Alliance Chief Executive responds to latest grassroots participation figures

The latest participation figures for grassroots sports were published in Sport England’s summer release of the Active People Survey.

The statistics, covering the period between October 2014 to March 2015, show that 15.5 million people did some kind of sport once a week, every week – 222,000 fewer than six months ago, but still 1.4million more than in 2005/06.

There were decreases in participation levels noted for swimming and the gym sector in particular, and recognition that participation in grassroots sports fluctuates.

On the positive side of the figures, there were notable increases in participation for some sports. Sports that saw an increase in participation include:

• Running – up 63,000 to 2.1 million a week – following a popular trend towards informal running like parkrun and Color Run
• Tennis – up 38,200 to 422,400 a week – following significant investment by the Lawn Tennis Association in better understanding its customers and making more tennis available when and where people want
• Basketball – up 21,800 to 152,900 a week – especially among young people in school and further education.

There was also reassuring news for team sports, with the latest figures showing that 2.7 million people play a team sport once a week. This includes football, both codes of rugby, hockey and netball.

The survey reports that the number of 16-25 year olds playing sport remained stable at 3.8 million playing once a week. The number of people from black and ethnic minority backgrounds playing sport increased by 37,600 in the last six months, to 2.9 million. This was reported as the second highest rate ever and includes strong growth in tennis, football and basketball.

The number of disabled people who participated in sport is down 37,300 overall and is attributed, in large measure, to the decline in swimming and gym participation. Some popular disabled sports, such as football, tennis and running, are seeing positive increases.
Meanwhile, 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 9.15 million men (a gap of 1.78 million).

There has been a 0.5% drop in the proportion of people from lower socio economic groups playing sport each week (now 25.7%). There has been a slightly larger fall (0.8%) in the proportion of people from higher socio-economic groups playing (now 38.7%).

As well as playing sport, the Active People Survey data shows how people are involved in sport – for instance, through club membership, tuition or coaching, through competitive sport or as volunteers.

• 9.6 million people (16 plus) are members of a sports club – 22% of the English population.
• Around 6.9 million people (16 plus) received sports coaching in 2014/15, while 5.9 million took part in competitive sport. Both activities have declined since 2005/6.
• There are also 5.6 million people (16 plus) who volunteer regularly in sport, according to the latest figures.

Emma Boggis, Chief Executive of the Sport and Recreation Alliance said:"These results show a very mixed picture for sport. Amongst the headline figures, there are also some stand-out success stories and the challenge now is to turn those examples of best practice into common practice."

"Sport continues to face some very challenging circumstances, including countrywide falls in local authority funding, and real average incomes only just returning to the levels they were at seven years ago. The fact is that many people who want to play sport face increasing costs to do so, whilst having less money in their pocket."

On DCMS announcement of a new funding strategy for sport:

"We have been advocating for a cross departmental sport strategy for some time. It makes sense for sport and it makes sense for government so we look forward to working with the team at DCMS to explore how we can make it happen."

"Cuts in funding at a local level are often translated into higher usage charges for swimming pools, leisure centres and pitches and the results we see today are partly a reflection of that."

"However the picture is a complex one and that is why the Alliance has just launched a new programme of activity to identify the key challenges for the sector and provide NGBs with the tools to tackle them. The Fit for the Future programme will better equip governing bodies to meet their participation targets."

Sport England’s Chief Executive, Jennie Price, said: "These are really disappointing results. This is especially the case for swimming, where a serious, long-term decline needs to be reversed."

"Whilst we’ve seen the number of people playing sport increase by 1.4 million since we won the right to host the London 2012 Games, these results highlight that our current investment model has delivered all the growth available in the traditional markets for sport."

"We have already started working with a wider range of partners and will be looking further at with whom we work, and what we invest in, to get more people playing sport. For example in basketball, we are now working closely with a number of charities and these results show that basketball is on the rise."

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