POLICY BRIEFING
Where next for local delivery of the
Olympic legacy and community
sport?
12 August 2015
Chris Hayes, LGiU Associate
Summary
With the Government’s latest figures showing a decline in the number of people
participating in sport and a new sports strategy on the horizon, local authorities are
under pressure to find new ways of delivering community sport and keeping facilities
open, as this briefing explores.
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Sport England’s latest Active People Survey reveals that while the number of
people participating in sport as a whole reached a high of 15.9 million in the
run up to the 2012 London Olympic Games, there is now a downward trend in
participation with 220,000 fewer people playing sport over the last six months.
The decline is most evident in sports that rely on local authority facilities with
swimming and gym participation recording the biggest declines.
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A recent survey found that local authority expenditure on sport and leisure
has been reduced by £42 million since 2010, alongside a number of closures
to key facilities. As a consequence of budget pressures local authority
funding is becoming more closely tied outcomes, with many councils
integrating sport and leisure with health and social care.
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The new sports minister Tracey Crouch has pledged to overhaul the way in
which funding is distributed to sports bodies and will launch a consultation on
a new sports strategy to target funding at grassroots sport and join up sport
and physical activity.
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A proposed amendment to the Charities Bill to require independent schools to
open up their facilities and sports grounds to the community could lead to
new opportunities for local authorities to deliver community sport in
partnership with independent schools, and the voluntary sector.
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An analysis of innovation in the local government sector reveals four major
trends in the way in which local authorities are responding to the challenge of
keeping sports facilities open and increasing participation: commissioning
and integration with health and social care; ‘spinning out’ services and
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transferring assets to community sports trusts; exploiting planning and
development opportunities to build new facilities; and forging strategic
relationships with schools and the voluntary sector.
Briefing in full
Introduction
Against the backdrop of a summer of high profile sport events – including the recent
success of the women’s football team in Canada – the 10th anniversary of the
announcement of the London 2012 Olympic Games has been marked by heavy
scrutiny in the press and in parliament as the latest Active People Survey reveals a
decline in the number of people participating in sport.
The new sports minister Tracey Crouch has promised a review of sport policy and a
new strategy, to be outlined in a forthcoming green paper, as the latest participation
figures show a downward trend in participation with 220,000 fewer people playing
sport at least once a week, over the last six months. The decline is most evident in
sports that rely on local authority facilities with swimming and gym/keep fit recording
the biggest declines. Further spending reductions outlined in the summer budget and
spending review will continue to put pressure on local authorities to find new ways of
managing local facilities and boosting participation. There are examples of
innovation in the sector which this briefing explores below.
In the House of Lords, a proposed amendment to the Charities Bill to require
independent schools to open up their facilities and sports grounds to the community
has, despite its defeat, attracted attention and further work in this area could lead to
new opportunities for local authorities to deliver community sport in partnership with
independent schools, and the voluntary sector.
The UK’s physical inactivity endemic meanwhile has been highlighted from a
different angle this summer as a poll conducted by school services provider Fit for
Sport found that nearly three quarters of primary school teachers expect their pupils
to spend the summer in front of televisions and tablets rather than being outdoors.
At the same time, senior leaders in the sports sector are urging the government to
overhaul sports funding and calling for a ten year cross-party strategy on sport.
This policy briefing:
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summarises the headline findings from the latest Active People Survey;
explores the implications of the summer budget and spending review on the
olympic legacy and community sport;
highlights the Government’s emerging priorities and policies for community
sport in anticipation of a new green paper and strategy for sport; and
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
reviews how local authorities are responding to the challenge of keeping
facilities open and increasing participation in the context of austerity.
Active People Survey findings
Analysis of the latest Active People Survey dataset reveals that the number of
people participating in sport reached a high of 15.9 million in October 2012 in the run
up to the London Games (14.6 million in 2006), but there are indications that that
figure is now in a downwards trend, which has attracted scrutiny in the press, and in
parliament.
The latest dataset covering the period October 2014 to March 2015 reveals that:
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Approximately 15.5 million people take part in sport once a week, with
running, tennis and basketball attracting more participants, but 220,000 have
given up sport since October.
Since 2005 and winning the Olympic Games, the sports that have witnessed
the biggest increase in weekly participation are athletics (873,700), cycling
(374,100) and table tennis (31,600).
The number of people playing no sport at all had increased by 1.2 million on
last year. Almost six in 10 adults still do not play sport regularly; nearly
400,000 people have given up sport since the Olympic Games three years
ago
The decline is more evident among those sports that are connected to local
authority facilities, with swimming recording the biggest decline. Gym and
keep fit also recorded its first decline since the Active People Survey began,
falling by 153,000.
