Planning – the case for the project
People in Surrey are half as likely to take part in sport/physical activity if they are disabled when compared to non-disable people (average of each APS result for 1 x 30 over the last 9 years = 21.3% of disabled people versus 44.5% of non-disabled people in Surrey). There are significantly fewer opportunities for disabled people to take part in organised sport/physical activity either in specific sessions or inclusive sessions (Active Surrey activity finder has 164 listed opportunities for Disabled participants versus 389 opportunities for non-disabled participants).
Many clubs, leisure centres and NGBs are keen to increase the opportunity for disabled people to participate in their sport/activities but the biggest limiting factor is a skilled (and most importantly) confident workforce to deliver these activities. We identified over 50 clubs and 15 Leisure Centres that wanted to involve more disabled participants but were unable to drive this forwards without a coordinated campaign to upskill their workforce and also to increase awareness amongst disabled people of the opportunities that became available.
We discussed this with a sample of clubs, leisure centres and NGBs and ascertained that there was patchy support for coaches/instructors of disabled people and from their perspective having a confident workforce in place was a significant barrier to feeling able to promote themselves as being providers of inclusive activities.
What did the project aim to achieve? Was it successful?
By developing the sport/physical activity workforce in Surrey we aimed to increase the capacity to deliver inclusive and disability-specific sport/physical activity sessions across the County.
We worked with a targeted number of sports coaches and leisure centre staff to increase both their skills/knowledge and confidence to deliver sessions that include disabled people. Following this phase we supported them through a coordinated county-wide promotion and marketing campaign to drive new participants to their inclusive/disability-specific sessions. We ran our first "Inclusive Sport Month" during which we encouraged participating clubs/centres to put on free/discounted activities for disabled participants and ran a countywide promotional campaign.
The month included an “Inspiring Inclusive Sport” event allowing for further CPD, showcasing good practise and networking for 45 coaches/instructors, additional CPD workshops for coaches/instructors and 9 activity providers putting on taster activities with sustainable exit routes provided. 165 disabled people took part in these opportunities
Effective local leadership - brokering relationships, influencing stakeholders and co-ordinating delivery.
We set up a Strategic Working Group to drive participation by disabled people in Surrey. This group comprises Active Surrey, local authority SDOs, NGBs (e.g. Tennis Foundation, Surrey FA), EFDS, local disability charities/sports organisations (e.g. YMCA East Surrey, Wheels for All, Chelsea FC Foundation), county-wide providers of services for disabled people (Surrey Choices) and representative user-led disability organisations (Sight for Surrey, Surrey Coalition of Disabled People). This group identified the constituent parts of this project as being key to addressing low levels of participation locally and considered barriers from a disabled participant's perspective.
The existence of this group galvanised action amongst local Boroughs and Districts and led to the creation of an inclusive sport action plan which many stakeholders inputted into. This plan is moving into its second year of implementation.
Innovative practice – product, service and / or processes used
Where there were not off-the-shelf CPD products to support learning amongst our target cohort of coaches and instructors we developed bespoke local opportunities. For example, bringing Metro Blind Sport’s Director to speak to coaches/instructors about what it feels like to be a visually impaired person being coached/instructed. We ran two workshops for leisure staff on running personal training sessions with people with long term neurological conditions such as Parkinson, Multiple Sclerosis and Motor Neurone Disease. Our Inspiring Inclusive Sport evening brought together speakers from local practitioners in: Mixed Ability Sport; Boccia England’s Coach of the Year 2016, UK Deaf Sport’s Director of Participation; learning disability charity - the Halow Project; multi-sport and inclusion champions East Surrey YMCA; and a local England LD cricket player with 45 coaches/instructors.
Evidence of sustainability and business development
The nine providers we selected to work with during Inclusive Sport Month were all those who committed to continue to deliver similar activities on an ongoing basis and were all regular participants in the CPD programme developed to support this workforce.