The role of Sport England is to;
- To be the strategic lead for sport in England
- To make focused investments through partners
- To provide advice, support and knowledge to partners and customers
- To influence the decision makers and public opinion on sport
Sport England will provide strategic leadership to sport by providing partners with support, knowledge and expertise whilst establishing the performance criteria against which the impact of all future investment will be measured.
The National Lottery was set up by the Government in 1995 to raise extra money for good causes. Sport was named as one of the good causes to benefit from Lottery money and Sport England (then known as the English Sports Council) was named as a distributor. Sport improves the quality of life for all and provides lasting benefits in areas such as education, health, the regeneration of communities and promoting social inclusion.
Following a comprehensive internal review and freeze on new applications announced in December 2002, the Sport England Lottery Fund will be fully up and running again with new, simpler application packs, in early 2004. With a new vision - 'Making England an Active and Successful Sporting Nation' - and with the implementation of a radical modernisation programme, Sport England is well placed to respond to the challenges of Game Plan (the Governments policy statement on sport), and the Lottery White Paper.