Taxonomy term

We all know that regular movement is one of the most powerful ways to reduce the risk of major illness, improve mental health and help people live longer, healthier lives. 

But access to movement is not equal and those who could benefit most often face the greatest barriers, whether through low confidence, complex health needs or difficulty navigating what’s available locally. 

We also know that simply encouraging people to be more active or signposting them to activities rarely leads to lasting change. 

What’s needed instead is a support system that reflects the realities of people’s lives and this is where social prescribing comes in.  

From access to engagement

Social prescribing is a personalised, community-based approach to health that focuses on ‘what matters to you’ rather than ‘what’s the matter with you’, recognising that wellbeing is shaped by a range of social, economic and environmental factors, many of which are linked to wider social inequalities.

It often begins with a referral (whether from a GP, a community worker or even a self-referral), which connects the individual to a link worker or similar role.

Social prescribers spend time understanding a person’s circumstances, interests and motivations before supporting them to access community-based activities, resources and services that meet their needs.

So, unlike traditional signposting, social prescribing provides sustained, relational support that enables individuals to take greater control of their health over time.  

In England, there are now over 3,300 link workers and a strong body of evidence that demonstrates the positive impact of social prescribing on both health outcomes and, in turn, healthcare services.

Social prescribing is increasingly delivered across a range of settings, including primary care, secondary care and also within the community, supporting people at every stage of life.  

For the physical activity sector, social prescribing provides a vital mechanism to make movement a realistic, accessible and integrated part of people’s lives.  

Partnership, place and prevention

Sport England’s ongoing partnership with the National Academy for Social Prescribing (NASP) helps  
to enable this more connected, whole-system approach that strengthens the infrastructure, the relationships and the local capacity needed to connect people to movement through social prescribing. 

With Sport England’s support, NASP has built a strong evidence base for prescribing physical activity and has also developed guidance, campaigns and training for link workers to support movement-based referrals. 

We’ve also strengthened place-based community partnerships that are unlocking inclusive and innovative approaches to physical activity.

An example of this is Sunderland, where one social prescribing service has programmed silent discos for children with disabilities, dance for those at risk of falls and aerial workshops for older adults. These gave the opportunity to Marion, 95, of swinging from a silk hammock, laughing freely while suspended in the air for the very first time.  

Our most recent programme with Sport England, Movement Matters, aligns with their place-based investment approach.

The programme is designed to strengthen how physical activity is embedded within local social prescribing systems, supporting Active Partnerships to work more closely with primary care at a neighbourhood level in order to reach the communities most impacted by inactivity and health inequalities.  

The initial pilot in 2025 provided important foundations to strengthen relationships between sectors, support more strategic use of data and insights, and to build confidence among practitioners to position movement centrally within healthcare pathways.  

Building on this, we're preparing to launch a new phase of Movement Matters in April 2026 that will support Active Partnerships to translate insights into action, working with primary care to take a proactive social prescribing approach to health creation.

The new phase will also support wider primary care and community roles directly, providing resources, practical guidance and opportunities to share learning with the physical activity sector.   

This approach is a vital component of the vision for neighbourhood health, where prevention, community assets and personalised care play a central role in improving population health. 

This is reflected in Sport England’s recent blog for the Neighbourhood Health Implementation Programme.

This Social Prescribing Day, we recognise that creating active communities requires more than just provision.

It requires a way to connect people to movement that is shaped around their reality. 

When this happens, movement can become a routine part of health management, supporting people not only to stay well, but to live fully – with greater confidence, resilience and agency to take part in what matters the most. 

Want learn more about Social Prescribing? You can take NASPs free e-learning modules, including Social Prescribing Essentials, and Social Prescribing with Children and Young People.

Long before I worked in sport, or even imagined running a sports charity, I was a state-school kid in Windsor learning how to row and trying to help keep our school boat club afloat.

My first experience of The Boat Race wasn’t from a fan park or a television screen but from the riverbank, where I was selling programmes to passers-by to help raise funds for the club.

That day, and what I felt during that time, stuck with me.

From school talks and volunteering opportunities to co-designing the event’s branding, the build-up and their input to shaping the event mattered, as those moments helped young rowers feel ownership, pride and a real connection to The Boat Race week itself.

Seeing the idea become reality

By April 2025, standing on the sunny banks of the Thames at Fulham Reach Boat Club, it was clear the idea had taken on a life of its own and the event featured on the BBC with a peak audience of 2.8 million. We even made our own video on the events of the day, which we are very proud of.

Over 100 state-school students and volunteers gathered for the second Youth Boat Race.

Eight mixed crews from schools across London raced side by side on the same stretch of river used by the Oxford and Cambridge University rowers, with families lining the banks and local supporters cheering.

The atmosphere was joyful, loud and deeply proud, with participants describing it as an amazing experience filled with music and laughter that they would “100% like to do again”, and "a very fun and a unique experience" that people thoroughly enjoyed and that built new memories with friends.

