APNO launches recruitment for Place Partnership facilitators

With the help of funding from Sport England, the Active Partnerships National Organisation (APNO) is recruiting facilitators to support Active Partnerships and their partners across England.

The facilitators that are selected through the recruitment process, which is being launched today (29 January 2025), will be added to a list of recommended suppliers that can then be commissioned to support the planning and implementation of the place-based work that Active Partnerships have been leading on with Sport England.

The increased investment into places of greatest need, which was originally announced in November 2023 and was most recently highlighted when the Uniting The Movement anniversary was marked earlier this week, will see £250 million of National Lottery and Exchequer funding invested by Sport England into more than 90 Place Partnerships across England over the next few years.

Place Partnerships is the name given to the group of partners, led by Active Partnerships, that are collaborating to ensure that the funding is reaching those local people that need the most support when it comes to getting active.

The list will include facilitators that match the role profile and that have been carefully selected by the APNO, Active Partnerships network representatives, Sport England and other key organisations through a thorough and carefully designed recruitment process.

The successful facilitators will be tasked with coaching and supporting multiple partners within Place Partnerships and helping them to work together to effectively develop and implement plans for tackling physical inactivity. They will spend time in the local area to better understand the opportunities and challenges that exist and facilitate meetings with multiple partners, helping attendees to clarify action plans. They will also need to provide ongoing coaching , to help Place Partnerships develop clarity and confidence and overcome any fresh challenges that emerge.

Director of Relationships, Graeme Sinnott, is leading this work on behalf of the Active Partnerships National Organisation, and he explained the importance of the facilitator recruitment: “The recruitment of these facilitators marks a significant milestone and it will help the Place Partnerships to move forward at a greater pace and with a greater focus on supporting their communities.

“The creation of the recommended facilitators list is being funded using public money so, as always, we are ensuring that there is a robust and transparent process in place and we are also hoping that, by using a carefully selected group of trusted suppliers across the network, we’ll be able to achieve efficiency savings, increase the diversity of support being provided to places, and share the evidence of what is working to help people be active across more places.”

Anyone wishing to apply to be a facilitator will need to complete an expression of interest form. The APNO team will then confirm the next steps of the process after this initial stage.

Expressions of interest are being invited from facilitators who may have experience in different sectors, as APNO and partners recognise that skills and expertise are transferable.

A comprehensive Frequently Asked Questions document has been developed to help those prospective applicants who haven’t worked in the sport and physical activity sector previously to better understand the network and place-based working. This is a way of working that recognises that where a person lives can significantly impact their opportunities to be active and focuses on ensuring that resources reach those people who need the most support.

The first facilitators are required to start working with Active Partnerships and their partners in the next few weeks as the work is already being activated. The list of recommended facilitators is expected to go live with an initial cohort, with the number of suppliers set to be extended when further phases of recruitment take place later in the year.

You can find out more about this project by downloading the frequently asked questions document and the role profile. And the expression of interest form is available here.

The deadline for an initial expression of interest is 11pm on the 11 February. The first cohort of facilitators will be required to attend a development and connection day on 27 February.