The downward trend in swimming is not new. The number of people
swimming has been dropping since October 2009.
Benchmarking against 2005 levels, swimming (-728,800), football (-140,100)
and badminton (-66,800) are the Olympic sports which have seen the biggest
decreases.
Despite its decline, swimming remains Britain’s biggest participation sport,
with 2.5 million people regularly taking part. It is followed by running, cycling,
football and golf.
Other sports which have seen their popularity drop are badminton, table
tennis and Equestrianism.
Cycling is witnessing a surge in participation after the success of Team GB’s
cycling team at London in 2012, extra investment in cycling infrastructure from
the government, and the effect of the Tour de Yorkshire.
Tennis is up from 38,200 to 422,400 people participation a week. This follows
a successful strategy by the Lawn Tennis Association to make tennis
available when and where people want.
Basketball is also up from 21,800 to 152,900 people playing a week,
especially among young people in school and further education.
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Analysis by Sport England into the decline in gym participation reveals changing
tastes in this sector with the number of people doing aerobics style classes declining,
while high-intensity pilates and yoga are on the rise. There is also popular trend
towards informal running with community/volunteer led projects such as Parkrun and
Color Run witnessing increasing participation.
With regards to specific demographic groups:
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The number of 16-25 year olds playing sport has remained stable at 3.8
million once a week, and encouragingly the number of people from black and
ethnic minority backgrounds playing sport has increased by 37,600 in the last
six months, to 2.9 million. There has been strong growth in this group in
tennis, football and basketball.
The number of disabled people who play sport has reduced to 37,300 overall,
due to the decline in swimming and gym, while football, tennis and running
are seeing positive increases from this group.
The gender gap in sport has reduced slightly in the last six months, with 6.86
million women playing sport once a week compared to 8.63 million men (a
gap of 1.78 million).
There has been a small drop (0.5 per cent) in the proportion of people from
lower socio economic groups playing sport each week (now 25.7 per cent).
Again this is connected to the decline in swimming.
Local authorities are encouraged to visit Sport England’s Active People Dataset
Profiling Tool to understand how these participation figures translate to their local
area.
What does the Budget 2015 mean for community sport?
The overall narrative of the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s first Conservative-only
budget since 1996 was one of continued fiscal discipline and deficit reduction.
The budget was followed by a Treasury paper launching the Autumn spending
review in which the Chancellor has confirmed the £20bn cuts to Whitehall budgets.
The Government will ring-fence the NHS, international development, defence and
(parts of) education, meaning departments such as communities and local
government are expected to face further significant cuts. Each unprotected
department has been asked to come up with savings plans of 25% and 40% of their
budget. See LGiU’s briefing on the budget implications for local authorities HERE.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport's (DCMS) annual budget of £1.2bn will
be cut by £30m.
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Around £325 million in public funding is invested in community sport through Sport
England each year, of which around 75 per cent (£243m) is from the National
Lottery, with £83 million coming from the Exchequer through the DCMS. National
funding for sport has actually faired reasonably well over the last few years with the
DCMS contribution to grass-roots sport largely insulated in the Spending Review
2013 with just a 5% budget reduction and funding for elite sport protected altogether.
At the same time, the share of the National Lottery revenues allocated to sport have
risen consistently since 2010-11 which has balanced out the reductions in DCMS
funding and resulted in Sport England’s budget increasing from just over £250 million
in 2010-11 to £325 million in 2014-15.
It has been at the local level where funding for sport and leisure has been hit
hardest. On the back of consistent spending reductions to local authorities since
2010, councils now have 25% less spending power overall. A recent BBC survey
found that local authority expenditure on sport and leisure has been reduced by £42
million since 2010, alongside a number of closures to key facilities. The table below
shows how this varies at a regional level.
North East
- £ 7,147,94 8
North West
-£12,372,959
Yorkshire
-£3,209,581
East Midlands
-£5,038,980
West Midlands
-£9,638,972
East
-£5,114,871
London
-£8,891,367
South West
-£3,347,463
South East
+£12,340,287
Total
-£42,421,854
The LGA meanwhile has calculated that the overall budget being spent by local
authorities on sport and leisure has been reduced from £1.4bn in 2009-10 to £1bn,
so the forthcoming spending reductions will be on top of a cut of around £400m
nationally per year. And the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy
has analysed the sport and leisure budgets without libraries and other cultural
services and calculates the budget purely for sport has fallen £215m a year, from
£832m in 2009-10 to £617m nationally this year, a cut of around 25%. In terms of
staffing, a survey by the Chief Cultural & Leisure Officers Association has estimated
that 6,000 sport and leisure staff have gone since 2010.