Watching young athletes race along the Championship Course was genuinely moving.

Many of them had discovered rowing through state school and community programmes, and that gave me an added sense of pride.

Speeches from OCRF Trustee Erin Kennedy OBE and Mayor Patricia Quigley captured exactly what the day represented: teamwork, trust, confidence and being part of something bigger than ourselves.

From pilot event to national stage

But for me, what has been most exciting is witnessing just how quickly the Youth Boat Race has grown.

From a small pilot in 2024, to a significantly expanded second year, all supported by the generosity of OCRF, the event has already become a meaningful fixture of Boat Race week. And now to see it included in Channel 4’s coverage this Easter Weekend 2026 truly feels like a milestone.

That visibility matters as it sends a powerful message to young people watching at home that rowing is something they can be part of.

After the inaugural Youth Boat Race in 2024, Owen Slot, chief sports writer at The Times, summed this up perfectly when he said: “Only when sports can spread the word like this does elite funding at the Olympic end really make sense.”

For me, that captures the essence of the Youth Boat Race and is the link between grassroots opportunity and elite sport, showing how inspiration, access and participation can exist hand-in-hand with elite level racing.

Looking ahead

The Youth Boat Race is still young, but its purpose is clear and each year it grows, not just in numbers, but in confidence, quality and impact too.

What began as an idea is now an event that brings communities together and opens doors for young people across London.

It proves that success isn’t measured by winning, but by the friendships formed, the confidence built and the moment a young person realises they belong on the river.

And this Easter, with the Youth Boat Race shared with a national audience, many more young people might just see themselves there too.

The power of storytelling feeds through to our marketing efforts, with a social media influencer campaign and summer activation in development.

For it, we’ll be building on our previous successes with one in five people taking action having seen the campaign, 64% of people finding our advertising relatable and 66% agreeing that the campaign stands out from other advertising. Our insight hub offers more details about the response to the campaign.

And, while more details will come in due course, keep an eye out for a summer campaign and how you, and your networks, can get behind it.

Evaluating past efforts and looking ahead

While a lot of our lobbying and influencing work goes on behind the scenes, we’re particularly excited to kick start work on a follow up to our impactful Millions More Moving report from 2024 to see progress made against the policy shifts we set out to influence.

This time we’ll be going into it with greater depth on how and why to get millions more moving.

We’re also proud of our continued work on shaping the implementation of the 10 Year Health Plan, which will provide a focus for our lobbying and influencing work.

Our Lived Experience Insights Dashboard helps to inform our influencing work, so we’re delighted that this resource continues to be freely available for anyone who wants to access it as it now spans several years’ worth of data from 13,000 respondents with long-term conditions.

And finally (yep, there’s still more!), we’re heading into year two of having our very own app, which we’re about to get the first 12-month evaluation back from (thanks to GoodBoost and London Metropolitan University for working with us on that).

A sneak peek shows increases in physical activity for those engaging with the app and increases in personal motivation to be more active, which we’re thrilled to see.

With over 13,000 users registered already, this is a promising start to a fundamental part of the behaviour change journey for our audiences.

With such a busy year ahead there’s great cause for optimism that in 12 months' time we’ll have taken huge strides to achieving our goals within our role as a system partner and across our wider sector.    

International Women’s Day is a date that, contextually, makes me reflect on how far women’s sport has come.

From being excluded entirely to selling out stadiums and becoming Euro champions, women and girls have had to overcome barrier after barrier in the UK (and beyond).

There is so much to celebrate in that progress, yet we’re still a long way from a world where sport is genuinely accessible and inclusive for everyone, regardless of identity.

Recognising this inequality is what shifted the direction of my own life and it continues to be the driving force behind my commitment to creating change for others. 

'Give to Gain'

This year’s theme, 'Give to Gain', really resonates with me because it reflects much of my own experience.

A lot of my journey has involved giving time, energy and care to support women, girls, trans and non-binary people, often alongside my main role, without always knowing what that would lead to.

What I’ve gained in return has been confidence, perspective and a much clearer sense of why this work matters. 

Through my role as activities and opportunities officer at Leeds University Union, I’ve been involved in work linked to the Women’s+ Sports Participation Project.

This is a great initiative that focuses on understanding why women and marginalised genders engage, or don’t engage, in sport and what needs to change to support them better.

Giving time to this work has reinforced how important it is to listen properly in order to create welcoming environments and challenge assumptions about who sport is for.

Seeing people feel more confident accessing sport and physical activity has been one of the most rewarding parts of what I do. 

Recently, I joined Sport England’s Co‑Design Group and took part in an introductory session.

While I’m still very new to the space, what stood out to me straight away was the emphasis on lived experience and learning from one another.

