Source · Select Committees · Culture, Media and Sport Committee
Recommendation 5
5
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Many National Governing Bodies and other sports groups and organisations were not financially stable enough...
Recommendation
Many National Governing Bodies and other sports groups and organisations were not financially stable enough to fully support themselves through the economic shock that was caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. There is a balance to be found between 30 Sport in our communities ensuring enough money is spent to improve participation and support community and grassroots sport, and ensuring organisations can be more financially resilient in an emergency. We recommend that the Government work with Sport England, UK Sport and the National Lottery to review and revise the current funding models to enable sports organisations to accumulate greater reserves and, as a result, have more of a cushion to support themselves with should another situation like the Covid-19 pandemic occur.
Paragraph Reference:
31
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
Whilst the Government does not allow funding to sports Arms Length Bodies to be in advance of need, it agrees that the current funding models should be reviewed to ensure sustainability of sports organisations. The Government will be reflecting on this in the new sport strategy where it will consider lessons learnt of Covid for financial sustainability and governance for sports. The Government’s ambition is to make it easier for people and organisations with good ideas and significant potential to contribute to the ambitions of their strategy and to access the right forms of investment for them. Sport England’s Uniting the Movement strategy commits to distributing funding in new ways, including: continuing to diversify and develop their investment approaches beyond their traditional grant programmes, so our offers reflect the realities of the market, the needs of partners and understand impact. During the pandemic, Sport England has taken decisive action to mitigate many of these risks, including being flexible and responsive with their own resources and investing £270 million of Exchequer and National Lottery funds. However they recognise that given ongoing uncertainty, additional support is likely to be required to help community sport and physical activity to endure the current pandemic and especially to ‘learn the lessons of now’ and seek to be best placed to help the population to be active and enjoy the benefits that this offers long into the future. Sport England’s 2021–22 implementation plan committed to “work[ing] with partners with a major role to play in implementing Uniting the Movement, including NGBs and Active Partnerships, to review our approach to future investment in the spring and summer of 2021.” Sport England is currently adopting new processes to support existing partners who will play a major role in Uniting the Movement, moving away from a more traditional and transactional ‘you apply—we assess and award’ model to focus on setting the foundations of relationships through honest dialogue about partners’ roles and priorities and the collaboration and investment needed to support it. This will benefit ‘system partners’ who play a role in connecting Uniting the Movement to a larger part of the sport and physical activity eco-system through either a systemic (connecting and influencing) role and/or a governing role, and therefore can shape, influence and grow the movement. This includes National Governing Bodies and Active Partnerships, but also a range of other existing partners including National Disability Sport Organisations, organisations working in the field of sport for development and health, and those with a focus on the sport and physical activity sector workforce. Government Response to Committee’s Fourth Report 7