In November 2023, Sport England published their intention to expand investment in ‘Place Partnerships’ to communities who need the most support to lead more active lives. This place-based approach to working has been tested by Sport England and their system partners over six years in twelve localities in England and the model is now being rolled out to 80 -100 places, including Lincolnshire.

Sport England have taken the strategic decision to position Active Partnerships to be the lead conveners of this work in each place.

Active Lincolnshire, as the local Active Partnership, is committed to fostering partnerships locally, driving change and influencing a whole system approach to addressing inactivity in communities furthest away from being active. Let’s Move Lincolnshire, the countywide strategy for physical activity, provides the framework to influence long term change across systems, policies and planning and our commitment is to provide coordination and collaboration for that work.

We don’t yet know exactly what the place partnership work will look like here in Lincolnshire. We are currently in the ‘development phase’ and working with Sport England and strategic partners to ensure we have the right conditions for this work to be successful. We will be engaging with wider partners and stakeholders as soon as we can, and the work will ultimately be led by and based on the needs of community.

What we do know is:

• the investment is likely to initially be in East Lindsay and Boston District areas, the places that Sport England have identified as the highest priority in our area. There is likely to be some work that supports whole districts, in addition to a more focussed and immersive approach working with communities of smaller geographies such as MSOA (Medium Super Output Areas).
  
  
• the place partnership programme is not about the investment, or distribution of funds. Active Lincolnshire’s commitment to place-based working is characterised by focus, long-term vision, collaboration, shared intention, and scalability, ensuring sustained impact and opportunity to replicate.
  
  
• at the centre of the work is a commitment to supporting a resilient and relevant physical activity sector that innovates, grows, and evolves playing a critical role in addressing wider societal challenges and enabling health and wellbeing opportunites for the local population. We will promote this offer to residents, showcasing the entirety and diversity of the options to be active.
  
  
• Active Lincolnshire are committed in our mission to drive systemic, long-term change to establish a more active, inclusive, and resilient Lincolnshire. Welfare of our people and participants, reducing our impact on the environment and a focus on inequalities are core principles that drive our work.
  
  
• a successful place partnership will require distributed leadership, genuine communication co-creation and collaboration; commitment from the widest spectrum of partners working and influencing the lives of people in the places.
  
  
• the place partnership will be committed to monitoring, evaluation and learning from the work.
  

A more active population supports community cohesion, reduction in anti-social behaviour, reduces pressures on the local health care system, creates greater economic prosperity and ultimately a happier, healthier population.

If you think there is alignment and value to be added by your organisation working with Active Lincolnshire, please reach out and connect with us.

Please be mindful of the need for us to work at the pace of partners and of Sport England and that we are committed to ensuring that Lincolnshire sees the greatest possible benefit from this work, but that this is not about quick wins or us distributing funds. This is a journey of collaboration and working together to create system change that benefits the people of Lincolnshire.

Active Lincolnshire will provide further updates as and when the place partnership work evolves.

For further information:

Contact Emma Tatlow

Sport England Place Partnerships

Let’s Move Lincolnshire Strategy

About Active Lincolnshire