Communities and Cultures Committee

CC(3) 05-07(p1): 7^th November 2007

Inquiry into the Funding of Voluntary Sector Organisations in Wales: evidence from the Sports Council for Wales

Size of the Voluntary Sports Sector in Wales

'Sport and Recreation’ is the largest sector in the WCVA’s database of Voluntary Organisations in Wales, accounting for 24% of all voluntary organisations in Wales (WCVA, 2007). This is followed by 'Community’, which accounts for 17% of voluntary organisations. The majority of the 6,275 organisations involved in sport and recreation are 'local’ organisations (93%); the other 7% are defined as operating at the National, Regional, or Branch level. Disaggregating the local organisational data, Carmarthenshire, Rhondda Cynon Taff and Powys have the most sport and recreation organisations compared to the other Local Authorities across Wales; whereas Anglesey, Torfaen and Monmouthshire have the fewest (WCVA, 2007).

Sports Club Membership

As well as being a focal point for participation in sport and physical activity, sports clubs are a valuable social resource: making a substantial contribution to social capital by providing opportunities for active citizenship and social interaction, both for volunteers and participants (CCPR, 2003).

Reporting on data from their latest biennial survey of Adults’ participation in sport and physical activity, the Sports Council for Wales state that 12% of adults in Wales belong to a sports club or organisation (SCW, 2008a). The vast majority of adults, who do belong to a club, belong to only one club (11%), the rest (1%) are members of two or more clubs. Club membership varies considerably by local authority area; ranging from 16% in Cardiff to only 7% in Bridgend and Rhondda Cynnon Taff.

There is also differentiation in terms of gender: 15% of men in Wales belong to a club, compared to only 9% of women. This gender gap does, however, differ widely by local authority: Carmarthenshire, for example, has a gender gap of only 2 percentage points, and has the highest rate of female club membership in Wales (14%). Torfaen, which also records higher than average membership overall, has a much larger gender gap: 20% of adult males are members of a sports club, compared with 8% of females.

Club membership is also highest among professional and managerial workers (20% of adults in socio-economic groups A and B are members of clubs) and lowest among those in socio-economic groups D and E (3.8%).

The Sports Council also notes that club membership generally decreases with increasing age.

Of adults 65+ who participate in any activity (excluding billiards, snooker and walking), just under half belong to a sports club or organisation; the equivalent ratio for under-65s is around one-third, and is fairly consistent amongst younger age groups. This suggests that the club environment remains a focal point for participation amongst active adults.

Additionally, National Governing Bodies (NGB) provide the Sports Council for Wales with club data and NGB membership data. For the 2005-06 season, there were 4,120 NGB sports clubs in Wales; the majority of these were classed as 'Senior Clubs’ (79%), 9% were 'Disability Clubs’, 8% were 'Junior Clubs’ and 4% were 'Senior Clubs with Junior Sections’.

Comparable to the Sports Council’s survey data, NGB club membership also shows differentiation in terms of gender. Disaggregating total NGB club membership, the majority of club members are senior men (51%), followed by 30% of members being junior boys. Only 19% of women and girls are members of a NGB sports club (11% senior women, 8% junior girls). The gender profile of NGB sports clubs is predominantly male.

The Role of the Volunteer

Volunteers are a vital component of the provision of sport in the community across Wales. In 2001, 48% of the adult population of Wales was involved in volunteering; 6% were engaged in sport (WAG, 2001). 51,840 volunteers are regularly involved in sport. According to WAG (2001), an average of two hours a week is spent volunteering in sport, resulting in 1,244,160 volunteer hours per year. In order to put an economic value to this, and therefore based on the national average wage for Wales in 2001, it could be inferred that these volunteer hours equates to £12.9m. The data is six years old; it can therefore be assumed that these figures are probably on the modest side.

Sports Council for Wales research shows that the most popular role for volunteers is coaching - whether this is within the context of a school sports club or a community sports club. Administration is the other main area of activity for volunteers, particularly in community sports clubs (SCW, 2008a).

In terms of volunteer demographics, men are slightly more likely to volunteer than women. Volunteers also tend to be drawn from higher socio-economic groupings and have higher educational attainment; this has synergies with the pattern of sports participation behaviour (see Sports Council, 1996; SCW, 2008a).

Economic Importance of the Voluntary Sports Sector in Wales

In 2004, the voluntary sports sector income accounted for £112m (excluding bar receipts), and its associated expenditure accounts for £98.2m (excluding bar purchases) (SCW, 2008b). In their report to SCW, the Sport Industry Research Centre also state that the value added to the economy by sport related economic activity within the voluntary sector in Wales accounted for £77m in 2004. Given that this data relates to 2004, it is likely that these figures understate the current situation.

Sports Council for Wales’ Investment in the Voluntary Sports Sector

The Sports Council for Wales invests in the voluntary sports sector in a number of ways:

Community Chest is a lottery-funded grants scheme that supports the local development of sport through the distribution of small grants via 22 local authority-based panels. Each panel is compiled of up to 12 members of the local community; this includes a minimum of 3 local authority representatives and the rest from the wider community, the majority of which represent the voluntary sector. The panels have been praised by both the Wales Audit Office and DCMS in terms their facilitation of devolved decision making.

Minor Grants provides funding for projects that create new, additional or improved opportunities to play sport or participate in physical activity.

The lottery-funded Capital scheme is used to strategically support the development of sport and physical activity, primarily in Communities First areas, through the funding of capital projects. The fundamental principles underpinning the distribution of money for capital projects at a local level have been to ensure: lasting and maximum sport and community development benefit; value for money; and benefits for the areas and projects identified as having the greatest recreational, sporting and financial need.

