1. By Guy Beynon

2. What is ‘Sport England’ Sport England is the governments funded agency responsible for providing the strategic lead for sport in England's in order to deliver the governments objectives. It is also a distributor of the lottery sport funds which it ‘hopefully’ shares out evenly to improve coaching, facilities etc.

3. Sport England's mission is to make England an active and successful sporting nation

4. Sport England’s role is to: 1) Be the strategic leader for sport in England 2) Make focused investments through partners 3) Provide advice, support and knowledge to partners and customers 4) Influence the decision makers and public opinion on sport

5. Sports England’s objectives are to: 1)Start – increase participation in sport in order to improve the health of the nation, with focus on priority groups 2)Stay – retain people in sport and active recreation through effective network of clubs, sport facilities and coaches, volunteers and competitive opportunities 3)Success – achieve sporting success at every level 4)Ensure internal efficiency – that we operate and allocate our resources with maximum effectiveness

6. Examples of Sport Englands work Beth Tweddle, Great Britain’s most successful gymnast and a Sport England Sporting Champion, made a special guest appearance at the Barnsley Gymnastics Final on Thursday, 1 March. Beth attended the event in her role as a Sporting Champion. The initiative was created and funded by Sport England to inspire young people to take part in sport.

7. Manchester United Manager Sir Alex Ferguson joined young players to officially open Mersey Valley Sports Club’s new £675,400 clubhouse and changing facilities. The outstanding new sports facilities were funded with a Football Foundation grant of £504,476 as part of the Community Club Development Programme from Sport England. The programme, funded by Government and managed by Sport England, is specifically earmarked to develop links between sports clubs and their local communities, providing quality coaching and safe environments for young people to enjoy sport. Sir Alex Ferguson

8. The End