Sport England: Turning Paralympic inspiration into action

£1 million of sports equipment for disabled people is soon to arrive on the doorsteps of organisations across the country, thanks to 141 awards announced today by Sport England.

From canoeing to cricket, boccia to bowls and sailing to shooting, the equipment will open up sporting opportunities for thousands of disabled people across the country.

The awards are part of Sport England’s ‘Get Equipped’ fund which was designed to build on the success of the London 2012 Paralympic Games. It acknowledges that, despite the huge success of the Games, many organisations and clubs delivering sport struggle to provide sporting opportunities for disabled people because of a lack of access to specialist equipment. If equipment does exist it is often old, poor quality and can put people off giving sport a go. Yet where the right equipment is available, there is often a high demand resulting in waiting lists and lost opportunity to get people involved in sport.

Sport England has responded to this demand by today distributing over £1.1 million of Lottery funding to organisations across England to allow them to provide specialist equipment which will help make sport a practical choice for many more disabled people.

Lisa O’Keefe, Sport England’s Director of Insight, says:

"A record number of disabled people now regularly take part in sport and the overwhelming response to this fund shows the strength of support from clubs and organisations to keep this momentum going.  We are therefore delighted to be making these awards, opening up many more sporting opportunities to disabled people across England."

Sport England received 236 requests for funding totalling £1.8 million, illustrating the huge demand for specialist equipment. The quantity and quality of applications has led to an increase on the original budget for ‘Get Equipped’ with an additional £100,000 being invested through this programme. Some of the most popular requests were for equipment for wheelchair basketball, cycling, rowing, sailing and athletics.

The number of disabled people playing sport regularly is on the rise. In December 2013, Sport England’s Active People Survey - an annual, in-depth measure of the nation’s sporting habits – revealed that a record number of disabled people in England now play sport each week. The number of disabled people aged 16 and over playing sport once a week has increased by 62,000 over the last year, bringing the total number to its highest recorded figure of 1.67 million, 351,000 more than in 2005 when London won the bid to host the Games.

However, non-disabled people are still twice as likely to play sport as disabled people (39.2 per cent compared to 18.5 per cent) which is why Sport England continues to focus attention and investment to address this imbalance. This has included £2 million in the English Federation of Disability Sport (EFDS) over two years to help make sport a practical lifestyle choice for disabled people.

‘Get Equipped’ is part of Sport England’s strategy to open up opportunities for disabled people to play sport. £50 million has already been committed to increasing opportunities, improving facilities, training coaches and providing equipment and over the next year, Sport England will invest over £7 million to continue this work. In addition 42 National Governing Bodies of Sport have received over £100 million of investment to deliver dedicated disability programmes and inclusive participation programmes with the aim of increasing the number of disabled people playing their sport by 2017.