Sport England has launched two new online tools to support organisations using its funding and promoting sport in their communities.
The government agency has created the Local Area Insights tool to help local authorities and national governing bodies bring together data to support grant applications and understand their local communities, and to support local authorities and national governing bodies.
It has been built on Esri UK’s InstantAtlas national data service and provides access to a range of demographic and economic indicators.
This is accompanied by the launch of the Sport England Digital Marketing Hub to help sports clubs, groups and larger organisations use digital marketing to encourage more people to be physically active.
The developments come after the recent publication of a 10-year strategy, Uniting the Movement, which includes an emphasis on using high quality data and learning to boost sport and physical activity around the country.
Statistical range
Local Area Insight takes in over 10,000 statistical indicators from 20 major providers including the Office for National Statistics, the Home Office and Public Health England.
It provides interactive reports, maps and a data explorer, enabling users to look at factors such as key population, deprivation and health statistics to help design interventions and provide an evidence base for grant applications.
Jennifer Bufton, Sport England’s senior data analyst, said: “One of our key objectives over the next decade is to support various under-represented population groups – including those from lower socio-economic backgrounds, older adults and people living with disabilities and long term health conditions – with the view of encouraging them to be more active.
“Sport England’s national investment strategy is driven by data, insight and knowing where these groups are – all of which helps us target our support more accurately. By integrating Esri UK’s InstantAtlas and national data service into the Sport England website, we are able to provide free-to-use resources to the sector while also ensuring we can make better decisions using data.”
Marketing asset
The Digital Marketing Hub was delivered by the Chartered Institute for the Management of Sport and Physical Activity and is powered by the Digital Marketing Institute.
It is tailored for use by small businesses, self-employed professionals and volunteers at clubs and groups, as well as market and communications professionals in larger organisations, and contains resources including expert-led video lessons, toolkits, templates, webinars and walkthroughs.
All of the content is on-demand, enabling participants to curate their own training, scheduling and focus on areas most valuable to them.
The hub is supported by a strategic partnership between Sport England and Google, which provides a bespoke series of webinars to help small businesses become viewable on the search engine, mentoring from Google experts, and signposting to relevant courses in the Google Digital Garage.
Image from Sport England
