We also believe that health is created in and by communities and that our role is to create the supportive conditions to enable it.
We use our Sport England system partner funding to champion policy asks to improve health through movement, using insight to make the case and working closely with many partners to build a unified voice.
For 2025, our policy priorities are underpinned by these beliefs and the vision for a better future that must include children’s voices.
In a nutshell, our policy focus includes:
- creating healthy childhoods
- activating healthy and engaged communities
- designing healthy places
- nurturing thriving, natural environments
- walking, wheeling and cycling towards an active nation.
Driving systemic change at scale
We use our delivery funding to unlock local funding and support from public health, transport and integrated care board partners for places.
With at least 10% of the local population taking part, Beat the Street builds a narrative on how good health could be, with everyone working together with a clear purpose, using the programme as a platform to prototype new ways of working in a place.
The evidenced behavioural change continually benefits the participants well beyond the intervention, with positive outcomes lasting at least two years and possibly longer.
There is so much positive activity already happening in place, but it often is in siloes.
We now see that Beat the Street’s galvanising mechanics bring partners together, supporting policy and professional practices.
The programme also surfaces rich data and marginalised voices tackling structural inequalities by working with local institutions and assets, plus it enables people to act in ways that strengthen them both as individuals and their roles in the community.
We understand that Beat the Street's real impact is in social connection, increased feelings of belonging and trust across a place.
Ultimately, the programme has shown that even small, sustainable steps toward active living can have lasting impacts on community health and social connectedness.
This sustainability manifests itself in three key ways:
- Shared purpose – there is value and energy in bringing partners and community together, developing collective purpose.
- Insight-led direction - using insight to inform next steps.
- Behavioural change - building trust, sense of belonging and agency for citizens that enable small changes in daily behaviour, now and in the future.
We're really proud of what the programme has achieved so far. To date, Sport England’s Beat the Street has engaged 754,000 participants.
The programme has:
- achieved 10% of population engagement on average, comprising 48% adults and 52% children.
- reached a third of participants (27%) belonging to areas of Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) 1 and 2 (the two most deprived areas in a classification of five areas in England). Out of the people reached, 69% are women and 19% have disabilities or a long-term health condition.
- engaged with 1042 schools, 133 community groups and workplaces.
In terms of behavioural change, the data from 31,461 matched pairs across 31 Sport England games shows an average 9% decrease in adult inactivity and 7% reduction in proportion of less active children.
However, the greater change was seen in adults with a disability or long-term conditions, showing an 18% decrease of inactive adults and, for girls, a 9% decrease in less active.
But the impact goes beyond just physical activity as Beat The Street fosters social interaction, strengthens community ties and improves mental wellbeing.
We will also continue to work across the country, including a return to Burnley for the third time as they use Beat the Street to drive forward their collective Outdoor Town vision.
It’s been an incredible journey and eight years in it feels like we are only getting started!
