Written evidence submitted by UK Sport

1. UK Sport provides strategic investment to enable Great Britain and Northern Ireland’s Olympic and Paralympic sports and athletes to achieve their full medal winning potential at the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

2. In order to deliver our mission of delivering and showcasing medal success, we are in a privileged position of being afforded a mix of government and national lottery funding to strategically invest into those sports and events which we believe will deliver the greatest return in terms of performance and inspirational impact.

3. Over the years, UK Sport has had incredible commitment from successive governments through exchequer and National Lottery funding, that's why with every cycle from the time National Lottery funding came on stream from Sydney to Athens to Beijing to London to Rio and in the Winters too we have seen the British Team shoot up the medal table to claim a record breaking 2nd place in Rio 2016 beating China.

4. As a result of this funding we will have distributed approximately £374 million to 47 Olympic and Paralympic sports in the pursuit of medals in PyeongChang 2018 and Tokyo 2020.

5. UK Sport also leads the UK’s major events programme. Funded by £26million of National Lottery money, we are tasked to attract and stage some of the most important international sporting events in the world.

6. Our starting point for this inquiry on “the social impact of participation in culture and sport” is the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport’s (DCMS) ten year sport strategy.

7. Launched in December 2015, Sporting Future: A new Strategy for an Active Nation puts the onus on exchequer and National Lottery distributors, Sport England and UK Sport, to demonstrate outcomes in return for the exchequer and national lottery investments being made into the sporting sector.

8. For UK Sport, this means that in addition to international sporting success, and the hosting of major events as set out in the KPIs set within the Sporting Future strategy, UK Sport needs to demonstrate wider socio-economic impact that investment into Olympic and Paralympic success delivers for the nation.

9. This submission will outline UK Sport’s evidence of the socio-economic impact of investment in Olympic and Paralympic success.

Physical Wellbeing

10. UK Sport is clear that investing in Olympic and Paralympic success plays a role in inspiring people to become active; to increase their activity levels; or to re-engage with sports that they might have stopped playing. 

11. Participation data (as analysed and assessed by Sheffield Hallam and Loughborough Universities) suggests that, for the adult population in England, a modest increase in sport and physical activity between 1996-2016 can be associated with an increase in British Olympic and Paralympic success over that period (with that effect being more pronounced and longer lasting amongst regular participants).

12. There is some evidence internationally of increased participation from the ‘trickle-down effect’ from elite success with the most positive impact likely to be seen among those already active participants and young people.

13. Patterns of leisure facilities usage in the UK suggest that in the immediate post-Olympic period (22 Aug – 6 Sep 2016) bookings were up nearly 15% on the equivalent period in 2015. Analysis by 4Global indicates that around 182,000 more people attended a leisure facility in this 2016 quarter in England than during the equivalent period in 2015. 
14. Around 33,600 members were recorded as having taken part in an activity once in the month prior to the Rio Olympics.  In the following month, 27% of these individuals took part in an activity two times or more.  A further month on, nearly a half of these people had subsequently sustained their activity level at twice a month or more.
15. As a result of feeling inspired by the success of/stories about British Olympic and Paralympic athletes between 39% of British public say they have been motivated to do more sport or recreation than normal, and 66% by the success of/stories about British Olympic and Paralympic athletes.
16. At UK Sport we’re really passionate about using the amazing impact that elite success can have and applying this to mass participation campaigns to go some way to inspiring communities to get active. Back in the summer of 2016, we partnered with Team GB, the National Lottery and ITV for #IAMTEAMGB, the nation’s biggest sports day. Sports clubs all over the country opened their doors to the public and over 1 million people took part.

17. This summer, we teamed up with parkrun and the National Lottery for a new event, #teamparkrun. 100 of our National Lottery funded athletes acted as tail walkers at parkruns around the country. parkrun attendance on the day was 43% up on last year.

18. The day also set an August record for Saturday volunteers. There were 7, 377 first time participants on the day - a 6% increase compared to the Saturdays either side of 19th August 2017. 32% of first timers said the athletes attending had some influence on their decision to participate and 75% of participants saying the presence of an athlete was positive or very positive.

19. There was also a positive impact on retention with 36% saying that #teamparkrun was an influence on them taking part in a parkrun post 19th August.

Mental Health

20. There is evidence internationally that national sporting success (in this case Olympic and Paralympic success) does impact on the nation’s happiness or wellbeing.
21. Success at the Games has the potential to engender pride through medal table position and multiple stories of individuals through the period of competition.
22. Following the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Games the British public were asked what made them most proud to be British: in 2012 the rankings were: in first place, the NHS; 2nd, the armed forces and 3rd: Team GB; in 2016, when asked the same question Team GB ranked 2nd after the NHS.
23.                         There is also evidence that sports participants tend to have higher levels of life satisfaction than the population as a whole. In a survey carried out in November 2017, two thirds of the public reported feeling inspired by the stories about British Olympic and Paralympic athletes, with 45% of these people saying that they felt happier and more satisfied with their life as a result.
24.                         Evidence that general pride and happiness of sports participants may to some extent be associated with GB performances at major events. For example, in a pilot study carried out at the 2017 Squash World Open in Manchester, respondents reported that attending major events makes a positive contribution to their mental (or personal) wellbeing, as expressed in terms of life satisfaction, happiness, anxiety and a sense of doing something worthwhile. Life satisfaction and happiness appeared to have the strongest associations with event attendance.
25. Further personal wellbeing research will be piloted at a number of UK Sport-supported events in 2018.

Individual Development Impact

26. When we ask the British public to describe British Olympic and Paralympic athletes in one word the public were most likely to cite ‘inspiring’, followed by ‘dedicated’ and ‘determined.

