The success of the Government’s newly-released Sports Strategy will be underpinned by the improvement of existing, and creation of new, leisure and fitness facilities across the country.

Published on Wednesday, Get Active:  A strategy for the future of sport and physical activity sets out a number of key objectives to drive increased involvement in physical activity among adults and children.

These include recognition of the role of facilities, inclusive of gyms and leisure centres, in driving participation, with the Government committing to developing a National Vision for Facilities before the end of this year.

And it notes how high-quality leisure centres are the public’s preferred location for exercise, and points to areas of recent investment, such as the National Leisure Recovery Fund and the Swimming Pool Support Fund.

Realising the vision

However, the strategy also states there are ‘facilities across the country [that] fail to deliver a sustainable and quality offer to the community’.

And the National Vision for Facilities will consider the longer-term questions of sector resilience, particularly with regard to public sector leisure facilities.

Other key announcements in the strategy include:

• Increasing children and young people’s physical activity levels: The strategy contains a core ambition for one million more children and young people to be physically active by 2030. This will be supported by a new national campaign, activity to raise awareness of the Chief Medical Officers’ recommendation that children and young people should be active for 60 minutes each day, and specific engagement led by Sport England to understand barriers for under-represented groups
• Reviewing school sport provision to inform a new national scheme: There will be an evaluation of school games organisers, which will assess how the programme supports children and young people to be active, as well as how it connects schools and school trusts with the wider sports community. This forms part of a broader review into sport in school (excluding PE), which will include learnings from the Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) and Opening School Facilities (OSF) programmes. The review will report back by the end of the 2023/24 academic year to inform the development of a new National Sport Participation Scheme. This scheme will be designed to improve connections between schools and clubs, drive up standards and consistency of coaching, and support teachers while simplifying the information that schools receive
• A Task Force to drive effective working across government: A new National Physical Activity Task Force will be created and challenged to ensure tackling inactivity is at the forefront of government decision making. The Task Force will bring together government departments, arm’s length bodies, and representatives from the sector to work together, review progress, and shape policy development. It will be led by the Culture Secretary, Lucy Frazer; Sport Minister, Stuart Andrew; and former England rugby international, Ugo Monye

Launching the blueprint, Lucy Frazer, Secretary of State for Culture, Media, and Sport, said: “Recent years have seen unprecedented challenges for sport and our ability to be active.

“The pandemic and ongoing financial challenges around the cost of living have had a huge effect on all of us, including on the sport and physical activity sector and its workforce.

Responding to the challenge

“This strategy sets out how we will respond to these challenges to ensure that the sport and physical activity sector remains vibrant and relevant in the years to come.

“My ambitions are to make it easier for people to get physically active, and ensure the sport sector can thrive in the years ahead.

This should be seen as an opportunity to build on current provision to develop something that is more ambitious and cohesive, using existing facilities, experience, and insight from programmes on the ground to shape a future that delivers effectively for everyone

“To achieve this we need to be unapologetically ambitious, and that is why by 2030 we want to see 2.5 million more adults and one million more children being classed as active in England.

“I want to create the right environment to allow the sector to flourish, so that it can play a crucial role in creating a more-prosperous, happier, and healthier country.

“That means public funding reaching those who need it most, a successful school sport system, facilities where communities need them, and ongoing reform to ensure sport and physical activity continues to thrive and is fit for the future.”

A force for good

Welcoming the strategy, Tim Hollingsworth, chief executive of Sport England, added: “It is a highly-ambitious document that clearly understands the role activity can play in the health and wellbeing of our nation, and how sport can be a force for good by reducing pressures on the NHS, improving educational attainment, and bringing our communities together.

“We welcome the inclusion of ambitious overall targets for participation, and the acknowledgement that no single organisation can deliver the scale of change needed. Instead, this strategy will require significant and sustained commitment across the public and private sector.”

I want to create the right environment to allow the sector to flourish, so that it can play a crucial role in creating a more-prosperous, happier, and healthier country

And ukactive chief executive, Huw Edwards, welcomed the particular focus on facilities within the strategy.

He said: “Our gyms, pools, leisure centres, and other providers represent the engine room of physical activity in the UK, helping more than 17 million people to be active, making an enormous contribution to the health of the nation.

“Yet there is still much more that can be done to reduce health inequalities and utilise sport and physical activity in delivering on the Government’s ambitions to reduce NHS waiting lists and boost economic growth.

Improving outcomes

“To further harness the power of our members to drive activity in this country, it is crucial the Government continues to work closely with the sector to turn these ambitions into reality.

“Working alongside Government we can maximise the impact of activity on health outcomes and economic productivity.”

Ali Oliver, chief executive of the Youth Sports Trust echoes this comment, adding: “This should be seen as an opportunity to build on current provision to develop something that is more ambitious and cohesive, using existing facilities, experience, and insight from programmes on the ground to shape a future that delivers effectively for everyone.

“The new scheme should also be driven by a commitment to increasing capability, motivation, and opportunity with a particular focus on equal access, and targeting intervention towards communities or areas where activity levels are the lowest.

“Success will require further collaboration and partnership working to join up activity at a local and national level and maximise impact and relevance to every community. 

“We stand ready to combine efforts with partners across the country to create a sector which fosters positive relationships with movement and physical activity at every age and stage, and normalises the establishment of active habits for life.”