaps a development of more appropriate options for women
and girls. In addition to the problem of smaller sports having
to divide their efforts between a number of different targets,
Sport England said that a disadvantage of having a specific target
was the possibility that it would lead to an over-emphasis on
high profile sports, such as football and cricket, instead of
the sports more popular amongst women, such as swimming and dance.
It also noted that changing the rules part-way through the four
year funding cycle would cause disruption to existing plans. Sport
England suggested that some of the risks would be mitigated if
additional targets were imposed only on those NGBs where there
was potential for significant growth in women's participation
which was not being addressed.[216]
We asked whether a target for women might also lead NGBs to concentrate
on easy-to-recruit women, ignoring the specific needs of those
harder to reach like women in poorer households and some ethnic
and faith groups. Sport England agreed that this was a risk with
a purely number-based target, but thought it could be mitigated
by careful wording of the target.[217]
150. We applaud the NGBs that are succeeding in
meeting Sport England's criteria for increasing participation.
We are pleased that many of the sports that women most enjoy—dance,
running, swimming, tennis—are among the 46 sports being
specifically supported under the Youth and Community Strategy.
151. We believe that there should be an additional
target in the Youth and Community Strategy for increasing the
participation of women and girls, but that it should be imposed
only on those NGBs that are not seriously addressing the potential
for growing women's participation in their sport.
152. We support Sport England's approach of reducing
funding to NGBs whose performance is lack-lustre and giving other
bodies the opportunity to invest imaginatively in local schemes
for boosting participation in their sports. We have been given
enough evidence of popular initiatives like park runs and pop
up tennis courts to conclude that Sport England should actively
seek out further opportunities beyond sport governing bodies to
work with whichever groups know best how to reach and engage people
locally.
210 Sport England (WAS0039), para 26. Q2 (WSFF) Back
211
'Sport England continues tough approach to sport delivery', press
notice dated 27 March 2014 Back
212
Sport England (WAS0039), para 27. See Qq56-57 for examples of
different ways in which charities and local organisations act
as intermediaries between the NGBs and the local community. Back
213
Though see Qq52 (StreetGames) and 55 (MWSF) Back
214
See, for example, the written evidence supplied by England Netball
(WAS0011), paras 22-23, the LTA (WAS0012), paras 27-30 and British
Cycling (WAS0007), paras 20-25 about the detailed research they
have done into specific audiences, and see Qq 20 for badminton,
63 for cricket and 277 for boxing and 'boxercise' Back
215
(WAS0039), paras 28-29. See also Q 47 (StreetGames) Back
216
(WAS0039), paras 30-32 and Q 248 Back
217
Qq 247-248 See also Qq48-49 (MWSF) Back
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