Sport England to invest £2 million in disabled sport
English Federation of Disability Sport (EFDS) receives funding boost
Sport England is to invest £2 million in the English Federation of Disability Sport (EFDS) over the next two years to help make sport a practical lifestyle choice for disabled people.
The support for the charity will maximise the impact of Sport England’s wider investments in sport for disabled people, with announcements in the past month including:
– 44 projects benefiting from £10.2 million of National Lottery funding through its Inclusive Sport fund
– 40 different sports receiving Sport England funding over the next four years for specific plans to get more disabled people taking part
– Over £13.6 million for specific disability participation and talent programmes across those sport in addition to inclusive programmes within the overall £493 million funding package.
Despite steady growth in the number of disabled people playing sport since 2005, non-disabled people are still twice as likely to take part regularly. Sport England’s funding for EFDS means the charity will be able to provide expertise and insight to even more sports’ organisations to help them motivate disabled people to take part.
The charity will prioritise its work with athletics, cycling, swimming, cricket, gymnastics and badminton and is also being funded to provide bespoke support for tennis, football, table tennis, equestrian, golf and volleyball.
At a local level, EFDS will continue to support the county sports partnerships and sports governing bodies to involve more disabled people in sport as well as continuing to work closely with the National Disability Sport Organisations, to increase impairment specific knowledge and opportunities.
Matt Baird
Editor of Cycling Plus magazine 