27. The majority of the public believe British Olympic and Paralympic athletes set a positive example for others to follow at 80% (November 2017). In a survey carried out in November 2017, two thirds of the public (66%) reported feeling inspired by the success of/stories about British Olympic and Paralympic athletes, with 33% of these people saying that they had done something different in their lives as a result, including changing careers; taking up volunteering and new challenges.

28. As part of a pilot study to match athletes with a variety of volunteering opportunities to engage and inspire children and young people, feedback was sought from 178 young people who took part in the Get on Track programme run by the Dame Kelly Holmes Trust in 2015/16.  When asked to consider the difference their project had or had not made to them in respect of their sports participation, their employability and their motivation in education, training or employment, around a third of respondents disagreed in each case that they would have been as active, employable and motivated if they had not been on the programme. The young people therefore appeared to be saying that the programme had made a positive difference to them in these respects.

29. Volunteering at major events is another important area in which we can demonstrate how individual development impacts flow from high performance sport.  For example, across a range of skills, significant number of volunteers who took part in the London 2017 World Athletics (and Para Athletics) Championships Volunteering Programme reported an increase in their new skills and knowledge (49%) and an improvement in their team-working skills (43%), communication skills (38%), and employment and training prospects (17%).

Social and Community Development Impact

30. A recent Contingent Valuation study conducted by Sheffield Hallam/University of Loughborough (Contingent Valuation: a method of estimating the value that a person places on a public good) on the perceived public and community benefits of investing in Olympic and Paralympic success demonstrated the high value that the public puts on investment in Olympic and Paralympic success and the perceived wider benefits of that investment.

31. The Contingent Valuation was assessed at between £299m and £451m.

32. The key determinants of that valuation were driven by social importance and personal benefit. The perceived benefits of investment in Olympic and Paralympic Success were assessed as: participation increases amongst the general public; international reputation; feel good factor; economic impact; strength in national identity.

33. Recent research demonstrates the potential positive impact that major sports events can have on host communities in ways that contribute to the Sporting Futures outcome areas;

• that hosting major sports events can have a positive impact on the subjective wellbeing (happiness) of host populations.
• that hosting events and elite sporting success generate feelings of pride.
• that sports volunteering, as well as developing personal and social skills, can also create community cohesion and trust.
• that points to a link between major sports events and social capital, particularly bonding capital.

34. In a pilot study carried out at the European Curling Championships in Renfrewshire in November 2016, we found that 77.3% of local residents agreed that the event made a positive difference to how they felt about their local area and 38.7% agreed that the event had brought the local community closer.

Economic Impact

35. In 2014, Olympic and Paralympic sport generated £18.9bn of Gross Value Added (GVA), which equates to 55% of the total sport-related GVA for that year.

36. This is divided into summer Olympic sport (£16.1bn), winter Olympic sports (£0.7bn) and all Paralympic sport (£2.1bn).

37. Olympic and Paralympic sport represents 1.2% of total GVA for the economy as a whole. This also directly generates approximately 623,000 jobs.

38. Employment in Olympic and Paralympic sport is equivalent to 2.1% of total employment, highlighting sport's capacity to generate jobs at a greater rate than suggested by its GVA share of the economy equivalent to 56% of the overall sport employment detailed in the UK Sport Satellite Account.

39. With a total GVA of £18.9bn, Olympic and Paralympic sport is an industry which is larger than three entire sectors of the UK economy, namely: activities of households as employers; agriculture, forestry and fishing; and water supply, sewage, waste management and remediation services.

40. The 'ripple effect' of Olympic and Paralympic sport can be said to be the catalyst for an even more extensive scale of economic activity;

41. The overall estimated direct and indirect effect amounts to £30bn in GVA, 1,018,000 in employment (headcount), and £73.4bn in turnover. The percentage increases of the indirect effects over the direct effects are estimated at 58%, 63% and 200% in GVA, employment and turnover respectively.

42. Olympic and Paralympic sport is fundamental in creating GVA and employment within the sport industry, accounting for the majority of the output produced.

43. Road cycling alone is now worth £2.3bn to the UK economy, rising to £3.6bn if the supply chain is included, and supporting 75,000 jobs.

44. The strength of the Paralympic sport sector is shown by a value of more than £2bn, with wheelchair basketball alone being worth £42m to the country.

45. Winter sport is shown to be an increasingly popular industry, with ice skating alone worth £400m in the UK.

46. Nowhere is the effect of children’s participation more economically significant than in gymnastics. In 2014, gymnastics experienced a record growth in membership which will grow the sport further in terms of economic impact and participation.

47. The UK now has a transparent audit trail of evidence by which to value the economic importance of Olympic and Paralympic sport, which is consistent with the DCMS's Sport Satellite Account.

48. To provide an indication of the economic impact of major sports events, UK Sport research in 2016 showed that the cumulative ‘direct’ impact on the respective host economies of six supported events in that year[1] was £8.4m. The total UK Sport National Lottery funding awarded to these events was £2.6m.

49. This means that for every pound of National Lottery funding invested, £3 of new money was generated in the host economies concerned.

50. Shifting focus to a much larger event, an independent study carried out at the IPC and IAAF World Athletics Championships in the summer of 2017 concluded that the direct economic impact of the two events on Greater London was £107 million. 

Conclusion

51. In this submission we have set out the ways in which investment in Olympic and Paralympic success can have significant socio-economic impacts on society.

52. Our submission demonstrates that in the areas of physical wellbeing, mental health, individual development, social and community development and economic impact, there are well evidenced benefits of investing in Olympic and Paralympic sport.

53. UK Sport would be happy to provide additional information on any of the areas raised in this submission. Additionally, UK Sport would like to offer all members of the Committee the opportunity to visit an Elite Training Centre, where a number of our World Class Programme are based.

February 2018