Basketball England receives £8.6m in latest Sport England funding cycle

Sport England has announced an investment of £8.6 million of government and National Lottery funding for Basketball England in the next five year funding cycle.

The award is an increase of 13% over the previous round of support from Sport England, with an aim to provide longer-term financial security that allows organisations to recover and reinvent from the impact of the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.

It is part of a £380million package announced by Sport England this morning for 78 partners which aims to get everyone active and tackle long-standing inequalities within access to sport and physical activity

The Basketball England funding will be used on the following priorities:

– Embedding the best standards of Integrity, safeguarding and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (ED&I) through key policies, a new Disciplinary Code and, following the formation of our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Committee, an ED&I action plan for 2022/23

– Improving club support and standards where it is needed most and the effectiveness of our partnerships with our regions and advisory groups to serve our members better

– More and better coaches and officials to support the game at all levels

– Recruiting and training new team to deliver facility strategy and continuing to promote, expand and deliver #ProjectSwish as part of #GameTime, facilitating more outdoor places to play

– Education and community participation

– Improving our Talent pathway

“Basketball England has been rebuilding and refocusing its energy and future resources to accelerate recovery and work with our regions, clubs, academies, institutions and members to make a difference,” Stewart Kellett, CEO of Basketball England, said.

“We have a number of priorities to help grow the game, rejuvenate infrastructure, support talent and national teams, and service members better at local, regional and national levels and build on the hard work and commitment everyone in the game has shown in rebuilding following difficult times.

“What people value today compared with a few years ago has changed and we want to respond to this positively. This includes tackling the inequalities that have widened over the past two years and supporting clubs and the basketball community to grow and take advantage of opportunities.”

Tim Hollingsworth, CEO of Sport England, added:

“Sport England’s goal is to get everyone active– no matter who they are, where they live, or what their background is. But we know that certain groups – like women, people with long-term health conditions, people from ethnically diverse communities and lower socio-economic groups – are more likely to be inactive.

“We can only innovate and tackle inequalities effectively by thinking about long-term change; Uniting the Movement is a long-term vision, and our funding approach needs to reflect that. Changes to our funding model will help us achieve our goal, by making it easier for our partners to do what they need to do to level up and deliver.”