Sports England are investing £10.1 Million of Government money to help more schools open their facilities to the public once the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic is over.
The funding, which has been provided by the Department of Education, is in addition to the £1.5m awarded as part of their School Sport and Activity Action Plan that was announced in July 2019.
This funding will help schools deliver extra-curricular activities and open their facilities outside of the school day during evenings, weekends and school holidays. However, large scale capital/building works aren’t eligible items for this funding.
Sports England will work with the nationwide network of Active Partnerships – locally based organisations that specifically focus on getting people in their areas involved in sport and physical activity – to distribute the funding.
Tim Hollingsworth, Sports England Chief Executive, said the money would help more children and young people return to sport and physical activity as soon as it is safe to do so.
“Schools play a vital role in keeping young people active and the pandemic has had a huge impact on their ability to open up their facilities.
“With the new investment, Active Partnerships will provide support and funding for their local schools so they can open after school and during the school holidays, providing more sports clubs and activity facilities to children and the wider community.”
This new funding will help Active Partnerships to support their local schools to understand the challenges in opening their facilities in a Covid-secure manner and could include helping them to buy new equipment for sports and activities, as well as arranging additional cleaning and clear signage to help maintain social distancing.
This investment comes at an important time given the impact coronavirus has had on the activity levels of children and young people and the significant decline in the number of schools offering after-school clubs for pupils or opening their facilities to community use.
