Sport England funding to deliver Uniting the Movement to keep nation active

British Rowing is amongst a group of over 120 organisations working in partnership with Sport England to level up access to sport and physical activity across the country

British Rowing will receive expertise, support and an investment of £1,494,805 plus £350k for START (the governing body’s incredibly successful Olympic talent ID initiative) of government and National Lottery funding from Sport England to co-deliver its ten-year Uniting the Movement strategy.

Sport England research shows that some groups are typically less active – like women, people with long-term health conditions, disabled people, people from ethnically diverse communities and lower socio-economic groups. Right now, the opportunities to get involved in sport and activity – and reap the rewards of being active – depend too much on your background, your gender, your bank balance and your postcode.

British Rowing is implementing its Rowing: Everyone’s Sport and Committed to Inclusion plan to tackle inequalities in rowing, so that we can truly make it more accessible to all. We are prioritising activities that will have the biggest impact, including our new GROW programme which provides opportunities for disadvantaged school children. We are also continuing to evolve our Talent Pathway to create a more diverse pathway population, as well as investing to improve our community offer (on water and indoor) to tackle societal inequalities. Our projects will also have an increased focus on recreational rowing, coastal rowing communities and adaptive rowing.

Over £550million is being invested in total, with the partners, including British Rowing, receiving funding for up to five years. This new funding model from Sport England provides longer-term financial security as organisations recover and reinvent from the Covid-19 pandemic.

All partner organisations were selected by Sport England due to their ability to influence change and improvement at the heart of the system they are a part of, no matter how big or small.  This is the first step on a journey to revolutionise Sport England’s approach to long-term partnerships as it seeks to partner and collaborate with innovative organisations to deliver Uniting the Movement and build a nation where everyone can get active.

Tim Hollingsworth, CEO of Sport England, said: “Sport England’s goal is to get everyone active– no matter who they are, where they live, or what their background is. But we know that certain groups – such as people on lower incomes – are more likely to be inactive. We can only innovate and tackle inequalities effectively by thinking about long-term change; Uniting the Movement is a long-term vision, and our funding approach needs to reflect that. Changes to our funding model will help us achieve our goal, by making it easier for our partners to do what they need to do to level up and deliver.”

British Rowing CEO Alastair Marks said: “We are proud to support Sport England’s Uniting the Movement to make sport more accessible to everyone.

“By delivering on our Rowing: Everyone’s Sport strategy, we aim to work with partners across the sport to create opportunities across all communities to help people to row and enjoy our sport be it indoors, on the river or on the sea, enjoying its benefits and the values that drive through the heart of our community. We share Sport England’s vision for the future and look forward to welcoming more people to the sport of rowing a result.”

Find out more about Sport England’s ten-year vision Uniting the Movement here.