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As local authorities mirror central government’s commitments to protect spending for
essential public services and meet the needs of an ageing population and rising care
costs, local authorities can expect to face continued pressure to reduce sport and
leisure budgets. There is also a risk that local authorities will reduce the amount of
discretionary rate relief provided to grassroots sport clubs.
As a consequence of these budget pressures, we are already seeing local authority
funding for sport become more closely tied to social outcomes. Indeed, the
Government has already indicated that it is keen to move away from spending being
focused on driving participation towards delivering better value for money and
achieving wider social goals. Sports bodies meanwhile are beginning to shift away
from being providers of sports for sport’s sake to becoming providers of sport for
social good. In its report Fit for the Future, the Sport and Recreation Alliance has
identified a number of challenges and opportunities that the sports sector must
respond to, and these apply equally to local authority sports commissioners:
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Identifying ways to deliver the same outputs for less, for example through
shared services and more streamlined organisational/delivery models etc.
Improving the evidence base around the impact of sport and recreation to
demonstrate its wider social and economic benefits
Exploiting sport’s commercial appeal to generate more income from private
sources such as sponsorship, broadcasting and commercial partnerships
Exploiting technology more effectively to deliver efficiencies and improve the
customer experience
Ensuring that sport understands its customers better and is able to compete
with alternative forms of entertainment and new market entrants
Leveraging expertise from the private and third sectors to deliver shared
objectives at lower cost.
Other potential knock-on effects of the budget for community sport include potentially
fewer families participating in sport as a result of reductions in benefits and caps on
public sector pay. And with many people participating in sport and recreation at
weekends, the Government’s plan to extend retail opening hours could create a
more challenging and competitive environment for sport and recreation providers.
Proposals to devolve powers to city regions could have a significant impact on sport
and recreation if, for example, they including devolving powers over planning,
transport and infrastructure.
A new strategy for sport
In response to the recent downward trend in the number of people playing sport, the
new sports minister Tracey Crouch has pledged to overhaul the way in which funding
is distributed to sports bodies and will launch a consultation on a new sports strategy
to target funding at grassroots sport and join up sport and physical activity. She said:
“The recent downward trend in participation has demonstrated the current approach
has had its day. It’s not the return we expect for a large investment of public money.
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“I am going to develop a new strategy for sport as a matter of urgency. I will consult
with the sector on a new approach that will strengthen sport across the country,
focus support on those that can deliver the goods and look to take a more joined-up
approach to sport and physical activity, across Whitehall. I am very disappointed by
these numbers. A significant amount of public funding has been invested in sport in
the last decade but the results simply aren’t good enough. It’s time for a change.”
Crouch’s first parliamentary speech as Sports Minister highlights the strategic
priorities likely to be included in the forthcoming consultation and sports strategy:
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Boosting women’s participation in sport. Crouch endorses the
commitments in the Government’s ‘Blueprint’ for women in sport launched
before the election which, through the Women in Sport Advisory Board, is
campaigning for: more women to live active lifestyles and take up traditional
sports like football; more women on the boards of sport bodies; and for more
female sports journalists covering men’s and women’s sport.
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Harnessing sport for social good. In a trend mirrored at the Department of
Education with the Secretary of State for Education putting policy emphasis
on building pupils’ character and resilience, Crouch similarly highlights the
positive role sport plays on young people’s life outcomes. She hints that
Government funding will be more rigorously targeted at improving character &
employment skills, wellbeing, and physical health.
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Grassroots funding. Crouch has pledged to overhaul the way sport is
funding and in this speech she indicates that the Government will become
more rigorous at financing grassroots schemes and sports bodies that are
proven to work to improve participation. She also emphasises the importance
of sporting schemes that promote participation in leadership, coaching and
volunteering opportunities.
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Physical Activity. Crouch emphasises the broader remit of sport to getting
people active. She says: “What matters to me is getting people active. And if
that means someone’s simply striving to register ten thousand steps a day on
their smart phone or watch then that’s fine with me. We need to support
anyone who wants to get active. And that means making sure that funding
goes to those who can make a real difference in participation.”
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Fairness and Equality. Crouch re-confirms the Government’s priorities to
encourage more women and people with disabilities participating and
watching sport. “There’s a huge amount of money at the top of the sporting
pyramid, but precious little trickles down to the lower levels that are so
important for the future.”
