Sport England’s latest Active People Survey reveals a significant drop of 121,700 fewer disabled people participating in sport regularly. 1.58 million disabled people now regularly take part, with a huge drop from last year’s record numbers.
Peter Ackred, DSC’s CEO commented, “Disabled people are like any other person and want to participate in sport, but sometimes struggle to find suitable sports clubs that will be able to cater for their specific and individual needs.”
After the Paralympics success in 2012, DSC were granted funding for 6 pilot Community Clubs in Central London, and have since expanded to 13 across every region of London signifying a positive change.
Peter Ackred continues acknowledging this, but still believes there is room for improvement. “Since the Olympics and Paralympics, significant progress has been made in including disabled people at an elite level but still more needs to be done at grass roots level. Training and awareness for both coaches and clubs is needed to enable more disabled people to be included in everyday activity, which will require further time and investment.”
It is clear further development needs to occur. DSC have been creating opportunities for disabled people to participate at grass roots level for the last 10 years.
During this time we have coached more than 60,000 disabled people and trained over 5,000 coaches and volunteers. Our Community Club programme, developed since the 2012 Paralympics and partly funded by Sport England’s Inclusive Fund, are continuing this work with 13 existing clubs and seven new clubs due to open later this year.
For more information on DSC’s Community Club programme visit the Club page here. For all media responses, please contact Louis Wickett-Padgham on 020 7021 0973 or email louis@disabilitysportscoach.co.uk.
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