Deadline: 31-Mar-23
Sport England is seeking applications for Strategic Facilities Fund that aims to support projects that can encourage people to lead an active and healthy lifestyle.
The supply of the right facilities in the right areas is essential to get more people across the nation doing sport and physical activity.
By helping to build the right facilities in the right places, the fund can help deliver local outcomes essential to those communities.
Objectives
- The key objectives of the fund are:
- To encourage the market to be clear about the purpose of their investment, encouraging development of sustainable environments capable of supporting service delivery that delivers against local outcomes
- To encourage the market to work collaboratively (cross-sector and boundaries) using research to determine local outcomes, target audience and the behaviour change needed to achieve the outcomes
- To attract capital investment into local facilities, providing new opportunities to encourage people to live healthier and more active lifestyles.
Funding Information
- Grants of between £500,000 and £2 million can be considered for a standalone project, or as a contribution to a strategic plan that includes more than one project.
What does it fund?
- Their Strategic Facilities Fund directs capital investment into key local projects. These are identified through a strategic vision with the impact on local outcomes and key performance indicators clearly identified. Projects that can provide an integrated offer of services and facilities will be prioritised.
- Key features which applications will be expected to demonstrate are:
- A clear strategic vision and planned approach focused on local outcomes (for example, cross-sector collaboration, health, leisure, social services, libraries and crime prevention)
- Utilisation of local insight to identify the target audiences, the behaviour change required and how to achieve this
- Clarity on how sport and physical activity can impact on achieving the outcomes
- A facility mix that’s been developed through a thorough understanding of the target audience and behaviour change
- A cost-effective build and financially sustainable operating model
- Integrated service facility offers (co-location where appropriate)
- A facility that provides the potential to deliver the identified outcomes
- An operating contract that can deliver the desired outcomes
- An effective data analysis system to evaluate performance and assess achievement of outcomes.
- Their investment also requires projects to measure against the following key performance indicators:
- An increase in the percentage of the local population taking part in sport and physical activity at least twice a month
- A decrease in the percentage of local people physically inactive.
Who’s it for?
- The fund aims to support local authorities invest strategically in sport and physical activity to deliver outcomes essential to local communities.
- They want to place the customer at the heart of all their decisions about facilities and the Strategic Facilities Fund. That means local authorities starting with local insight and really understanding what the community needs and wants. It means thinking about a whole area to make sure existing and future facilities will work together, not just looking at an individual building or the needs of an individual sport.
Eligibility Criteria
- Projects will need to meet the following criteria in order to be considered eligible for funding.
- The project must:
- Be identified as a priority within a local authority strategic vision, demonstrating local customer insight, cross sector collaboration and local priorities identified
- Be proposing to develop key local facilities identified through this work and in consultation with local cross sector partner organisations
- Request a capital grant between £500,000 and £2 million
- Require funding for the development of capital infrastructure, which can contribute to the costs of new build, modernisation or refurbishment and major fixed equipment where it is an integral part of a project.
- Not include costs of non-fixed equipment as this is not covered by the fund
- Request funding for elements of a capital project which have not yet started on site
- Be based on a site(s) where the applicant holds ownership or long-term (minimum 25-years) leasehold
- Include recognised sporting activity of at least two sports and other activities
- Identify confirmed and/or anticipated capital partnership funding for the project from the applicant and other parties (public and/or private)
- Provide a commitment from the applicant to fund the required level of revenue and/ or financial borrowing that will support the project in the long-term demonstrating its sustainability
- The second criteria for assessment will determine the extent to which the project will achieve five key principles of creating and operating a sustainable local community facility including Impact, Sustainability, Capital Delivery, Monitoring & Evaluation and Service Delivery Review.
For more information, visit https://www.sportengland.org/funds-and-campaigns/our-funds/strategic-facilities-fund
