Developing Community Use on School Sites A focus on secondary schools

1. Developing Community Use on School SitesA focus on secondary schools

2. What are the issues that present challenges for local communities to access sports facilities on school sites? Can you influence decision makers to open up or keep open school sport facilities for community sport? Do you currently consider the use of school sports facilities out of school hours?

3. What we will cover • Importance of community use – why bother? • A Local Authority view – Birmingham • Practice from Community Use Pilots • Including schools assets in wider strategic planning • Support from Sport England • Q & A plus Call to Action

4. 1 Importance of community use – why bother?

5. Note: Active Places Power Data January 2014. This includes all operational, under-construction and temporarily closed facilities

6. Over 3,000 sports halls • 30,000 grass pitches • Almost 2,000 artificial grass pitches • 1,460 swimming pools Schools are important

7. State of Play 2014 • Over ?? of sporting facilities are on school sites* (77% Sports Halls, 61% artificial grass pitches, 30% swimming pools, 49% grass pitches) • Approximately ?? of school facilities across England are accessible for some form of community use • By far the largest use is by sports clubs/community associations which account for ?? of use • Given pressures on local authorities, community use of school sports facilities is vital *The figures quoted for school stock do not differentiate between secondary and primary. They exclude Higher and Further Education.

8. The biggest challenge is keeping school sports facilities OPEN Rapidly changing education landscape • Academies Act 2010 & Educational Bill 2011 • Converter and Sponsored Academies • Free schools/UTCs/Studio schools/FE Colleges • High performing, diverse and dynamic • Increased parental choice Changing Local Authority role • Commissioning • Strategic overview • Advocacy

9. 2 A Local Authority view - Birmingham • School sites are key to providing supply of facilities • Target new capital investment through strategic mapping • Offers: • Affordable LA offer to the hardest to reach communities • Affordable School CU offer (mngt models & programming) • Many school sites have CU planning/grant conditions • Embed CU in whole school approach. E.g. “To support schools to be at the heart of Birmingham’s inclusive economy, wherever possible opening facilities for the benefit of local communities”

10. Emma LeamanHead of Education & Skills Infrastructure, Birmingham City Council https://db.tt/X7osPEzV

11. 3 Practice from Community Use Pilots

12. National Pilot – Birmingham • 2 year funding for local school access team • Focussed support by Sport England Officers and Education Adviser • High level advocacy with key stakeholders. • Help us understand the importance of school facilities as part of wider rationalisation agenda • Raise profile of opportunity – for schools, for local communities, for community sport • Learning used in Core Cities

13. OFSTED Wear & tear School resistance Legal

14. Some lessons • High level engagement with LA is vital • Local context must be understood • Strategic leadership • Corporate working is fundamental • Focus on benefits/added value and opportunities • Opportunities to connect to initiatives & programmes • ‘Sport’ to have a clear offer for schools • Guidance and support for schools already exists

15. 4 Including schools assets in wider strategic planning

16. A strategic approach to provision

18. 5 Support from Sport England

19. Sport England work on Community Access to Schools Through community access to schools work we are engaging with schools, academies, local authorities and partners to identify the barriers facing schools in opening and keeping open their facilities to the community, seeking practical solutions and maximising opportunities.

20. Our Direction of Travel • Setting strategic focus on keeping secondary school sport facilities open • Pooling intelligence & high level advocacy • Offering a range of Sport England support to schools and LAs • Interactive web resource – our ‘core offer’ to schools • Focused support for strategically important sites • Investment – existing funding streams and small scale solicited • Design guidance 3. Connecting in investors and operators

22. ‘Use Our School’ Sport England’s core offer of support to all 3,500 secondary schools • Solution to help with challenge of keeping schools open. • High profile resource for school audience. • Developed by the market for the market. • Advocates schools as heart of local communities. • Offers guidance across 12 topics. • Useful features (e.g. video clips, resources, case studies, twitter) • Supports schools in a range of scenarios • Launch activity early 2015.

23. 6 Q&A plus Call to Action

24. Call to action • Act as a supportive local strategic player for community use of school sports facilities, drawing on Sport England’s support • Use your role to help drive more strategic coordination and solutions in your area • Interact with us - share knowledge and practice