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What we'll do

This is how we'll turn our vision and our mission into action.

Introducing Uniting the Movement

Our vision Our mission Why moving matters What we'll do How we'll work How we'll know if we're successful
Two pensioners clap hands during a British Gymnastics Love to Move session.
We'll focus our time and resources on three key objectives:
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1
Advocating for movement, sport and physical activity
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2
Joining forces on five big issues
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3
Creating the catalysts for change

Advocating for movement, sport and physical activity

Distributing Exchequer and National Lottery money is an important part of our role, but we’re so much more than a funder.

We have a broader responsibility: to advocate for the transformational impact sport and activity can have on the nation’s health and wellbeing.

For us, it’s more than just being a part of the change that’s needed so everyone can benefit from being active – we want to help lead and shape that change.

To do this demands much more from us than our investment. It’s why we’ve forged great partnerships and built a network of relationships that span national and local organisations far beyond what you might describe as our ‘traditional’ sector, because we know we can make the biggest difference when we share our expertise and experience.

Looking forward, we’ll lead on a common purpose and a common agenda, one that every person and every organisation committed to creating change can get behind. 

This strategy requires us to shape the conversation and the evidence on the value of movement, sport and physical activity so that it resonates with partners, both within and outside our sector. It’s why relationships and influence are key pillars in this strategy, alongside investment.

We know many will share our aims, but not everyone will see how a common agenda for a more active nation can help them achieve those aims. It’s our role to do just that.

In practice, this means we'll:

  • Continue to build, establish and grow partnerships and a common purpose across both the government and our sector to join up policies, strategies and approaches;
  • Continue to develop and deliver behavioural change campaigns, building on the success of This Girl Can, We Are Undefeatable and Join the Movement, to put movement, sport and physical activity at the forefront of national conversations;
  • Keep building evidence that shows the links between the issues we all care about as a nation and the value of movement, sport and physical activity as part of the solution;
  • Grow the extent to which we communicate, both to people and organisations, the power of getting active to help strengthen public consensus around the importance of being physically active.

Joining forces on five big issues

The ambitions at the heart of Uniting the Movement, and all the choices we’ve made, are the result of a process that’s involved thousands of people and hundreds of organisations.

In these many conversations, whether they’ve happened in the Houses of Parliament, in a community hall or online, the same issues and opportunities have emerged. It’s this shared sense of what matters to us all that are our five ‘big issues’.

These are the things that will need people to work together to address. They’re some of the biggest challenges to an active nation over the next decade and are also the greatest opportunities to make a lasting difference.

A young man in a wheelchair playing boccia in a sports hall.

Each big issue is where we see the greatest potential for preventing and tackling inequalities in sport and physical activity. Each one is a building block that, on its own, would make a difference, but together, could change things profoundly.

We’re not starting from scratch here. But we’re now ramping up our momentum and ambition. Building on the work that we, and many others, have already begun, we’ll work over the next decade on these big issues:

Recover and reinvent icon - the black outline of a cog, with a circular arrow inside it, on a white background

Recover and reinvent

Recovering from the biggest crisis in a generation and reinventing as a vibrant, relevant and sustainable network of organisations providing sport and physical activity opportunities that meet the needs of different people.

Recover and reinvent
Connecting communities icon - three circles connected by curved lines on a white background

Connecting communities

Focusing on sport and physical activity’s ability to make better places to live and bring people together.

Connecting communities
Positive experiences for children and young people icon - the black outline of a smiley face on a white background

Positive experiences for children and young people

Unrelenting focus on positive experiences for all children and young people as the foundations for a long and healthy life.

Positive experiences for children and young people
Connecting with health and wellbeing icon - black outlines depicting two plasters forming a cross, on a white background

Connecting with health and wellbeing

Strengthening the connections between sport, physical activity, health and wellbeing, so more people can feel the benefits of, and advocate for, an active life.

Connecting with health and wellbeing
Active environments icon - a black outline of a netball court on a a white background

Active environments

Creating and protecting the places and spaces that make it easier for people to be active.

Active environments

Catalysts for change

If we work together, we believe the five big issues in this strategy will have the most profound impact on increasing and sustaining activity levels across the nation.

But we can only give them the focus they need if we also acknowledge how we must change and improve what we deliver. 

We need to create the right conditions for change: across the people, organisations and partnerships with the potential to contribute and help turn our shared plans and ideas into action. We know there are specific capabilities, information, approaches and relationships that - used in the right way - will make progress possible. These are:

1
Effective investment models
The right kinds of investment, timed well and delivered skilfully can stimulate demand, provide opportunities to get active, enable innovation, encourage collaboration, reduce inequalities and enable greater sustainability.
2
Realising the power of people and leadership
The people who spend their time helping others to be active are our most precious resource and their potential is limitless. They’re the key to adopting and achieving the ambitions in this strategy.
3
Applying innovation and digital
Times are changing, and so are people’s expectations. In the face of significant opportunity and change, it’s critical innovation, including digital, is applied to the big issues that are holding many more people back from being active.
4
High-quality data, insight and learning
Key to collaborative action is a shared understanding of the opportunities and the challenges that we face together.
5
Good governance
Good governance, and a commitment to positive, effective, safe delivery of opportunities at every level is how intentions and ambitions are enshrined into ways of working.

Catalysts for change

Introducing Uniting the Movement

Our vision Our mission Why moving matters What we'll do How we'll work How we'll know if we're successful

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