Last updated
27th June 2008

Menter is funded by
Home Office/Active Community Unit

Company Limited by Guarantee registered as Minority Ethnic Network Eastern Region No. 4058054

Charity no. 1092250

Home Office/ACU

Rising to the challenge of increasing BME sports participation

Central government has set a target that by 2020 70% of the whole population will take part in 30 minutes of physical activity at least 5 times per week. However, in some BME communities fewer than one in five members are participating even as infrequently as once a month. This means that all involved in sport face a huge challenge.

Causes

In order to find out what lies behind the current imbalance in participation between the population as a whole and BME (Black and Minority Ethnic) communities, the BME Sports Network East, of which Sport England East and MENTER are members, commissioned P l o s z a j s k i L y n c h Consulting Ltd. to carry out research into this area. Ploszajski Lynch concluded this research in January 2005. They identified a range of causes for the lack of sports participations by BME individuals.  These include:

● Poverty and deprivation – Some studies estimate that 57% of people from BME backgrounds are socially excluded from sport because of poverty. 

● Lack of role models – Those we consulted constantly stressed the need for young people to have role models from their community. Whilst there are many black faces visible as performers in football, cricket and athletics, there are very few in other sports or as managers, PE teachers, leisure centre managers, or local authority chief leisure officers. With a few notable exceptions such as boxing and cricket, Asian role models are almost non-existent in professional sport.

● Celebration – There are few opportunities for BME communities to come together specifically to celebrate and showcase their success and ability in sport.

● A white sporting establishment – there is very little involvement by BME people in the organisation and governance of sport through the national governing bodies at national and county level.

● Racism not being taken seriously – Consultees report that incidents of racism and racist abuse are often not taken seriously by sporting organisations

● Lack of Awareness by BME communities – BME communities report that they are often unaware of local sporting opportunities including facilities, programmes and events. They also report a lack of awareness of funding sources and of jobs in the leisure industry other than as professional performers.

● Lack of data on BME communities and their participation – Our consultations show a general lack of awareness of BME communities amongst sports providers.  Participation data on ethnicity is rarely collected on a regular or methodical basis and there is little marketing aimed directly at BME communities.

●  Re-inventing the wheel – Over the years there have been many programmes aimed at increasing BME participation.  There is no library or clearing-house for good practice which can be used to learn from others’ mistakes or successes.

Positive factors

Having identified some negative factors, these must be off-set to some degree by a number of positive factors:

● Increasing awareness – Ploszajski Lynch found an increasing awareness amongst sporting organisations of ethnicity and equality issues.

 ● Increasing awareness of health among BME individuals

● Healthier lifestyles amongst the young

● Developing expertise within sports organisations

· Examples of good practice

Recommendations

The recommendations by Ploszajski Lynch are being made to the BME Sports Network East. To take these recommendations forward now requires the involvement and commitment of a range of partners including the Eastern Sports Board, Sport England, the county sports partnerships, governing bodies and local authorities.  Ploszajski Lynch therefore recommends that the BME Sports Network East agrees an action plan, reviews its operation and starts implementation of the recommendations below with a small number of pilot projects.

The recommendations include:

1. The BME Sports Network East to commission statistically valid market research to provide accurate information about levels and types of participation in the BME communities and to identify barriers to improvement. 

2. A BME Sports Project Manager to be appointed within MENTER to drive forward the work of the Network, to bridge gaps between the sports sector and other sectors, to engage sub-regional partners and to tackle work programmes. This post should act as a champion on BME issues in sport.

3. To build additional capacity and to influence policy and practice at a more local level, the BME Sports Project Manager should promote the development of BME Sports Forums and Representation of BME interests on other existing local forums.

4. The BME Sports Network East and MENTER to act as a central resource for advice on funding, best practice and information on facilities, activities and programmes.

5. The Eastern Sports Board to develop an annual event to celebrate minority ethnic sport and to develop links between all members of the sporting community.

6. The BME Sports Network East to work with the professional bodies for PE teachers, sports development workers, leisure managers, sports physiotherapists and so on to encourage young BME people wishing to gain employment in sports related jobs.

7. Local authorities to put in place consultation mechanisms with their BME communities.

8. Funding bodies to be encouraged to consider longer-term funding for BME projects (minimum of five years) because of the length of time it takes many initiatives to achieve concrete and sustainable benefits.

The full report is available here.

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