Across Lincolnshire, our latest place-based evaluation reinforces a simple but powerful truth: inactivity is rarely about motivation – it’s about access, connection and confidence.

At the same time, the government’s introduction of a new PE and School Sport Partnerships Network signals a significant shift in how physical activity is supported across the system. Moving away from a fragmented, school-led funding model towards a more connected, partnership-driven approach creates a timely opportunity – not just for education, but for whole-place change.

From an Active Lincolnshire perspective, this isn’t a departure from what works. It’s a chance to scale it.

A system ready for connection

Our findings across Boston, East Lindsey and South Holland highlight a consistent pattern: assets already exist, but they’re not fully activated or connected.

• Schools are delivering strong provision, but participation often drops off beyond the school day
• Community spaces are available, but underused due to safety, perception and accessibility
• Programmes generate engagement, but lack clear pathways to sustain activity

This reflects a system that is working, but not yet working together. The new Partnerships Network is designed to address exactly this challenge.

By bringing together schools, local organisations, leisure providers and national bodies, it creates the conditions for a more coherent, place-based system of support. For areas like ours, that matters.

Strengthening the role of schools as system anchors

Our insight is clear: schools remain one of the most powerful and consistent enablers of physical activity, particularly for children and young people.

In Boston, for example, engagement within schools is strong, but without clear routes into community activity, that participation is not sustained. Schools are often carrying the weight of delivery, without the support of a wider connected system.

The new partnerships model offers an opportunity to reposition schools – not as sole deliverers, but as anchors within a broader ecosystem of activity.

This is a critical shift. It allows us to:

• Extend participation beyond the school gate
• Create clearer pathways from PE into community sport and informal activity
• Reduce reliance on schools alone to solve systemic challenges

For stakeholders across education and local systems, this is about shared responsibility and shared opportunity.

Tackling the real barriers to participation

Our evaluation highlights the complexity of barriers shaping activity levels:

• Transport and rurality limiting access in East Lindsey and South Holland
• Safety and perception of spaces reducing use of community assets in Boston
• Confidence, health and suitability influencing participation across all places
• Cost and connectivity shaping who can realistically engage

These are not challenges that can be solved through provision alone. They require coordinated, cross-sector responses – aligning education, health, local authorities, community organisations and infrastructure planning. The Partnerships Network creates a framework to do this more effectively:

• Enabling targeted support based on local need
• Encouraging integration between school and community settings
• Supporting more inclusive, confidence-building approaches to activity

From our perspective, this aligns strongly with what place-based insight is telling us: solutions must be designed around people, not programmes.

From programmes to pathways

One of the most consistent findings across all three areas is the lack of clear, sustainable pathways. We see strong engagement in:

• school sport
• short-term health programmes
• community-based sessions

But too often, participation ends when the programme ends. The opportunity now is to move from isolated interventions to connected journeys. That means:

• Linking school sport to local clubs and informal opportunities
• Creating progression routes beyond time-limited programmes
• Ensuring activity is accessible within everyday life – not dependent on travel or cost

The Partnerships Network provides a structure to enable this, but its success will depend on how well it is embedded locally.

The opportunity for system leadership

What this moment demands is not just delivery but leadership. The shift towards a partnerships model places greater emphasis on:

• collaboration over competition
• shared insight and decision-making
• long-term system change over short-term outputs

Our work across Lincolnshire has shown the value of this approach. Through community connectors, cross-sector engagement and local insight, we are already seeing how relationships and coordination drive impact. The new national framework gives this approach greater momentum and visibility.

A positive step towards sustainable change

The introduction of the PE and School Sport Partnerships Network represents a clear move towards a more connected, equitable and place-responsive system.

For us at Active Lincolnshire, the alignment is strong. The principles underpinning the new model – collaboration, targeting need, building pathways and activating local assets – reflect what we know works. The task now is to ensure that:

• local insight continues to shape delivery
• partnerships are built with purpose and clarity
• the focus remains on sustained participation, not short-term activity

Because ultimately, the goal is not just to get more people active today but to create the conditions for activity to be a normal, accessible part of everyday life.