Equality and diversity

We stand for everybody, from every background, in every place, having an equal chance to be active and benefit from it.

Our aim is for a sporting system that's truly inclusive and properly reflective of UK society.

These are our four broad ambitions:

Participation levels

Closing the race gap in levels of participation in sport and physical activity for specific Black, Asian and minority ethnic groups that are behind national participation levels – similar to the focus we’ve had on closing the gender gap in recent years.

Talented athletes

Supporting the identification and development of talented athletes, including those from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds.

Leadership and workforce

Transforming both the executive and non-executive leadership and workforce within sport and physical activity, to make it representative of the population.

Our organisation

Ensuring that, by 2026, our own organisation is representative of the population and the people it serves, at all levels within the organisation, by setting a new target to double the proportion of Black, Asian and minority ethnic background staff in Sport England.

This means a minimum of 20% of staff to come from a Black, Asian or minority ethnic background by halfway through our 10-year strategy, Uniting the Movement. Although historically we've had had low staff turnover, we believe this is a realistic and ambitious target and we're committed to meeting it.

Focus areas

With these broad ambitions in mind, we're focusing work in four areas:

Governance code review

In July 2020, along with UK Sport, we announced the Code for Sports Governance was to undergo a formal review to look at areas where it would benefit from further development, including around equality, diversity and inclusion.

This review process has involved a wide and inclusive consultation to ensure the experiences of both current partners and other organisations involved in improving governance, diversity and inclusion contributed to the shaping of the revised code.

In July 2021, we and UK Sport announced changes to strengthen the Code, including ensuring bodies in receipt of substantial public funding from either organisation have a detailed and ambitious diversity and inclusion action plan to increase diversity on their boards and senior leadership teams, as well as across their wider organisations.

Find out more about the Code

Race in sport review

We’ve carried out a detailed, independent review in collaboration with the other home country Sports Councils and UK Sport.

There were two major pieces of work – the first involved bringing together existing data on race and ethnicity in sport to identify gaps and make recommendations, while the second involved creating an opportunity to hear lived experiences of racial inequalities and racism in sport by offering people a safe space to tell their stories

Full reports for both the #TellYourStory campaign and existing data audit were published in June 2021, identifying where there are gaps as well as common themes, with recommendations on how to make meaningful progress.

The Councils have agreed initial overarching commitments that all five will work on together. Each Council will also work at pace to develop their own specific action plans to further deliver on these commitments.

Read the reports and common themes

Our organisation

We're looking at how diverse and inclusive we are internally, in terms of our staff, our policies and procedures, and the specific work we undertake – ensuring each have a strong focus on equality, diversity and inclusion from the start.

As part of this, in January 2021 we announced the appointment of our first director of equality, diversity and inclusion, are updating our Diversity Action Plan for 2021-24 and have formed a terminology task group, to examine how our use of language can help us to be more inclusive.

Our commitment to diversity

Our Uniting the Movement strategy

In order to take these three areas of focus further, in Uniting the Movement we’ve used the principles that emerged from the consultation period to take a holistic view of the sector and how it works and interlinks with others, to understand more about the complex causes of structural inequality.

We’re now taking ownership of delivering a range of responses that create sustained systematic change, and the first of these steps were outlined in our Year 1 implementation plan - part of which includes a further £20 million commitment for our Tackling Inequalities Fund.

Diversity in Sport Governance audits

Together with UK Sport, we're working with Perrett Laver to improve the diversity of boards and senior leadership teams in sports organisations across the country.

To help do this and assess the impact of the work, we conduct periodic audits into the diversity of these leadership roles for our funded partners that comply with the Code for Sports Governance.

So far we've conducted audits in 2020 and 2024, with the results showing an improvement in the representation of disabled people and those from culturally or ethnically diverse backgrounds on Boards, but that senior leadership teams are far from reflecting the diversity of UK society in all its forms.

You can dive into the results in more details using the reports linked below.

Diversity in Sport Governance - 2024 Download the file - 2.28 MB

Diversity in sport governance survey report Download the file - 4.73 MB

Read more about our equality and diversity work as an employer, including our accreditations.

A summary of the findings

Commissioned by the five UK Sports Councils, below is a summary of the findings from two pieces of research into racism and racial inequality in sport:

The Sport Industry Research Centre (SIRC) at Sheffield Hallam University’s review of existing data on racial inequality in sport
AKD Solutions’ project to record lived experiences of racism in sport.

To provide a framework to respond to the findings of the research, the UK Sports Councils have identified five themes for action.

