Making sport inclusive

Our partners

The Commission is working with the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and Premiership Rugby to encourage people from all backgrounds to participate in sports.

Increasing participation in cricket

The Commission funded a £450,000 initiative to boost participation levels in cricket. The joint scheme with the English Cricket Board (ECB) will encourage more women, girls and Black and minority ethnic people to take up the sport, as well as improving disabled access at cricket grounds.

Targets:

recruit 540 new coaches from black and ethnic minority communities
offering 2,500 members of the South East Asian community the opportunity to play indoor cricket
create opportunities for 7,500 women and girls to play cricket across 1,000 clubs nationwide
conduct accessibility audits for disabled access at 16 first class county grounds

Widening interest in and access to rugby

In September 2014 the Commission launched a sports inclusion programme with Premiership Rugby Limited alongside Sports Minister, Helen Grant MP, Commissioner Chris Holmes and DMP Sharks and England rugby star, Tamara Taylor. We work in partnership with a number of stakeholders to encourage people from all backgrounds and groups to participate in various sports, beginning with rugby.

The objectives are:

to increase the participation of women and girls
to increase the participation of ethnic minorities, ensuring teams and spectators represent their communities
to improve the physical and cultural accessibility of sporting venues
to improve the implementation of the Sports Equality Standard to create an inclusive sporting experience on and off the pitch.

Rugby union has one of the lowest participation rates of all sports amongst ethnic minorities, at just 3% according to Sporting Equals.

Premiership Rugby will be addressing this on behalf of the Commission over the next couple of years, working at local level with rugby clubs across Great Britain to run sports camps for Black and minority ethnic participants, as well as women and girls. Other initiatives include the consideration of how best to provide access to stadia for disabled people and mentoring and linking to schools.

Helen Grant MP discussed the importance of the initiative in this short video.