An additional £50 million has been channelled into funding grassroots sports, after a significant hit to activity levels throughout the Coronavirus pandemic.
The UK’s biggest sporting funding agency, Sport England, have announced that the additional funding will be introduced as part of a new 10-year strategy to aid the grassroots sector in staying afloat in such pressing times.
Although the new “Uniting the Movement” plan aims to aid all sports at the grassroots level, particular focus has been given to sports which have had no competition since the beginning of the pandemic last March, such as Rugby Union and Netball.
£270 million will have been injected into the grassroots scene at the end of the 10 years, with Sport England not only aiming to increase activity levels in young people, but also tackle inequalities over access to sport, felt by the disabled and people from BAME backgrounds.
Speaking to PA news agency, Sport England’s chief executive, Tim Hollingsworth was adamant that activity levels in children are at the forefront of the plan, but the activity must be fun.
“We do absolutely see that prioritising our ability to sustain activity for our children and young people is vital.
“One of the great lessons we’ve learned is that unless young people are enjoying themselves, there are so many other competing elements to their lives and so many other distractions that we have got to make it something that feels right for them, something that’s enjoyable for them and that they feel included in.”
The new campaign itself aims to build up its previous “This Girl Can” project, which shares its ethos in changing the nation’s behaviour.
A detailed one year plan is set to be released in the next 10 weeks to support the plan, with further details for the decade to be released in due course.
