Introduction

The English Sports Council was set up by Royal Charter effective from 1 January 1997 and inherited the majority of the functions and resources of the former GB Sports Council. It is charged to take the lead in all aspects of sport and physical recreation which require administration, co-ordination or representation in England. The Charter gives it the object to foster, support and encourage the development of Sport and physical recreation, the development of excellence among the public at large in England and the provision of facilities therein.

The Chairman and 14 members are appointed by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. The Council has advisory panels on the distribution of the Lottery Sports Fund and funding governing bodies of sport, on women and sport, disability, racial equality, and working with local authorities. The Council also leads the work of the Young People and Sport Task Force established to pull together all the agencies involved in this area of work.

Through its staff at the London headquarters, the ten regional offices, and the five national sports centres for which it is responsible, the Council works closely with a network of partners. A total of 103 staff are directly concerned with the effective distribution of the Lottery Sports Fund.

Achievements in 1996/97

The Young People and Sport initiative aims to ensure that all young people have the chance to take part in sport, that they learn how to compete but not at any cost, to ensure that there are sufficient skilled people to help them develop their skills and that there are the facilities in which to do so.

Through the National Junior Sports Programme, over 2000 primary schools already have access to the resources and staff training necessary to deliver and develop core skills and the initial elements of sport for 4­9 year olds. In addition, over 2000 schools have access to BT Top Sport resource materials which aim to give a good introduction to sport for the slightly older age group. The Sportsmark award has attracted interest from about 1000 secondary schools which have applied for this recognition of having achieved a certain standard of curricular and extracurricular provision.

In its first two years 58 sports and every English county have benefited from the Lottery Sports Fund. The Sports Council has received 4459 applications, from which 1888 awards have been made, mostly for capital projects, amounting to £427 million.

The Council has worked with the governing bodies of sport on performance and development plans which will be supported by Lottery grants to support the training of top performers and world class coaching in addition to facilities such as the national stadium and the regional support network to the British Academy of Sport.

Plans for 1997/98

The Council will:

• continue to ensure that the National Junior Sports Programme is available to all children of school age whether through schools, clubs or youth organisations;

• develop the Running Sport programme which offers a full range of support for people working in sport and will promote the Barclaycard VIP (Volunteer Investment Programme) which has been developed to provide support, encouragement and recognition for the 1.5 million volunteer sports administrators.

• prepare plans for the English network in support of the British Academy of Sport;

• continue coach development work with the National Coaching Foundation;

• operate the national sports centres for the benefit of national and elite performance training; and

• encourage world class coaching and community sports development through new awards categories which are being phased in during 1997/98 following a policy change to allow Lottery revenue funding.

Key Performance Targets
	1997/98
Key Measure	Set
TOP programmes products into schools	7500
4 pack products into schools:
Sportsmark (secondary/middle schools)	600
Challenge Funding	600
Loss of Playing Fields Statutory Consultations	300
QUEST Quality Award Scheme sales	300
Volunteer Investment Programme (sponsored by Barclaycard):
VIP information packs	10000
Training Course Participants	3000
British Acadamy of Sport - identify framework for English Network	complete
National and Commonwealth Games Stadium Projects capital cost plan and securing financing commitments	complete
Lottery Sports Fund Targets: Community Programme and Specialist Facilities completed schemes	850
Priority Areas Initiative projects completed	100
Monitoring and Evaluation of completed projects	350
World Class Performance:
Support to Individual Performers	2000
No. of Sports Integrated Fully into the programme	15-20