Sport England to invest £120m in boosting diversity across grassroots sports and talent pathways

Sport England has revealed plans to invest £120 million in boosting diversity at grassroots level to offer more and improved opportunities to all young people to “explore and develop their potential”.

The funding is aimed at increasing and enhancing opportunities for talented young athletes in England to explore and develop their athletic potential – regardless of their background or financial circumstances. It’ll support athletes starting out in grassroots environments, as well as those already on talent pathways – formal high-performance sport programmes – and will be available for the 2025 to 2029 funding cycle.

The funding is being delivered by Sport England’s existing partnerships with more than 70 sports organisations, which includes the “turbo-charging” of the Backing the Best programme, run by SportsAid, with a further £1.5m of National Lottery funding.

SportsAid research from 2022 showed it typically costs more than £6,600 a year for young athletes to develop their sporting potential.

These costs can include accessing facilities and coaches, equipment and the travel and accommodation required when training and competing at a national and international level.

Sport England CEO, Tim Hollingsworth, said: “Affluence and activity levels are often closely linked; the wealthier you are, the more likely you are to be active. This starts at a grassroots level and goes right up to high-performance sport.

“But we believe that all talented young athletes should have the opportunity to reach the Olympics or Paralympics – regardless of their background, bank balance or postcode.

“Talent pathways also provide opportunities for young people to develop important life skills, like teamwork, resilience and problem-solving.

“All young people deserve to benefit from these skills as their impact lasts far beyond the few athletes that make it to the podium.

“However, the reality is that the sheer cost of developing athletic potential is a major barrier for young talent.”

Through creating more inclusive talent pathways, Sport England wants to increase participation in sport and boost diversity at a grassroots level in order to give more and better opportunities to all young people to explore and develop their potential, as access to opportunities is unequal and often dictated by wealth, postcode and education settings.

The plan is also to drive greater diversity within national teams, which in turn will demonstrate to the next generation of young people that they could have the same potential to reach the Games.

Sports Minister Steph Peacock hopes the funding can create a more equal talent system.

“This £120 million from Sport England will extend the talent pathway supporting future Olympic and Paralympic success stories from the grassroots up,” she said.

“Dedicated funding means our Team GB and ParalympicsGB athletes can better focus on their training and achieve the kinds of results we have seen in Paris.

“Alongside Sport England, the Government is working to improve access to level the playing field so all of our emerging talent have the best chance of success wherever they are from.”