Transforming Sporting Landsapes

"Transforming Sporting Landscapes" intended to improve the PE and sport offer for children and young people through maximising partnerships between schools and National Governing Bodies of Sport (NGBs).

The Youth Sport Trust and Sport England aimed to maximise the partnerships between School Sports Partnerships (SSPs) and NGBs through a new way of working. The work intended to create a new method of planning across county areas, distilling the 2009-2013 NGB national priorities down to county and local level, and matching up the SSP demand for the sports.

Prospects4Sport was commissioned to undertake an initial evaluation of the pilot study. The process involved:

• An NGB self review which clarified in written form their "offer" to children and young people (CYP)
• An SSP landscaping / red amber green rating process (RAG) to assess the current supply and demand of relevant sporting opportunities across county areas
• A national panel peer review of the NGB self assessment process
• SSP and NGB "development conversations", facilitated by CSPs, to plan future work and meet the intended outcomes.

Our role was to:

• Examine the successes and areas for improvement in the process
• Examine the effectiveness of the self review process for NGBs
• Review the operation of the national panel and support provided to NGBs
• Review the efficiency and effectiveness of the county development conversations between NGBs and SSPs
• Comment on roles and responsibilities in terms of NGBs, CSPs, SSPs and any differences in how the work was managed and delivered across the different geographical areas.

The process involved significant consultation with national partners, NGBs and CSPs, an email survey to PDMs, and attendance at County conversations. The output of the work was a report and presentation which identified issues and success factors structured around four key areas:

Discovery - looking at what went well, what elements worked, and why
Dream - looking at the potential of TSL, obstacles and challenges, what it needs to fulfill its potential, and easy wins
Design - the next stage of TSL, who needs to do what to improve the work
Delivery - what success would look like, and what further infrastructure needs to be in place to deliver successfully.