Multi-Sport Regional Leads Gather for Update in Birmingham

A meeting of the eight regional leads for the Multi-Sport Activity and Facilities Fund took place in Birmingham earlier this week, with all eight coming together with the Active Partnerships National Organisation’s (APNO) programme leads.

The focus for the morning session was monitoring, evaluation and learning. This session provided an opportunity for the team to share recent successes and learnings for the work they’ve been doing across the country, as well as to discuss some of the challenges they’ve faced. A ripple effect mapping exercise also allowed the group to reflect on the impact their work has been having.

The regional leads are focused on providing support, connectivity, coherence and communication around the multi-sport work. Their role also includes maximising the impact of the multi-sport investment into local areas and ensuring the programme’s work is focused on priority groups. The regional leads also strengthen the link between local and national strategy and delivery and the morning session provided a great opportunity to consider their current work and how it might develop and evolve over the coming months.

In the afternoon, the meeting attendees were joined by Jason White from Access Sport, who explained the work that the national charity has been doing in locations across England to tackle the barriers to access that are faced by some groups, including disabled young people, and to create an inclusive club network. Jason also highlighted to the group the key locations where Access Sport has been working closely with Active Partnerships from across the network.

Shirley Hurst, the APNO’s Strategic Lead for Multi-Sport, led the meeting along with Programme Manager, Alton Brown. Shirley said: “It was great to bring the regional leads together again for another productive meeting. These meetings provide a fantastic opportunity for the team to discuss learnings from each of their regions, talking about the relationships they have been building with national and local stakeholders, and to discuss possible solutions to any challenges they have been facing in recent months.

“The APNO’s mission is all about connecting, enabling and strengthening the Active Partnerships (APs) network and with the help of the regional leads who have been working closely with APs in their area , that’s definitely what we’ve been doing on this programme of work.”

Anna Shiels, Football Relationship Manager for Sport England, was also in attendance and said: “It was great to spend time with the Active Partnerships regional leads in Birmingham. Our multi-sport investment is a key area of work for us and one which is set to grow further in 2025. We’ve been pleased to support the current test phase for the revenue aspect of the fund and we look forward to working with the team on the next phase of the programme.”

Find out more about the multi-sport work in the programme section of our website. The programme, which has been created thanks to investment by Sport England, is providing revenue and capital funding to deliver multi-sport activity and small-scale capital investment to communities across England. The programme is supported by several key partners including the Football Foundation, the Lawn Tennis Association and England Hockey.