Sport England advises, invests in and promotes community sport to create an active nation. As part of the build up to the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, they wanted to get two million people more active in sport. 

Sport England was specifically struggling to deliver £15 million worth of grants into the hands of their ‘hard to reach’ target groups: disabled people, lower socioeconomic groups, young people and black and ethnic minority groups. Research showed that the application process was complex and inaccessible to all but educated, proficient form fillers. 

IE created a workshop style, facilitated process where sports groups were led through the application process by a community leader, helping with everything from opening a bank account to progress checklists and scoring systems for self evaluation. As a result, Sport England saw a significant improvement in the diversity of applicants, and their success rates improved too.