Key sports stakeholders, including four Whitehall departments, have signed up to a plan that will cut burdens on front-line staff – including:
• making it easier to find out about and apply for funds
• fewer forms to fill in and demands for information, and
• new rules covering security checks.
The project - Making a Difference: Reducing burdens in school and community sport - has been led by the Cabinet Office and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, working with the Department for Education and Skills and the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.
During the past nine months, over 100 front-line staff in local authorities, the voluntary sector, in schools and with key sports organisations were questioned in a drive to identify unnecessary paperwork and find ways to improve the system.
Now, as a result, a string of changes are to be introduced between now and the autumn of 2006. These changes are in five key areas:
• information on funds - a single source for information on funding, including the introduction of a 'Sport Direct' helpline to provide advice and support for those seeking funding.
• simpler application processes, including a single form, to help organisations submit successful applications for funds. Also, a new screening system is planned to give groups bidding for Lottery funding a better and earlier idea of their chances of success.
• payments - projects funded over three years, and - for sport-specific capital projects - a clearly agreed timescale for payments in place. This will make it easier for sports projects to plan ahead.
• development and implementation of an inspection and monitoring agreement for all Government and Lottery sports funders, to ensure a reduced, more proportionate, level of audit and information demands.
• non–funding issues including less double-checking by the Criminal Records Bureau of individuals who work in different areas, or different sports; reducing barriers to out-of-hours use of school facilities and more proportionate risk assessments with respect to school and community sport.
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The project's outcome was welcomed by the Minister for Sport, Richard Caborn:
"I am determined that nothing should stand in the way of top-quality opportunities being provided to take part in sport, both within our schools and in local communities," he said.
"These are commonsense steps that will make it easier for front-line staff. We have listened to their concerns about too much bureaucracy and paperwork and done something about it - we share a common goal of giving everyone, young and old, the chance to benefit from high-quality sports provision."
Welcoming the report, David Miliband, Minister for the Cabinet Office said:
"Today's report is another example of the Government's efforts to listen to people on the front-line, and replace the barriers holding them back with incentives to help them succeed. It fits into the Government's wider programme of reducing unnecessary bureaucracy on those delivering front-line services. We've achieved this in the areas of health, criminal justice, education; and extensively in the private sector. It is a continuing programme which is paying dividends"
Derek Twigg, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Education and Skills said:
"These practical measures will help teachers and other people involved in school sport spend their time in the sports hall rather than the office and is welcome support for our aim to increase sports opportunities for all school children"
Notes to Editors
1. The full report can be found at:
http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/regulation/pst/projects/mad/sport.asp
2. The Cabinet Office Regulatory Impact Unit's role is to promote better regulation and to reduce and remove burdens on front-line staff, to free up their time to focus on their core duties. See past reports at:
http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/regulation/pst/projects/mad/index.asp
3. The Government's PE, School Sport and Club Links strategy aims to increase the percentage of 5 to 16 year olds who spend at least two hours of high-quality PE and school sport within and beyond the curriculum to 85% by 2008.
4. The changes in the report cover England only.
Department for Culture Media and Sport
