In recognition of the need to boost participation levels, particularly in disadvantaged areas, the government has recently announced a number of policy initiatives and funding programmes for local sport clubs. Sport England recently announced it will invest £360m of National Lottery and government money on expanding its network of “partner organisations” to deliver its strategy to improve access to sport for disadvantaged communities. The funding is in addition to the £193m announced in March and brings the number of partners up to 121. Sport England has also been awarded £6.5m to invest in innovative ideas for improving sport participation in areas where activity levels are the lowest.
A key programme for boosting schools’ role is the PE and Sport Premium, which allocates £320m directly to primary schools to provide 30 minutes of physical activity daily. The fund can be used to pay for improvements to the quality of PE delivered by building on core activities and should ensure the changes are sustainable for the long-term.
The Department for Digital Culture Media and Sport (DCMS), which has responsibility for youth issues, published a review of government youth policy in February. The review found that young people wanted an increase in regular activities, the opportunity for “adventures away from home”, increased volunteering opportunities and activities that support mental and physical wellbeing and skills development.
The government’s response to the review was included in its levelling up white paper published in March, which itself incorporated many measures announced in last year’s Spending Review, including £300m for building new or renovating existing youth centres. It also included £200m to invest in 8,000 state-of-the-art community football pitches and £22m to refurbish more than 4,500 public tennis courts in an effort to boost youth engagement in grassroots sports.
Earlier government policy drives have sought to use sport as a means to tackle youth violence. In 2019, the previous government convened a round table discussion between youth leaders and sports authorities to discuss ways to harness the influence of football and other sports to engage young people at risk of involvement in violent street crime. It resulted in the Premier League pledging to increase the reach of its Premier League Kicks community outreach programme, while Sport England vowed to boost investment in disadvantaged areas to develop more “satellite clubs” that bridge the gap between school and community sport.
Football club programmes
Many professional football clubs have a youth engagement and community programme which offers free weekly coaching sessions delivered by or in conjunction with youth workers, often in deprived areas of cities, on an open access basis. Not only do the sessions give young people something fun and positive to do but they are also a good way to engage hard-to-reach groups with wider support networks for issues linked to finding work and accessing benefits, and for mental health and substance misuse problems.
England’s top professional football division, The Premier League, runs Premier League Works programme, delivered in partnership with the Professional Footballers Association and the Prince’s Trust, for young people not in education, employment or training. It provides young people with support to develop their personal and social skills giving them the confidence and the experience they need to make a positive transition back into education, access training or gain meaningful employment.
A total of 25 clubs work with local partners such as Job Centre Plus and local referral agencies to ensure that young people with the highest need access the programme. Working with small groups the club provide intensive one-to-one and group work which focuses on each individuals’ needs. People on the programme are given the opportunity to undertake a qualification and take up a work placement, while a community action project helps them to develop fundamental skills such as teamwork and communication.
For the last 15 years, Premier League Kicks has been working with young people in some of the most deprived local communities. By engaging them in constructive activities, including a wide variety of sports, coaching, music and educational and personal development sessions, sports participation rates have improved and the authorities report reductions in antisocial behaviour. Thanks to another three year funding commitment from the Premier League, the programme has grown so that 90 professionals clubs will deliver sport and education sessions at over 700 venues in local communities where projects are needed most.
One of the key elements for the success of Kicks is the workforce, with 20 per cent of the coaching and delivery staff being former participants.
The next three years of the programme will also see more targeted provision for young people requiring extra support. Working in partnership with Children in Need, up to 48 professional football clubs will provide mentorship and guidance to children and young people at risk of or affected by violence. Each project will work in partnership with local agencies to respond to the needs of children and young people locally, providing activities and support including targeted workshops and mentoring; with the aim of contributing to a reduction in youth violence and creating safer, stronger and more inclusive communities
Reaching young people
Many youth organisations use a similar approach, offering activities and running coaching programmes that aim to reach young people who don’t – or struggle to – access sport and support. For example, OnSide youth zones deliver a range of activities from purpose-built centres seven days a week, with detached youth workers running football sessions in local parks, while StreetGames runs a national programme aimed at taking sports sessions out into inner city communities where opportunities to play sport are limited (see practice examples).
Many smaller charities offering sports and activities also employ youth work skills to engage struggling young people. For example, Boxing Futures has harnessed the exercise and discipline benefits of boxing to work with groups of young men involved in crime and antisocial behaviour. The young people not only learn new skills but evaluation shows that more than four in five going on to get a job or training position.
Such positive outcomes illustrate the benefits of sport for transforming the life chances of young people and why policymakers and funders are keen to back them.