The Welsh Assembly Government’s Sportsmatch Cymru scheme provides a vital link between the commercial sector and the development of grassroots sport. The scheme encourages sponsorship from private companies by matching '£ for £’ their investment in supporting projects that increase grassroots participation.

Some 89% of the awards made by the Sports Council through its Community Chest grant scheme since 99/00 were invested in voluntary sports clubs and associations (this equates to £5.8m). A further £0.7m was invested in other aspects of the voluntary sector. The total investment in the voluntary sector, through Community Chest, is therefore, £6.5m. The distribution of which is fairly even across all areas of Wales.

Since 2005, £28m has been invested through the Sports Council’s Capital scheme in local sports associations and clubs. Over the same period, £1m has been invested in local sports associations and clubs through Minor Grants and £230k has been invested through the Sportsmatch Cymru scheme.

The Sports Council for Wales also gives grants to NGBs in order for them to achieve financial stability; maintain and increase membership; support coach education; and improve the performances of individuals and teams representing Wales. Since 2005, the financial investment has equated to £32.3m.

In addition, the Sports Council for Wales continues to develop its links with the non-sporting voluntary sector. The following vignettes highlight a couple of new pilot projects which utilise the skills and networks of local County Voluntary Councils to support the work of the Sports Council.

Gwent Association of Voluntary Organisations (GAVO)

In the past, the Community Chest programme is Blaenau Gwent has proved to be successful when engaging with the traditional type of voluntary and community sporting organisations; however, over the past two years they have experienced a number of challenges in generating applications, particularly from the non-sports voluntary sector.

With this in mind, the Sports Council approached GAVO to help devise an approach to combat this problem. The jointly formulated initiative is to utilise GAVO’s contacts and staff networks in order to increase the profile of the scheme to the non-sports voluntary sector and boost the number of applications for funding.

In order to facilitate this, the Sports Council are funding a GAVO community development worker to work one day a week specifically delivering the initiative. This person has already spent some time working with the local authority sports development team, and will be an asset in bridging the gap between traditional and non-traditional networks.

The initiative is being supported through the Minor Grant programme and will run for a period of twelve months. An evaluation of this model of advocacy and development is being undertaken by the Sports Council’s Research and Evaluation department.

Community Buildings Challenge: the case of Powys

Four pilot 'Community Buildings Challenge’ schemes are currently being funded by the Sports Council. These include: Powys, Neath Port Talbot, Llanelli, and Wrexham. The rationale for focussing on Community Buildings (village halls, miners’ institutes, social clubs etc) for the promotion of physical activity amongst the adult population was that such places are often the central hub of an area, with many groups using the facilities regularly for a variety of activities. Each pilot has taken a different approach; the variations in operation were chosen in order to explore and evaluate new ways of working.

In Powys, for example, the Sports Council has given £30,000 of direct funding to the County Council’s Sports Development Unit, who are working in partnership with PAVO (Powys Association of Voluntary Organisations) and the Village Halls Forum to target 30 Community Buildings in a rural setting. It is expected that each building would receive a grant of £1,000 to develop opportunities for physical activity.

A monitoring and evaluation framework has been put in place; this involves quantitative data collection in terms of participation rates and the range of activities offered, as well as qualitative data from participants and those running the individual projects.

To date, £27,000 has been allocated across 29 diverse projects, including: Tai Chi, Belly Dancing, Walking, and recreational sports such as, bowls, badminton and netball. Whilst it is too early to absolutely measure the success of this programme, there is evidence that the 'Challenge’ has already established a wide range of local opportunities in rural settings. It is hoped that this model would be transferable to other rural authorities in Wales.

Conclusion

SCW works closely with the voluntary sector both at national and local levels. The voluntary sector is the lifeblood of sport since it provides coaching, officiating and competition. Sport could not survive as we know it without this sector.

Although Wales is a small country it is also heterogeneous. The structure of the voluntary sector varies greatly across the country not only in terms of club provision but also in terms of the relative importance which the sector plays in certain authorities. For example, in Ceredigion many swimming pools are owned and managed by voluntary trusts rather than the local authority.

SCW’s main challenge in providing financial support to the sector is seeking to balance accountability with minimal bureaucracy. The sector is supported because it can contribute to the Welsh Assembly Government’s sport and physical activity strategy. Requests for information on the make-up of clubs/groups (gender, age, ethnicity etc.) are invariably seen as burdensome by volunteers. The information collected can be both incomplete and sometimes unreliable making policy advice difficult to develop.

There is also little doubt that the voluntary sector has been subject to increasing pressure over the years: heath and safety; child protection; public accountability; threat of litigation have all had a significant impact on volunteering and therefore the ability of the sector to deliver.

References:

CCPR (2003) Citizenship in Action: Voluntary Sector - Sport and Recreation, CCPR: London

Sports Council (1996) Valuing Volunteers in UK Sport: a Sports Council survey into the voluntary sector in UK sport, Sports Council: London

SCW (2008a) Adults’ Participation in Sport and Physical Activity in Wales: 2004/05, SCW: Cardiff (due to be published in early 2008)

SCW (2008b) The Economic Importance of Sport in Wales: a report prepared by the Sport Industry Research Centre, SCW: Cardiff (due to be published in early 2008)

WAG (2001) Volunteering in Wales in 2001, WAG: Cardiff

WCVA (2007): www.wcva.org.uk - accessed October 2007

RGH

30 October 2007