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Welfare and Wellbeing of Athletes. Linked to her campaign to get
defibrillators into the local community, Crouch calls on all sports bodies to
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ensure that people participating in sport are and feel safe, from educating
young people on the risks of drug misuse, to ensuring medical teams are
available on the touchlines.
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Elite Sport: The Government has pledged to support elite sports funding
while delivering the Rugby World Cup in 2015, the World Athletics
Championship in 2017, IPC World Championships in 2017 and the Cricket
World Cup in 2019, and maximising the opportunities for tourism and jobs.
Given that, as mentioned above, the sports that have witnessed the biggest decline
in participation are those more reliant on locally co-ordinated facilities, and add to
that the increasing budget pressures on local authorities, a notable absence in
Crouch’s speech is facility management and the role of local authorities in
commissioning and delivering sport and leisure.
In the Conservative’s manifesto the party pledges to: “Improve the quality of
community sports facilities, working with local authorities, the Football Association
and the Premier League to fund investment in artificial football pitches in more than
30 cities across England”. Local authorities will be keeping a watchful eye on the
forthcoming sports strategy and green paper to see how this policy pledge translates
into delivery.
Collaboration with private schools
A significant development in the way that sports facilities could be co-ordinated
locally came from the House of Lords. The former sports minister Lord Moynihan
tabled an amendment to the Charities bill requiring all private schools to open up
their playing fields and sports halls to local communities and state schools as a
condition of their charitable status. The amendment attracted attention in the press
with BBC presenter and former footballer Gary Lineaker lending his support to the
proposal. While there are examples of good practice with some private schools
collaborating with local councils and community groups, many are qualifying for
charitable status through providing scholarships or bursaries only, while their playing
fields and music facilities stay idle in the holidays.
The amendment was debated in the House of Lords in July and ultimately was not
passed after its proposers agreed enough had been achieved through a voluntary,
non-legislative approach. The Charity Commission, concerned about the use of
legislation to achieve the goals of the amendment, has agreed to voluntarily pursue
more work in this area, and has already agreed to establish a research project and
written to the Independent Schools Council to outline a new approach. Private
schools will be encouraged to open up their school facilities on a voluntary basis,
with an online facility to help identify opportunities.
The project presents a potential opportunity for local authorities to develop stronger
partnership arrangements with local private schools, the voluntary sector and sports
and leisure providers, to commission sport using the often high quality sports
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grounds owned by private schools. The Independent has highlighted some examples
where private schools are already opening up their sports facilities:
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Tonbridge School (Kent): Holds a free annual community sports day which
allows 900 local state school students to use Tonbridge School’s Olympicstandard facilities, as well as free specialist coaching to promising state
school pupils.
Sevenoaks School (Kent): operates a sports outreach programme for local
state schools and groups to use its facilities.
Eton: sponsors a neighbouring state boarding school, Holyport College seeks
to ensure that sporting facilities are available to Holyport pupils free of charge
Bedales School (Hampshire): offers its sporting facilities to a number of
local state schools, either free of charge or for a reduced rate. Steep Primary
School makes regular use of Bedales’ swimming pool free of charge and
Bedales.
Harrow School (Middlesex): offers its sport facilities, including its athletics
track, sports centre and tennis courts to local schools and community groups
Charterhouse School (Surrey): offers local state primaries football coaching
on Mondays at its sports centre, as well “fives” training for a neighbouring
state school at its courts. These are provided free of charge.
Millfield School (Somerset): Millfield offers its facilities to the Somerset
Activity Sports Partnership, accommodating 42 schools and 1,300 pupils who
compete in the Somerset Primary School Games. The school also hosts an
annual Mencap Day which makes its sports facilities available to about 800
people with learning disabilities.
Local authorities are recommended to look at their strategic relationships with
Independent Schools in their catchment area and explore opportunities for
partnership to co-ordinate sport and leisure through using the schools’ sports
grounds and facilities.
How are local authorities responding to the challenge?
An analysis of a handful of examples of innovation in the local government sector
reveals four major trends in the way in which local authorities are responding to the
challenge of keeping sports facilities open and getting more people playing sport in
the context of austerity.
1. Commissioning and integration with health
Councils are forging strategic partnerships with Clinical Commissioning Groups and
integrating sport and leisure with health, social care and public health as a means to
make the best use of facilities and ensure sport and leisure is targeted at improving
people’s wellbeing.
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Leeds City Council have built two new sports centres one of which is
combined with health and social care facilities.
East Riding and Yorkshire Council’s award winning leisure services are
maximising the commercial opportunity presented by integrating with health
and social care facilities and an increasing customer base.