System

What the research tells us:
Read more
Data gathering (SIRC)

People from ethnically diverse backgrounds in England are more likely to live in areas with higher levels of deprivation. Deprivation is negatively associated with participation in sport and physical activity.

This finding suggests the inequalities found in sport and physical activity are engrained in wider societal inequalities.

Lived experience (AKD)

Participants observed a system that was often unresponsive to complaints of racism. This was referred to as a “colour blind” approach and participants discussed how this encourages the continuation of inequality and division.

Representatives of alternative sports leagues and associations took part in the research. These alternative networks and structures were set up in response to marginalisation from mainstream sport activity where ethnically diverse people didn’t feel welcomed or understood.

Many had first joined existing majority-white clubs and left in search of better representation after struggling to have their voices and opinions heard.
Read less
Representation

What the research tells us:
Read more
Data gathering (SIRC)

In its 2019 Benchmarking Survey, Haysmacintyre found that amongst 24 national governing bodies from across the UK, the proportion of board members from ethnically diverse backgrounds was 4% - less than one third of their incidence in the wider population.

In 2020, Perrett Laver surveyed 125 sports organisations funded by Sport England and/or UK Sport to establish the diversity of their boards. Results revealed that 7.9% of respondents identified as ‘BME’.

While the Perret Laver survey suggests an improving situation, ethnically diverse people remain under-represented on the boards of sports organisations in England and by implication throughout the UK.

Across the coaching workforce in professional football, research has found that people from ethnically diverse groups were 4.6% of the coaching workforce, despite being 25% of the playing base and 14% of the wider working population.

Lived experience (AKD)

Participants explained that poor or non-existent representation is damaging on many levels, impacting progression and maintaining existing unequal relationships.

A lack of visible role models also reinforces negative stereotypes and the perception that ethnically diverse participants have limited skills and abilities.

Participants across all Home Nations shared examples of unrepresentative leadership and observed that the absence of representation leads to decision-making that’s unlikely to be in the interests of Black and Asian communities and sports participants.
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Workforce

What the research tells us:
Read more
Data gathering (SIRC)

Across the portfolio of jobs in sport measured by standard occupational classification codes, people from ethnically diverse backgrounds account for 7% of the workforce, which is half their incidence in the working population (14%).

Representation is notably low for the influential roles of sport coaches, instructors and officials (5%) and leisure and sport managers (6%).

Lived experience (AKD)

Participants reported anxiety and mental health issues as a direct result of negative coaching behaviours and practices based on their race.

Young participants reported that the attitude and behaviours of coaches affected their confidence and motivation in early years. For elite athletes and those on performance pathways, negative coaching attitudes had caused participants to leave clubs or their sport altogether.

Exclusion also exists for culturally diverse coaches who told stories of unwelcoming environments, disbelief of the validity of skills and expertise and limited opportunities for career progression and access to top coaching roles.
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Insights

What the research tells us:
Read more
Data gathering (SIRC)

Further analysis is required in the following areas:
- Existing high-quality data sources
- The interplay of race, socio-economic status and deprivation.
The granularity of data between and within different ethnic groups needs to be improved.

Lived experience (AKD)

Further research into the lived experiences of ethnically diverse groups, undertaken by research professionals that have credibility with, and an authentic understanding of, those communities, is required to inform and improve what sport currently offers.
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Investments

What the research tells us:
Read more
Data gathering (SIRC)

When considering investments to encourage people from ethnically diverse backgrounds to be more physically active, success depends on much more than the nature of an intervention.

Other fundamental ingredients include who delivers the intervention and how it’s delivered.

Lived experience (AKD)

There’s evidence within participants’ stories that funding mechanisms don’t reach the communities most in need. This was reported by participants representing grassroots organisations, elite athletes, and teams.

Black and Asian communities, groups and clubs are poorly represented in grant-making structures. The research found these communities are also less likely to be aware of support structures that can help in accessing grants and funds.

Organisations adopt “colour blind” approaches that favour organisations who can best navigate the application process.
Read less

Read the reports in full

Tackling Racism and Racial Inequality in Sport Review Download the file - 1.04 MB

Tell Your Story Download the file - 6.01 MB

Six-monthly updates

The chief executives of each of the councils have issued statements and update reports every six months from the publication of the two initial documents.

Five common themes for action

Our internal structures and systems

We’ll look at our overall grant, investment and supply-chain arrangements to ensure fairness, creativity and representation are at the heart of the way funding and contracts are awarded.

