Sport England

Following the launch of Sport England's new strategy, we want to know how we can best distribute National Lottery funding in order to support sport in your community.

We are creating a world-leading community sport system

Sport England wants to create a world-leading community sport system. As our strategy recently set out¹, this means investing our funds and working with partners to achieve three outcomes.

Our strategy will focus on achieving three outcomes

We are looking for a new partnership between Government, its agencies and the National Governing Bodies of sport to empower those with the passion and expertise to do even more. We will also continue to work alongside local authorities, who drive local provision and are a key partner in delivering a world-leading community sport infrastructure. Overall, our aim is to create a vibrant sporting culture in England. Our role will be to focus exclusively on sport rather than the broader physical activity agenda. Within this, our responsibility is for community sport; with the Youth Sport Trust focusing on school sports and UK Sport focusing on elite sport.

We want to make sure that the National Lottery funding we provide directly to community sport organisations, local authorities and the voluntary and community sector³ is distributed in the best way possible. We currently have around £45 million per year to invest in projects that will play a vital part in ensuring the growth in participation, which we need to develop a world-leading community sport system.

Outcome 1 – Excel

Developing and accelerating talent. By investing in individual sports, making sure that many more talented performers move on to elite programmes and sporting success.

Outcome 2 – Sustain

Sustaining current participation in sport by ensuring that participants have a high quality experience and working to reduce the "drop-off" in sports participation between the ages of 16 and 18.

Outcome 3 – Grow

Increasing regular² participation in sport by 200,000 adults per annum (1m in total by 2012/13) and working with the Youth Sport Trust to enable young people to access at least five hours of sport a week.

We are keen to respond to these views in the way we distribute National Lottery funding and have developed a package of proposals which we would like to put into place. This package of proposals is designed to enable local community sport organisations to continue to access vital funding in a simpler and more efficient way. Below are the proposals on which we want your views.

Based on these proposals we want to hear your views about three issues:

How we use our National Lottery funding in the best way
How we can improve our application and award processes
If there are particular features of the Community Investment Fund that you value or features we should ensure that we do not replicate in any new arrangements.

We now want to get your views on how we should use National Lottery funding to support community sport during the period from April 2009 to March 2013.

Earlier this year we consulted our partners on what should be in Sport England's strategy⁴. Findings from those consultations suggested that we should:

Continue to invest in community sport, but in a way that positioned National Governing Bodies of sport as major funding partners alongside local government
Recognise the contribution that local government and local non-sporting third sector partners have to make to growing and sustaining participation in sport
Work harder to 'join up' current funding streams.

Proposal 1a: Develop a new way of supporting community-based sports projects, designed to make funding more flexible, clearer and responsive to future needs.	We want to put the majority of our open access investment into regular funding rounds for projects which meet specific themes which are important to the development of community sport. In addition, we want to create funds which address specific needs. These are: Sustainable investment in the facilities that community-based sports clubs need to give their participants a high quality experience. Funding would be focused on encouraging larger investment from private and public sector investors A small grants scheme, with grants between £300 and £10,000 for investment in, for example, new equipment, coaching and community sport leadership and school-club links A dedicated innovation fund to identify and pilot best practice in all aspects of community sport, making sure that we are supporting new ways of increasing participation and sustaining lifelong involvement in sport.
Proposal 1b: Change our application and award processes so that money reaches those who deserve it more efficiently	We want to design a more efficient application and award process, while retaining high quality standards. This will be underpinned by existing plans to move from regional to centralised decision-making and management of the funding system, while retaining access to the knowledge and expertise we have built up at a local level.
Proposal 1c: Reform the way in which we currently distribute National Lottery funding for sport	We want to change the application process and eligibility criteria for the current Community Investment Fund in order to enable money from this fund to be dedicated to the new funds set out above. We want to be able to anticipate and therefore minimise disruption that any transition from existing to new arrangements would cause to potential applicants if the proposed changes are adopted.
Proposal 2 (alternative option):	Retain the status quo. In making these proposals, we must also consider the possibility of retaining the current National Lottery funding arrangements – that is retaining the current regionally-focused application process, eligibility criteria and decision-making of the Community Investment Fund - and not making the changes proposed above. We believe that this would not address the findings from our consultation to date (particularly to join up existing funding streams) and would be less successful in addressing the objectives set out in our new strategy.

Following this consultation we want to act quickly

In order to put into place the changes set out above, we are, subject to the outcome of this consultation, proposing to:

Continue to allocate the Community Investment Fund budget in line with funds remaining and on the basis of existing award eligibility criteria until notice of closure
Publish notice for the implementation of a new funding system, application processes and award eligibility criteria, following the findings of this consultation
Launch a new funding system, taking account of the findings of this consultation.

Please note that there are only limited funds remaining in the Community Investment Fund – for the current financial year from April 2008 to March 2009, £79m was available in total. New commitments are made on an on-going basis and there can be no guarantee that sufficient funding will remain for an application. For up to date information on the remaining, available funds in your region and advice on your current or potential application, please see www.sportengland.org or contact our advice line on 0845 850 8508. Potential applicants are strongly recommended to check the status of remaining funding in their region before making an application.

How can I take part?

This consultation is aimed at anyone who is interested in National Lottery funding for sport. This includes interested members of the public, Lottery grant beneficiaries and professionals and organisations working within sport. This is your opportunity to influence the way in which we distribute around £45 million a year of National Lottery funding which can make a real difference to the future of sport in England.

The consultation is open between Wednesday 25 June and Tuesday 16 September. You can participate by completing a questionnaire in a number of ways:

Online: Please click here to proceed to the questions

Post: You can print out this consultation document, fill it in and then send back to us at:

Sport England
National Lottery Funding Consultation
Business Reply No. WC4093
3rd Floor
Victoria House
Bloomsbury Square
London, WC1B 4SE

Click here to download

Phone: Contact the Consultation Enquiry Line on 0845 850 8508 for a copy of the questionnaire to be posted to you.

Once all the consultation responses are collated and analysed, we will present our findings in autumn 2008.

¹ Launched on 6 June 2008, http://www.sportengland.org/index/news_and_media/news_pr/sport_england_strategy_2008-2011.htm
² Regular is defined here as three sessions of moderate intensity sport each week.
³ This is in addition to the funding we will provide to National Governing Bodies for sport.
⁴ January 2008, letter from Jennie Price, Sport England Chief Executive to wide range of sports stakeholders including National Governing Bodies, County Sports Partnerships, National sporting organisations, local authorities and individuals. Findings published on http://www.sportengland.org/sport_england_strategy_2008-2011.pdf. This consultation was followed by another in April 2008.