Policy
Policy, advocacy and lobbying will have a greatly heightened and pro-active role in ISPAL. We will provide an articulate industry voice.
We will act to inform, collate, lead and champion the views of the sector with our good links to Government and key decision-makers so as to influence UK policy as it affects our area.
Current Consultations
January 2010
Legacy of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympics Games
The promise of a legacy was a significant factor in London winning the bid to host the 2012 Olympic Games. Urban and social regeneration along with increased sports participation are the main aims for leaving a legacy that lives after the Games have finished.
A large amount of public spending is being spent on the Olympics and it is important that in this current climate that money is not wasted and that it will be put to good use during and after the Games have finished.
So far the greatest success of the Olympic Games coming to London is the redevelopment of one of the most deprived areas of the city. However the real success will come if those venues and the village are put to good use in the foreseeable future and beyond.
In January 2010, ISPAL was invited to contribute to the DCMS Select Committee into the study around legacy of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
To view ISPAL's response to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport DCMS Select Committee please click here.
October 2009
Play Consultation
Play England has recently published Embedding the Play Strategy, a draft strategic planning guidance to assist local authorities and their partners to fulfil their long term goals, set out in the national Play Strategy.
The draft guidance is open for consultation for four weeks and ISPAL would like your views so that we can send a united response to the consultation.
Embedding the Play Strategy will assist local decision makers in putting children's play at the heart of their local communities. The guidance shows how planning and investing in local play space - and considering children's needs within the wider environment - can benefit children, families and whole communities.
Play England, who will present the guidance and the consultation responses to government for consideration are encouraging all agencies and professionals with a role in delivering the Play Strategy to respond: directors of children's services, children's trust partners, the voluntary and community play sector; as well as planning, transport, public health, housing, schools, police, leisure, parks and green spaces.
To download Embedding the Play Strategy, click here.
The consultation is open until the 30th October 2009. ISPAL welcomes member's views in order to convey a combined response.
To download the consultation response document please click here.
Nov 2008
Open Space Strategies
The London Mayor and CABE Space have published, for consultation, updated planning guidance aimed at ensuring best use of open spaces.
The Open Space Strategies guidance will be of use to all local authorities, whether they already have an open space strategy or if they are putting one together for the first time. Open Space Strategies gives advice to councils on how to prepare and implement their open space strategies using practical examples of different approaches. It is based on updated best practice from the London Plan and lessons learnt from work CABE Space has done with local authorities across England over the past five years. The Mayor's London Plan recognises the valuable contribution that open spaces play in providing a good quality environment. In order to fully understand the provision of open space and the demands and needs placed on them, the London Plan states that the boroughs should produce an open space strategy. The updated best practice guidance will assist this process.
Click here to view ISPAL's response to the consultation.
Jan 2008
ISPAL responses to questions from Jennie Price CEO Sport England
ISPAL is a charity dedicated to the workforce of this relatively new and growing industry. ISPAL has a major role to play in supporting Sport England in developing and delivering the overall improvement agenda across the sector through the direction of policy and the formation and delivery of learning and development. We are very pleased to be invited to share our vision and opinions with Sport England and influence the way forward. It is appreciated that the time scale for responses is very tight and, therefore, the responses below are broad rather than detailed. We are keen to work closely with Sport England in the future to develop strategy and core performance measures that are rooted in good quality information. ISPAL has a comprehensive Information Hub, one of the best and largest collections of such a sport and leisure resource in the UK. We would welcome the opportunity to work more closely with Sport England to enhance the information service that both organisations have access to and provide.
Is there an overarching purpose for S E that would mirror the "4th in the medal table" and the "85% of children doing 2 hours of PE in schools" targets of our two landscape partners?
An overarching issue for Sport England is to establish its focus and its role within the broad church of the sporting landscape. To achieve this, a clear definition needs to be agreed on the understanding of key terms such as sport, physical activity, active leisure etc and where the responsibility for each lies. As important as who/what sits within the remit is what does not, together with a clear understanding of where those not included actually rest. Cross-government conversations are needed to ensure that this is achieved. And they must be exactly that - all strands contributing and agreeing their role within the wider agenda and crucially ensuring that any strategy is totally water-tight and directly linked to Sport England's redefined mission and role. 