Through our respective frameworks and strategies, we’ll look at how we can ensure we and our funded organisations have, or are putting in place, policies and procedures that support inclusion in areas such as:

Challenging racism and racist behaviour within our respective areas of responsibility
Reviewing recruitment practices as well as the design of guidelines, programmes and interventions to help engage and attract more diverse people
Supporting ongoing training and education to understand racism and the impact it has on individuals and our sector
Engaging with relevant support networks and partners to challenge racism and championing anti-racist behaviours and practices.

Improving representation

Under-representation of diverse ethnic communities within sporting structures is a recurrent theme within the research.

We want to see increased representation at all levels of sport, whether that’s in participation, administration, volunteering or recruitment.

We’ll therefore place greater emphasis on understanding the negative impact of racial inequalities in sport and how better representation can help create an inclusive and more diverse environment, reflective of UK society. We’ll work to embed the connection between improved representation and better strategic and operational decision-making.

We’ll work with partner organisations to share good practice, paying particular attention to actions aligned to longer-term equality, diversity and inclusion planning and implementation. We’ll be clear where we want our partners to do more, and work with allies to create an environment that offers positive experiences, tackles discrimination and empowers individuals to reach their full potential.

People - our workforce

The research has identified issues which contribute to racial inequalities in the paid and voluntary workforce. It’s also pointed to the need to improve practices such as the gathering and analysis of workforce data to inform action plans and determine measurable outcomes.

We’ll therefore work to improve how and where data is collected across our workforce so that we can have a much clearer picture of the inequalities that have been identified through this review.

We’ll take a proactive approach to identifying the existing systems and structures currently acting as barriers for people from ethnically diverse communities and it’ll be our priority to make improvements to processes in workforce recruitment, development and retention.

This will include embedding the approaches which mean we can begin to address this area from the perspective of individuals, groups, leadership and broader society.

Insight

The research has given us rich insight that should challenge us to rethink how we approach the delivery of sport. It’s also highlighted that we need more and better information about diverse ethnic communities in sport if we’re to be truly effective in understanding and tackling racial inequalities.

This includes further analysis of high-quality data sources that are yet to be fully investigated; exploring means of achieving greater granularity of data between and within different ethnic groups; developing further insights about the interplay of race, socio-economic status and deprivation; and furthering our understanding of the lived experiences of ethnically diverse groups.

As a group of Sports Councils, we’ll look to be more systematic in the way we collate data, in the research we commission around inequality and inclusion, and in measuring and tracking the progress we're able to make.

We’ll proactively engage and share reports with key partners, supporting them with digesting, understanding and reflecting on the findings with a view to challenging what this means for their own ways of operating.

Investment

What we invest in and how we invest are key factors in how we reach communities and drive change in engaging positively with sport and physical activity.

We acknowledge that more should and will be done to get investment to where it’s needed by working with new and existing partners as part of our wider priorities to tackle inequalities, of which racial inequality is part.

We’ll work with communities to understand their needs and target investments to help address these needs. Where relevant, we’ll continue to invest in targeted programmes that reach ethnically diverse communities and continually measure the impact of our investments to ensure that it brings about the necessary change we want to see.

The UK’s sports councils published new guidance in September 2021 for transgender inclusion in domestic sport.

In 2020 the Sports Councils’ Equality Group (SCEG), made up of representatives from each of the UK’s sports councils (UK Sport, Sport England, Sport Wales, sportscotland and Sport Northern Ireland), commissioned a review of its existing guidance (2013/15) for the inclusion of transgender people in sport, recognising that sport at every level required more practical advice and support.

This review investigated the views, knowledge, and experience of hundreds of people with a lived experience in sport, including transgender people, and also explored the background to current policies domestically and internationally and considered the latest scientific findings affecting the inclusion of transgender people in domestic sport.

Guidance is published on the Moving to Inclusion website, alongside a number of other supporting documents.

The nine documents are:

Guidance for Transgender Inclusion in Domestic Sport 2021
Frequently Asked Questions
Guidance for Transgender Inclusion in Domestic Sport 2021 – Summary of Background Documents
Transgender International Research Literature Review 2021
Transgender International Policy Review 2021
Summary of the Gender Recognition Act 2004
Summary of the Equality Act 2010
Equality Impact Assessment on the Guidance for Transgender Inclusion in Domestic Sport 2021
Project Report on the Review of the Guidance for Transgender Inclusion in Domestic Sport 2021

Read the guidance in full

Focus areas

Governance code review

Race in sport review

Our organisation

Our Uniting the Movement strategy

Diversity in Sport Governance audits

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