Sport England Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Sport England - Essay Example The Sports Council was later renamed the English Sports Council in 1997, which was later branded as Sport England. The transformation just described was in line with shifts in strategies towards modernisation and better service delivery. The agency is currently under the chairmanship of Richard Lewis who has overseen the 2008-2011 strategic shifts towards influential sports development in the future (SportEngland.org, 2011). Guided by the mission statement that Sport England seeks to create a world leading community sports environment, the agency pursues a vibrant culture in sporting through partnering with several stakeholders including national governing bodies, local governments, county sport partnerships and community organisations. The agency currently invests  £480 million directly to 46 national sport governing bodies, protects playing fields, advocates for community sports and provides consultancy in sport matters. Sports England’s driving aims are centred on three philosophies. First is growth, here it targets one million more individuals engaging in sport. Sustenance is the second which involves satisfaction of more people from sport and reduction of the proportion of 16-18 year old teenagers dropping out of sporting activities to less than 25%. Lastly is the improvement through the development of talent in at least different 25 sports (SportEngland.org, 2011). In the pursuit of its mission, Sport England faces several challenges. According to Houlihan and Green (2009), Sport England and its fellow sports agency, UK Sports are burdened by the fact that they generate too many and much often short term initiatives. Overlapping mandates and responsibilities also inhibit their operations just as complexity and lack of clear strategies do. The problem of changes in government policy is also a challenge, with O’Dowd (2011) reporting that the coalition government has reversed on its predecessor’s pledge to