Hartlepool has entered into joint commissioning arrangements with Clinical
Commissioning Groups to deliver a successful GP referral programme
2. Community sports trusts
Birmingham City Council has spun-out several sports centres to trusts and seen
significant increases in participation at those it retained by making entry free and
partnering with local health authorities.
3. Exploiting planning and development opportunities
Councils are using planning and development opportunities as a means to secure
new deals for sport and leisure.
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Wealden has redeveloped all its swimming pools with the help of the
Government’s house building premium.
Wiltshire has invested £1.6m to implement its Community Campus
programme ensuring leisure centres are located alongside other local
amenities and public services in areas of residential need.
Hartlepool has created a new leisure development on the outskirts of the
town, one of the first of its kind in the country with inflatable sports domes.
The complex was funded by the sale of council land to a developer. In
releasing the land, the council negotiated a deal where it has become a silent
partner in the leisure business, receiving an income through the profit, and a
guaranteed minimum income in the event of no profit. Hartlepool has
benefitted from new housing and a new leisure development, and the council
has a new income stream.
4. Strategic partnerships
As well as with health, councils are forging strategic partnerships with the voluntary
sector and schools to deliver community sport.
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On the back of 90,000 funding from Sport Scotland, The City of Edinburgh
Council has opened three new school ‘hubs’. Badminton courts, football
pitches and swimming pools in selected schools throughout Edinburgh will
open their doors to the public as part of the proposals, with discounted rates
on offer for youth groups in an attempt to drive up participation. The existing
hubs had seen a rise in sports participation of more than 50 per cent.
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Brent Council has helped its young people to participate in the London Youth
Games despite budget cuts by pump priming a network of volunteers and
coaches to co-ordinate the activities.
In a ‘stage and play’ model, Newcastle City Council has retained ownership of
its facilities but opened them up to a diverse range of agencies responsible for
delivering sport and leisure to residents and visitors.
Outside of the immediate influence of local authorities, another important trend is the
emergence of volunteer led sports schemes such as ParkRun and Color Run which
are witnessing increasing participation. Local authorities are well placed to create,
support and foster ‘resident-led’ sports schemes such as running and cycling clubs.
Comment
The latest participation figures are a telling indication of the impact that cuts to local
authority budgets are having on the delivery of community sport. They are also a
reminder that there is still more to do join up sports policy across Whitehall. Pulling
on the policy levers in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport will not
necessarily drive up participation when the Department for Communities and Local
Government is requiring local authorities to divert resources to those most in need.
In a recent survey with senior sport executives, 90% said they feared government
cuts will harm the chances of local authorities providing adequate sports facilities,
which many already rate as inadequate. More than 95% want 'fresh thinking and
independent input' and 86% want a new ' ten-year cross party sports strategy'.90%
of respondents also said that 'improving community integration, boosting
employability and reducing crime' should be incorporated into new policy and funding
initiatives
As some of the examples above show, local authorities have a vital role to play in
promoting community sport with a clear remit for health and wellbeing, and the
necessary partnerships to commission and deliver effective grass-roots sport. The
forthcoming sports strategy must give thought to how the DCMS will link with DCLG
and support and incentivise local authorities to boost participation and improve life
outcomes through sport. The Society of Local Authority Chief Executives (SOLACE)
and The Chief Leisure Officers Association (CLOA), representing the voice of local
government, have called on the next government to empower local authorities with
greater financial freedoms and controls to promote public health and community
wellbeing, and by extension sport and leisure. For example there are opportunities
through local growth deals for councils to retain a greater share of business rates
which could allow councils experiencing low levels of physical activity to invest their
income in that as a local priority.
Local authorities should also pay close attention to how the latest participation
figures translate in their area and understand the local story behind the national
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headlines. In the case of swimming for example it is important to note that the
decline is not new.
The number of people swimming has been dropping since October 2009. As well as
pool closures other factors are at play such as the cost, access and user experience.
Local authorities are best placed to understand the subtleties of residents’ demand
for sport and leisure services, and with strong local leadership implement the best
options to meet need - the Government’s new sports strategy must recognise the
role councils play in getting people active if it is to deliver a lasting Olympic legacy.
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Sport and Health: a review of UKactive’s Steps to solving inactivity.
Sport and the Economy: generating a return on investment: Policy in Practice
briefing
Sport and mental health: tackling stigma and promoting community wellbeing
Sport, Arts and Culture: pre-general election special
What does the new government mean for community sport?
For more information about this, or any other LGiU member briefing, please
contact Janet Sillett, Briefings Manager, on janet.sillett@lgiu.org.uk
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