County Sport Partnerships - Looking to the future

Andy Reed OBE. Alliance Director, blogs about his lead role in the appraisal of County Sport Partnerships, why now is a good time for the review and what questions need to be asked.

This year will be a crucial time for the future of sport policy, with fast paced change meaning our sector will be reacting to the outcomes of the new Sport England Strategy in time for the 2017 funding cycle.

As part of the Government Sport and Physical Activity Strategy launched in December 2015 there was a commitment to ‘review’ the roles of County Sport Partnerships (CSPs).

As the Sport England consultation got under way I was asked by DCMS to lead this appraisal and report back to them in June. Of course this is an incredibly tight deadline but it is important that a key part of the delivery system is aligned with the new strategies from DCMS and Sport England in time for this new era.

I have been asked not to review the past performance of CSPs – that is a job for Sport England and the CSPn. But I have been asked in the wider context to take a broad view of their roles and functions in the period ahead. We all know that local funding is under considerable pressure, whilst at the same time more power and responsibility is being devolved to the local level. The Sporting Futures strategy sets out to be a government-wide initiative which requires equally joined up local solutions and cross departmental thinking. The strategy itself recognised the importance of ‘place-based’ solutions and the need for a tailored offer. This is one of the key challenges I have been set. How do we create genuine local solutions without us drifting into problems of creating a postcode lottery of poor service delivery?

The CSPs have for a number of years been a key part of the local sporting landscape and as early feedback confirms, with varying degrees of impact across the country. They can play an important role in joining-up the various parts of the local sporting landscape – which if we are honest certainly needs a helping had all too often.

However, DCMS recognise CSP roles and impact can vary significantly across the country. So I have been asked to create a high-level contextual understanding of what roles are played by different organisations at a local level and how they might interact with the new sport strategy. It’s important to remember at this point that the new strategy will be a fundamental shift in the way government and Sport England engage with the sport and physical activity sector.

I am not sure from my early conversations if everybody has quite grasped that this will not be ‘business as usual’. I will be looking at the localism agenda and what this means for our sector. I am hugely aware that local finances will be tight for all of us in the delivery of the agenda. This is why we need to look deeply at better collaboration to use the limited resources even better. Nobody will be surprised to learn that I have no remit to advocate greater levels of spending – indeed all recommendations need to be within the current spending envelope.

So I have been asked to answer a series of key questions – which form the basis of the Consultation at www.cspfuture.co.uk

(a) Are their current roles and responsibilities clear? Do any of these now not fit with the new strategy? If so, in what way?
(b) What role should CSPs have in delivering the new sport strategy?
(c) Should there a one size fits all approach or should there be flexibility for different CSPs to play different roles in different places?
(d) What should CSPs’ role be in relation to school sport (including, but not limited to, use of the Primary Premium, supporting the transition from primary to secondary provision, supporting the transition from school to community sport, and the School Games)? This will link across to the ongoing review of the School Games and SGOs - ensuring the two reviews are complementary.
(e) What should CSPs’ role be in relation to local authorities and other local provision - both sporting and non-sporting organisations (including local healthcare trusts, LEPs, and other local funding opportunities)?
(f) What should CSPs’ role be in delivering national policy and programmes?
(g) How much central control (e.g. from Sport England) should there be over CSPs, given their sometimes complex funding arrangements with a variety of income sources?

(2) The current CSP structure and set up, including:
(a) Are CSPs appropriately set up and resourced to help them deliver their functions?
(b) Is poor performance being addressed, what is the approach to self-improvement / self-regulation and how can best practice be shared?
(c) Which of the requirements expected of funded bodies in the new sport strategy should be applicable to CSPs? (e.g. in terms of governance, open data, etc)
(d) How can economies of scale be driven across the network to ensure the maximum amount of resource is targeted at frontline delivery and support?

(3) The role of the CSP Network (CSPN) in serving CSPs, both in terms of influencing CSPs at a local level (e.g. through sharing best practice, etc) and at a national level by engaging on behalf of CSPs in relations with Sport England, Government and national partners.

From all of these questions and hopefully some answers the report will conclude with a vision for the CSP of the future; clearly showing and setting out what role they will play in the new strategy.

I know from my own experience of Chairing just one of the CSPs that the landscape has changed significantly over the last decade and will do so again over the next few years. We spend much more of our time working strategically with health, education, schools and the local enterprise partnerships for example. Even the recent budget has implications for the way CSPs may work in the future. The proposal for a Sugar Tax to be used for the Primary PE & Sport Premium and wrap around school extensions combined with the Academisation of all schools by 2022 - leading to a further localism agenda - begs a series of questions about how best local coordination can add value to the additional Primary spending and if CSPs are best placed to help in this local delivery?

The changes to a mixed economy model of local delivery again changes the relationships CSPs will need to co-ordinate or broker beyond their traditional base, especially when we look at the outcomes the government want to see delivered and with new non-sporty types.

As you can imagine this is a hugely exciting opportunity as well as being daunting in its scope. I am pleased to have been asked to voluntarily lead this process by DCMS and grateful for all the support I am receiving from Sport England for secretariat support as well as full cooperation from the CSPn and CSPs. However, whilst I am a great advocate of collaborative leadership and coordination, I also enjoy disruptive thinking. I am not one to advocate doing things the same way just because we have always done them this way! I will be looking very hard at the new strategy and how differently the delivery of sport and physical activity will look over the next decade and I will be looking to find new solutions without throwing out the best practise where it exists. Some change is inevitable even without this review.

I am also aware that I will not be able to please everybody. That is clear even from the early submissions I have received. I will do my best to listen and to take on board the widest range of views before formulating my answers for DCMS. I have approached this work with a vision to think differently and be open to new ideas. That means I want to hear from the disruptors out there. Those who think differently and bring solutions. The one thing I can’t abide about our sector at times Is the constant criticism of others in the sector. I want to see positive and ideas for better and greater collaboration. I have no fixed view of the answers to any of the questions posed for me. So genuinely I would urge you to submit your views via the micro site and join in the conversation.

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