Nationwide search begins for brilliant ideas to support inactive older people. 
Sport England have put tackling inactivity right at the heart of their new strategy Towards an Active Nation – which means over the next four years, they are going to triple the amount they invest in helping inactive people become active.
As a first step, Sport England will be investing up to £10 million into projects that help inactive older people get active through their Active Ageing Fund.
Sport England are looking for partners who:
• Already reach older people or have a successful track record in changing behaviour with this audience (not necessarily related to sport or physical activity delivery).
• Have insight into specific older people audiences and know what further insight they need to fully develop their ideas.
• Have insight driven solutions to tackling inactivity in specific older adult audiences which puts the customer at the centre of the approach. Solutions will take into account the reasons why people are inactive, both emotional and practical, and the different habits that people have at different points in their lives.
• Are ready to replicate an approach which has been proven to reach and effectively change behaviour.
• Has regular interaction or quality interaction with older people. This may include retail, health, leisure time, housing and care partners, although this is not an exhaustive list.
• Can think innovatively and differently about delivery
• Are willing to work in partnership with others to strengthen the likelihood of the project’s success
Awards available
Development Award:
Where project ideas are in their infancy, but Sport England can see value in them, they may provide a development grant to allow organisations to fully develop their project in partnership. It is anticipated that this phase will last between six and twelve months. A development grant might be used to:
• Develop further insight into your specific audience
• Provide the resources and capacity to fully develop the project (staff time etc.)
• Pilot or test approaches with your chosen audience
• Monitor and evaluate a pilot
Once the project is fully developed and Sport England are satisfied with the plans, we will look to move organisations forward to the full application stage.
Full Project Awards:
Where a project is fully worked up and ready to start, the application can be fast-tracked to a full project award. This is likely to occur where an organisation has a high level of insight and piloting work already completed and some evidence of the impact that can be expected. Sport England expect that the awards made at the full application stage will be for projects costing from £50,000 to £500,000.
The first part of the process involves the submission of an expression of interest form, where Sport England want to know a little about your organisation, your understanding of the audience you want to work with and your initial ideas on how you might tackle inactivity.
For further information and to apply, visit: www.sportengland.org/funding/active-ageing-fund/, or contact 0345 8508 508, or email: [email protected]
Deadline for expressions of interest Monday 13 February 2017, 12:00