How football could be included to support your University Sport
Activation Fund application
The new £15m University Sport Activation Fund was launched by Sport England at the
BUCS ‘Strengthening your sporting offer’ event on the 26th November 2013.
The fund is aimed at universities who wish to challenge themselves to continue to enhance
their sporting offer to appeal to more HE students, and demonstrate the value that sport
plays within wider university objectives.
Sport England will be looking to support projects that can contribute towards the following
key areas;
1. Flexible participation programmes
2. Intramural competition
3. Interuniversity social competition
4. Student clubs social section
The fund will also look to support projects that trial new methods of getting students into
sport, particularly those that do not currently play any sport.
For full information of Sport England’s funding criteria and to download an application click
here
The University Sport Activation Fund opened on 6 January 2014 with applications closing
on the 24th March 2014. BUCS Football Development appreciates that universities will be
spending considerable time during this period formulating their applications.
To make life a little easier we have put together this document with some useful
information which may help if you are considering football as one of the sports you are
looking to include as part of your application.
Please note: The information provided in this document is simply a guide to help you with
your thinking and including it in your application will not guarantee that Sport England will
fund your university.
How football could be included to support your University Sport
Activation Fund application
BUCS/FA Football Development 6 point offer
Note: The University Football Activator and Community Hub Club programmes are funded through the
Whole Sport Plan and therefore can support with the delivery of your University Sport Activation Fund
however you cannot apply for additional funding from Sport England for either of these two programmes.
(click on the programme for more information)
Useful Contacts
Oliver Selfe National BUCS National Football Development Manager
Oliver.selfe@bucs.org.uk
Prathiv Kholia BUCS Football Development Coordinator
Prathiv.kholia@bucs.org.uk
BUCS football website
www.bucs.org.uk/football
FA find your local County FA
http://www.thefa.com/GetIntoFootball/CountyFA/CountyContacts
How football could be included to support your University
Sport Activation Fund application
This diagram demonstrates where the programmes in the ‘BUCS 6 point offer’
(orange) can support the areas that Sport England will fund (blue).
How football could be included to support your University Sport
Activation Fund application
The below table provides some examples of how the football programmes within the
‘BUCS 6 point offer’ can support universities to meet the funding criteria
Fund criteria
Relevant FA
Programme
Team
Twenty
Three
Example
Impact
Partners
University apply for a Team Twenty
Three equipment pack and launch
new league through football
activator
BUCS
FA
County FA
Student club
social section
Mars Just
Play
University apply for free Mars Just
Play festival pack and host open
entry tournament after football
trails. Weekly Mars Just play centre
delivered following tournament.
Applicants
demonstrate
wider
partnership
working
Supports
community
activity
Football
Partnership
delivery
model
University host partnership meeting
to discuss delivery of the football
programmes and identify impact on
wider community football.
Community
Hub Club
University link with FA Charter
Standard Club and work in
partnership to asset share i.e.
facilities and workforce.
Increase in participants,
creation of an intra
mural community,
volunteers supporting
delivery of the new
league.
Student who do not
make the trails still able
to play (increase
participation), student
feel part of a
club/society (student
satisfaction).
Wider community
engagement, meets the
needs of the community,
opportunity for
partnership funding.
Opportunity for the
university to signpost
student volunteers
coaches & referees into
the club (student
satisfaction and
employability. Club able
to develop new teams.
Engage new
participants
University
Football
Club,
County FA
FA
County FA
BUCS
Charities
Clubs
Leagues
Clubs
FA
BUCS
County FA
How football could be included to support your University Sport
Activation Fund application
Delivery model ideas
The below information is a suggestion of a potential delivery model that you could adopt to
support the delivery of your football offer.
Football Partnership is a group of people from a local community with a common interest
in developing football opportunities for Children and Young People 16-25 (CYP) in their
local communities. Many organisations need partners to be successful especially in
meeting the sporting and employment needs of youth. In a time of diminishing resources
and increased need, it’s clear no agency or organisation can go it alone. Collaborative
relationships that work really well are those that focus on what people actually DO
together, and not just on the structure they create. We want your CYP football partnerships
to be a verb not a noun!
Who could make up the football partnerships?
The list below provides an example of the type of organisations that could be represented.
Impact of CYP Partnerships
Through partners having the right conversations and asset sharing expertise, facilities and
resources we hope to create sustainable and appropriate opportunities for children and
young people 16-25 to take part and stay involved in football activities.
How football could be included to support your University Sport
Activation Fund application
Case Study
The University of Portsmouth in partnership with BUCS and the Hampshire FA
Through effective partnership working and utilising the ‘HE Football offer’. The University of
Portsmouth have been able to create a robust football pathway for their students, which has seen a
significant impact upon football participants, student satisfaction and employability. The
partnership started by agreeing regular meetings between the County FA and university and
agreeing key development priorities. The university successfully applied to become a referee hub
and the County FA supported by creating a tailored referee development pathway for their
students. A University Football Activator was then recruited as part of the BUCS Football Activator
pilot programme and this student was tasked with establishing a new small sided intra mural
league at the university which was launched early 2013 and now has over 50 team and 350
participants. The County FA has also been able to offer mentoring support to the student Football
Activator and has recently agreed with the Director of Sport at the university to base a Football
Development Officer from the Hampshire FA at the university two days a week. In addition The
University of Portsmouth have become a BUCS ‘Team Twenty Three’ deliverer and have recently
been awarded £2,500 via the FA Community Hub Club fund to develop wider community
engagement through the Universities ‘Up For Sport’ project.
We have developed excellent working partnerships with BUCS, The FA and County FA over the past
18 months enhancing our student offer and accessing additional funding which has resulted in
significant growth in participation and the quality of our programmes”.
Sarah Taylor Sports Development Manager University of Portsmouth
Student volunteers from The University of Portsmouth help deliver the Intra Mural Football