Women's leadership in our sector

Being in a room where people are encouraged to share honestly and where those experiences are treated as valuable, felt important.

At this stage, my role is very much about listening, learning and understanding how these spaces work, but even that feels meaningful.  

Alongside this, being part of Leading the Movement has helped me reflect on leadership and what it looks like for women in sport.

There are positive signs, for example, that more women are stepping into leadership positions and that progress deserves to be recognised.

But when you look more closely, the number of younger women in leadership roles is still relatively small and that gap matters because younger women bring different experiences, challenges and perspectives that aren’t always represented.  

This realisation has also made me think about how often society equates age with experience.

However, I’ve learned first‑hand that this isn’t true because passion can outweigh knowledge and when someone is genuinely committed to making change, they will learn with purpose.

So I want to challenge the assumption that leadership must come with age, because it overlooks the value, insight and drive that younger women bring.

The future of sport

That’s why I believe that creating space for that passion to be recognised is just as important as creating space for experience, which is what I feel Leading the Movement has really committed to. 

All of this reminds me that progress in women’s sport has never happened by accident.  

It has happened because people have been willing to give their time, their voice and their energy to push for something better.

All of this leads me to the conclussion that 'Give to Gain' isn’t just a theme, it's a necessity.

Because when we give space to people’s stories, we gain understanding. When we give opportunities to those who are overlooked, we gain stronger, more diverse leadership. And when we give our passion to a cause, we gain the possibility of real, lasting change. 

As we celebrate International Women’s Day, I feel hopeful about what comes next.

There is still a long way to go, but there is also a growing community of people of all ages, identities and experiences who are determined to reshape what sport can be.

I want to be part of that movement not just to open doors for others, but by challenging the assumptions that keep those doors closed in the first place.

If we continue to listen, to learn and to lead with purpose, then the future of sport will not only be more equal, but also more representative of everyone it’s meant to serve. 

When young people feel seen and connected, they are less likely to engage in harm and when they feel pride in their street or estate, they are less likely to damage it.

Doorstep sport also changes how places feel. A park filled with organised activity feels different. A street reclaimed for play feels different.

Putting a value on wellbeing

But ultimately, why does this matter?  Recently, we commissioned State of Life to conduct a social value study.

The research organisation looked at survey data from around 1,000 young people taking part in StreetGames’ doorstep sport, which many had entered through youth crime prevention pathways.

Using the WELLBY approach set out in HM Treasury’s Green Book guidance, the study estimated that the wellbeing uplift associated with participation equates to approximately £12,986 per young person, assuming the improvement lasts for one year.

That’s not a participation statistic. That’s the wellbeing value of doorstep sport.

Raising the bar

Our current Youth Endowment Fund-backed evaluation, Towards Sport, is using randomised control trials – the gold standard in evaluation. Results will land next year and we can’t wait!

But one thing is already clear: sport must be intentional. It must understand referral pathways. It must align with youth justice priorities. It must embed strong monitoring and learning. It must work in partnership, not in isolation.

Over the last decade, as a sporting organisation, we’ve become fluent in the youth justice system’s language – concepts and phrases such as trusted adults, contextual safeguarding, public health principles, system impact – and its significance.

This understanding has led us to a key learning: sport cannot simply turn up. It has to fit.

A decade in and still learning

We know many of Sport England system partners and Active Partnerships are active — or increasingly curious — in this space.

That’s encouraging because prevention is long-term work that requires humility, partnership and constant learning.

There is still more to understand and strengthen but the direction is clear.

Ultimately, this work is about supporting place-based community partners to support and protect vulnerable young people, getting them more physically active along the way. 

Think pro-social (not anti-social), build protective factors (not just manage risk) and, above all, use sport not as distraction, but as deliberate prevention and keep putting it where it works best and is needed the most.

These subjects, and more, will now become a series of deep-dive webinars that will be delivered in partnership with Sport England and the Active Partnerships National Organisation (APNO), and you can access the Quarterly Learning Session we had last week with Sport England. 

Together we will get more young people into sport and physical activity and away from crime.

Sport England’s system partner investment has committed over £500 million, since 2022, to more than 130 partners in support of the organisation's Uniting the Movement strategy. 

This long-term funding provides up to five years of financial security and stability for organisations to focus on addressing the systemic changes needed to tackle the inequalities stopping individuals and communities from being physically active.

Moving forward together 

The latest findings from the evaluation of the System Partner portfolio, based on insights gathered throughout 2025, matures the understanding of how partners’ collective efforts are creating change.

It also shines a light on four distinct, yet interconnected, roles that System Partners play to influence change.

It’s important to say that while many organisations naturally combine these roles, understanding them helps us to be more strategic and effective.

Whether you are funded through the System Partner investment or from elsewhere, we encourage you to reflect on the roles your organisation play.

