Sector Update - April 2023

London Sport Award winners announced

The winners of the seventh London Sport Awards, supported by the City of London Corporation, were announced on 23 March. The 2023 edition of the annual awards event celebrated volunteers, organisations, companies, charities, and individuals who had gone above and beyond to improve the lives of Londoners through sport and physical activity. Discover the 10 award winners here.

New funding to keep leisure centres with pools afloat

Publicly-owned leisure centres with swimming pools have been handed a financial boost following the announcement of a major new fund in last month’s Spring Budget. The Chancellor of the Exchequer outlined that ￡63 million of new money will be made available in a one-year fund. Learn more.

Join the London Sport team

If you're interested in joining the London Sport team, several exciting opportunities are currently available. This is a chance for you to join us on our journey and achieve our mission of helping Londoners live longer, healthier and happier lives through physical activity.?Discover our vacancies.

House of Sport Changes

London Marathon Events (LME), the owners of Marathon House, will take over the management of House of Sport from London Sport from 4 April 2023. Learn more about the changes here.?

London Sport and Decathlon join forces to help Londoners lead healthier and more active lives

Decathlon, the world’s largest sports retailer, and charity London Sport have renewed their partnership for a second year as they continue in their endeavour to make sport accessible to more?Londoners. This follows a successful year of supporting London Sport’s Sport Tech Hub in 2022. Read more on the partnership here.

Social Prescribing and physical activity

To mark this year’s Social Prescribing Day, London Sport, Regional Physical Activity Advisor, Rob McLean highlighted the importance of social prescribing and its role in positively impacting people with health conditions across the capital. Learn more.

Plus the top headlines from...

Funding

Funding for youth organisations

The UK Youth Fund in partnership with Pears Foundation will provide targeted funding to youth organisations delivering high-quality youth work to ensure doors stay open, bills get paid and youth workers receive the salaries they deserve. This will help to ensure young people continue to be supported at this most difficult of times by the youth organisations and youth workers on whom they’ve come to depend.

Britford Bridge Trust

The Trust generally makes grants of up to ￡30,000 for projects that contribute to a range of objectives, including addressing poverty, education, health, the advancement of the arts, culture, heritage, amateur sport, citizenship and community development. Applications can be made throughout the year. Click here to learn more.

Children and Young People

British Gymnastics Physical Education Teachers Trampoline Award

Rutlish Boys Comprehensive, School, London Borough of Merton is working with afPE to provide and host this course. All delegates must be qualified teachers of physical education, in their third or fourth year of training, a PGCE student, Schools Direct Trainee, SCITT, or an Overseas Trained PE teacher. Get in contact to learn more.

Government School Sport Funding Webinar

The Government has announced over ￡600 million of ringfenced funding to support primary school physical activity and sport, alongside an additional ￡22 million of funding for the nationwide network of 450 School Games Organisers.

To provide schools with more details on what the funding announcement means for them, the Youth Sport Trust is hosting an online briefing on Tuesday 18 April. This event is open to all schools including members and non-members of the Youth Sport Trust. Register here.

Inclusion and Disability

This Girl Can launches the latest phase of its campaign

This Girl Can’s research shows that 2.4 million fewer women than men strongly agree that they enjoy getting active – this is what they call the enjoyment gap.?And because enjoyment is one of the biggest drivers of activity, it’s a gap they are intent on closing. They have now launched a new phase of the campaign to help tackle this barrier: This Girl Can -?With You.?Access the latest resources and tools here.

National Youth Swimming Gala 2023

British Blind Sport is partnering with Swim England to host its annual National Youth Swimming Gala. The free event provides a fantastic opportunity for blind and partially sighted young people aged 3 -17 from all around the UK to take part in fun and competitive activities. Register here.

Facilities and Space

Cold swimming pools and youth clubs closing

According to UK Active, 29 leisure centres, pools, or gyms have closed in the past year due to the energy crisis. This piece explores why the UK government must accept that gyms and pools are as fundamental to our health and wellbeing as a GP surgery or a pharmacy – and help them accordingly.

Physical Activity for Health

Resources and Links to help you better understand Social Prescribing

Our friends at London Plus have collated some useful resources and information to help you better understand Social Prescribing and some of the key, related issues. Access the resources here.

GPs could prescribe exercise and art instead of pills

GPs in Aberdeen could be encouraged to prescribe nature walks and volunteering instead of pills as part of efforts to save millions of pounds. The city’s integration joint board says the long-lasting effects of Covid, alongside inflation and the cost-of-living crisis, are increasing the pressures on its balance sheet. Read more.

To read the full PDF Sector Update click?here.