Uniting the Movement? A Critical Commentary on Sport England’s New Strategy

In January, Sport England, the non-departmental public body responsible for growing and developing grassroots and community sport, published its latest strategy, Uniting the Movement. The 10-year strategy intends to transform lives and communities through sport and physical activity by investing into sport and physical activity programmes and organisations in order to tackle obesity and social inequality with the goal of creating a happier and healthier nation. This critical commentary provides an analysis of this strategy and its implications for sport and physical activity organisations, arguing that the strategy more accurately represents incremental rather than fundamental change and that its development can be characterised as emergent and opportunistic rather than being radical and planned in response to fundamental environmental change. In particular, the commentary explicates the assumptions underpinning the strategy, discusses the overarching themes and central issues embedded within it, and considers its likely impact over the next decade.