The diagram of the sports development continuum indicates the flow between the levels of foundation, participation, performance and excellence. This representation suggests that there is a conscious decision made by the individual when moving to and from participation and performance, and performance and excellence levels. Recognised within the context of this framework are the principles of sports equity, the need for sustainability and the recognition that many organisation, agencies and individuals have a valuable contribution to make to the overall process (Gooding, 2003). More recently, the above continuum has been repackaged as the 'Sports Performance Pathway' which replaces foundation with 'getting started', participation with 'getting involved', performance with 'getting better' and excellence with 'being the best'.
Given the above, ISPAL believes that the overarching purpose for Sport England should be to ensure that there are no barriers to entry into grassroot sport, that those entering stay and stay for life. Clearly, this will impact on the provision of and accessibility to facilities, local amenities, local sports club structure, funding streams, the availaiblity of suitably qualified coaches etc. The objectives within this aim should include:
- Inform current policy and practice around the barriers that people face in taking part in sport at all levels and provide potential solutions
- Identify and research future trends and issues of relevance to the sporting world
- Collect and publicise best practice around the world to inform English and UK development, giving a clear lead and direction on what works and what needs further development.
A measurement of success could well be % per head of population participating in sport weekly. However, the results of the Sport England Active People Survey could be used to inform the development of appropriate measures through the information on key statistics, barriers to participation, areas where participation is very low, attitudes and experiences. The detail of these would need time to develop and this should be done through partnership and negotiation with relevant agencies and organisations to ensure buy-in from relevant bodies and coherence with other performance measurement strands.
What organisations should be eligible for S E investment and how should it be allocated?
Once the role, remit and long term strategy for Sport England has been developed, then it is clear that organisations whose business plans match and mirror the strategic aims and desired output of Sport England programmes are those who should receive investment. The dilemma is more what method should be used to select those organisations, how past success against their business plans can be measured, how future success will be monitored and how poor performance against targets will be addressed. Those organisations, which come immediately to the fore are NGBs and local government.
What outcomes should investment into NGBs deliver and what kind of targets would be reasonable?
NGBs have a continued vital role in introducing people to sport. ISPAL believes that NGBs must provide sustainable opportunities for more people to get involved in sport and that their programmes have to be of high quality and relevant to a wide population to ensure that people stay involved. Alongside this, of course, the country needs world class athletes to act as a focus/role model and NGBs must provide an aspirational route with the aim of realising an athlete's full potential. Sport England needs to develop measurements that are both qualitative and quantitative, reflecting experiences and attitudes and commending programmes that address the hard to reach markets as well as registering the easy wins. Any targets put in place should be developed in partnership with NGBs and through negotiation but with the following provisos:
+ KPIs must be meaningful
+ Simplify the system for collecting the data
+ Clearly decide what data is needed and ensure that this data impacts on quality and/or range of services
+ Each sport service should be treated in the same way so that, where information is collected, comparisons can be made on the same basis
+ Develop and market one tool for self improvement.
What sort of relationship should S E seek to establish and build upon with local authorities?
Sport England's relationship with local government should be two-fold. Firstly, local government is clearly a service provider and commissioner and ISPAL would want Sport England to strengthen its role and relationship with local government around these aspects building on those elements that have a proven track record and recognising and revisiting areas that have been less successful.
Secondly, the importance of sport in the wider context has already been mentioned and local government, through its community leadership responsibilities, has a crucial role to play, at a local level, in bringing together agencies to achieve this wider agenda. Sport England must engage with local government nationally, regionally and locally to ensure that its strategic aims and objectives are integrated into developments and delivery around Local Area Agreements, any subsequent Comprehensive Area Agreements and any other relevant initiatives that local government and its partners are charged with delivering.
What quality measures can be used around clubs, coaches and volunteers in addition to quantitative measures?
Agreed KPIs with partner organisations already exist and it is to be presumed that these have given high quality feedback. ISPAL recommends that Sport England continues to pursue similar quantitative measurements but recognises the value of more qualitative measurements to add value to these. The detail of these would need time to develop and this should be done through partnership and negotiation with relevant agencies and organisations. However, they should, given ISPAL's view of Sport England's overarching purpose, focus on barriers to participation, areas where participation is very low, attitudes and experiences of hard to reach and disadvantaged groups.
For further details please contact us on 0844 418 0077 or e-mail us at policy@ispal.org.uk