A report this week revealing a decline in disability sport participation has brought calls for organisations to be held responsible for giving everyone access to sport and leisure opportunities.
Labelling the situation a “crisis”, a Daily Telegraph article highlighted Sport England figures showing that the number of disabled people participating in weekly exercise has fallen by 169,700 between the London 2012 Paralympic Games and the end of 2016 - an average of 56,567 fewer people per year.
According to the article, Sport England has since invested £20.3million of National Lottery and Exchequer funding into programmes to get more disabled people active, including the training of more than 10,000 coaches, leaders and parents to develop the skills to include disabled people in sporting activity.
Sport England’s ‘Towards An Active Nation’ strategy emphasised the importance of activity for disabled people and ukactive has rallied the leisure sector to do more, but Activity Alliance Chief Executive Barry Horne said much more needs to be done.
He commented: “It will take considerable time to change the status quo and the response from sport and leisure needs to be genuine and proactive. We have continually expressed that organisations need to be accountable for disabled people in their work.
“For far too long, we have talked about the changes that need to happen in sport and leisure for disabled people. We now need to hold organisations and bodies responsible for their part in ensuring everyone has access to all opportunities, on and off the field of play.”
The reported decline in participation comes despite plenty of excellent options across a range of sports and disabilities. Here, ConnectSport takes a look at the work of five fantastic enablers of disability sport.
Access Sport is a charity meeting the urgent need to improve children and young people’s health and wellbeing, working solely with young people in deprived communities and with a strong emphasis on young disabled people.
The charity helps to turn community sports clubs into thriving facilities, equipping local people to provide transformational development opportunities for children and young people, irrespective of their background or ability. It also helps to connect community clubs with local partners such as schools, disabled people’s organisations and charities.
Access Sport support volunteer sports coaches and club leaders to establish new sessions to attract more deprived and disabled young people and build personal development pathways for participants towards education or employment.
British Blind Sport help blind and partially sighted people get active and play sport.
Sport and recreational activities can enhance the lives of people with visual impairments by improving their health and increasing social interaction, so British Blind Sport encourage adults and children to participate in activities at all levels, from grassroots to the Paralympic Games.
Panathlon Challenge is a grassroots charity offering competitive sporting opportunities to young disabled people. For over 20 years it has delivered multi-sport competitions, training courses and coaching days for severely disabled children and those with special educational needs.
The charity delivers a range of multi-sport programmes suited to either primary, secondary or 16+ young people as well as appropriate competitions for swimming, boccia and football.
Panathlon benefited more than 13,000 young disabled people and 2,000+ young leaders in 33 counties in 2016-17 and is on course to work with over 20,000 young people per year by 2020.
Wheels for All
The Wheels for All initiative is a nationally-recognised programme that embraces all children and adults with disabilities and differing needs, to engage in quality cycling activity. By using specially adapted cycles, the activities are both physically and mentally stimulating and, above all, fun.
Wheels For All training gives individuals, carers and support staff the confidence to work with adapted cycles for their clients or family member so that all can enjoy the benefits of cycling in a sociable environment. There are currently 50 Wheels for All centres across England and Wales.
Cerebral Palsy (CP) Sport is the country’s leading national disability sports organisation supporting people with cerebral palsy to reach their sporting potential. Its vision is that everyone with physical disabilities is able to access a sport of their choice.
CP Sport's mission is to improve the quality of life for people with physical impairments through the provision of appropriate sport and recreational activities.
Find out more about Activity Alliance on their ConnectSport directory page. To add your organisation to the directory, contact hello@connectsport.co.uk