We hope this insight can prompt you to consider how you can strengthen your collaborations and benefit from the expertise and reach of others as part of your work towards addressing inequalities and increasing physical activity.

The four roles identified are:

• The Improver. This role is the foundation of a safe and professional sector. Improvers focus on raising standards in governance, safeguarding, and equality, diversity and inclusion. They not only enhance their own practices but also support other organisations to do the same. An example is The Angling Trust, which – in response to a surge in demand for angling for wellbeing – introduced a 21-point checklist and new training to ensure its delivery partners met high standards for safety and quality.
• The Influencer. Influencers work to shape the conversations and conditions that make it easier for people to get active. They advocate for policy change and champion the needs of specific communities. The Richmond Group of Charities, a coalition of health charities, exemplifies this role. By acting as a collective, they have achieved greater reach and successfully embedded physical activity resources into the healthcare system.
• The Deliverer. This is where strategies are translated into opportunities for people to be more active. Deliverers create and adapt on-the-ground programmes for people to participate in sport and physical activity, with a focus on reaching under-represented communities. Chance to Shine’s ‘Street’ cricket programme illustrates this. By targeting deprived areas, recruiting local coaches and empowering young leaders, they have grown a programme that is youth-led and community-driven.
• The Connector. Connectors bring people and organisations together at a local level. They use their understanding of a place to guide funding and activities where they are most needed. Active Partnerships such as the Yorkshire Sport Foundation demonstrate this role. They bring people and policies together to link regional policy and community action, using formal agreements and data-driven insights to translate high-level strategy into targeted, grassroots support.

At Sport England, we want to make physical activity and sport a normal part of life for everyone, as movement is not only great for everybody's mental and physical health, but because it also brings communities together, develops skills and confidence, and even contributes to boosting our economy.

However, we know that when it comes to being active, it’s not a level playing field across the country and some groups in our communities face additional barriers due to their background, gender, postcode, culture and/or disability (amongst others).

That’s why our focus on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (ED&I) runs through everything we do and aims to tackle some of these systemic challenges, because for us it’s not about ticking boxes, but about making the world better for everyone.

As part of our long-term organisational strategy, Uniting the Movement, and our ED&I ambition to tackle inequalities, we have a specific focus on disability.

Our latest Active Lives data shows that one in five people in England have a long-standing limiting disability or illness, and that disabled people are almost twice as likely to be physically inactive.

We also know that an estimated 15% of the UK population are neurodivergent and that the more barriers people face, the less likely they are to be active.

On the other hand, we believe in the social model of disability – which means that people are disabled by society, not by their impairment – so we want to change the systemic and practical barriers they have to face as these, and not the person, are the real problem. 

Historically, societal systems and sporting traditions have (often invisibly) excluded neurodivergent people and that's why at Sport England we're so excited to be working with Neurodiverse Sport and Autism Action. Together we want to begin to address these issues and drive more inclusive practice.

We are all included

Everyone is neurodiverse because everyone’s brains are different, but 'neurodivergence' refers to the cases when cognitive profiles differ further from the statistical norm, as happens with autism, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), dyslexia or dyspraxia.

As with everything, neurodivergence is different for each individual and some experience greater challenges than others.

A person’s experience depends on how their unique strengths and challenges interact with their environment – so designing better environments is key to better outcomes.

Not everyone sees neurodivergence as a disability and this often links to whether they align with the social or medical model of disability, which sees the disability as the problem.

But as a disabled person, this makes sense to me – I don’t see myself as disabled if I use the medical model, yet I do under the social model.

Being disabled doesn’t stop anyone from having significant strengths, experiences or ambitions. 

In fact, it definitely doesn’t stop those wanting to be involved in sport and activity, from grassroots through to elite (Paralympics, anyone?).

So what we want to see, and what our partnership with Neurodiverse Sport and Autism Action will help us progress with, is a more inclusive and skilled sector for neurodivergent people.

The investment will focus on increasing awareness, upskilling the workforce, creating health and wellbeing partnerships, and building best practice and innovation for change.

Additionally, it will develop a 'Blueprint to Inclusion' to develop, pilot and replicate neuroinclusive practices across the sport and physical activity sector that will equip it with tools and resources to change understanding and practice.

The document will be co-produced with people with lived experience and it'll focused on people's strengths, promoting practical and reasonable adjustments as standard, and considering both performance and wellbeing.

More information about how this work is developing will be shared in the new year.

Bringing barriers down 

In spite of our best efforts and Uniting the Movement, it’s clear that there are deep-rooted inequalities in sport and physical activity that mean many people feel excluded.

We want to reduce this for neurodivergent people by working together to understand the barriers some are facing, finding solutions and supporting the sector to take this forward.

But we can’t do this alone – not even with the extensive networks of our partners. So if you want to be involved and are curious and ambitious in how we can collectively make the world better, please get in touch. We’d love to hear from you.