Background
Sport England announced the national roll-out of its £36 million ‘Sport Unlimited’ initiative to get more children and young people taking part in sports that interest them most outside of school.
The three-year programme will enable 900,000 more 11-19 year olds to choose from a vast range of sports including several in which Team GB has excelled at the 2008 Olympics - such as sailing and cycling - as well as less traditional sports like dodgeball, snowboarding and American football.
Sport Unlimited offers young people 10-week taster sessions in sports which they have requested and aims to get 300,000 participants to join clubs and continue with sport when the 10 weeks are up.
The programme, run by Sport England in partnership with the Youth Sport Trust and County Sports Partnerships across England, has already been successfully trailblazed in 12 areas and has now been fully rolled out across the country, resulting in 4,000 new sporting projects being set up.
Sport Unlimited will make a significant contribution to the Government’s target of giving children and young people the opportunity to do 5 hours of PE and sport a week at school and in the community. The funding is part of the additional £100 million investment in sport for young people announced by the Prime Minister in 2007.
The National vision is to ensure up to 900,000 'semi sporty' children and young people in the 5 to 19 age group participate in a further 2 hours per week of sporting activities which will be achieved through attractive sports provision designed to stimulate and increase take-up and sustain participation. The definition of 'semi sporty' is young people who are judged to currently participate in 3 hours of sport a week.
Each County Sports Partnership across the country have been tasked with delivering this ‘Sport Unlimited’ offer.
Each school term, a number of activities will take place for a duration of 10 weeks. Our target is not only to get young people to attend these sessions but also to ensure that they all attend at least 60% of those sessions.