Making ‘Extra Time’ to talk about Welsh sport

Home
Extra Time Jan 2022
Making ‘Extra Time’ to talk about Welsh sport

Welcome from Brian Davies, Sport Wales Acting CEO

This first edition of Extra Time has a strong ‘learning’ flavour to it – from fascinating research into the impact of the menstrual cycle on female sport, to details of our new athlete training kitchen, and reflections on community club funding. I hope you find this edition interesting and would welcome your feedback.

We also want Extra Time to showcase the value of sport to other sectors and organisations where opportunities for collaboration exist. And we’d love for partners to get involved in future editions. For example, if you’re leading an innovative project that you’d like to shout about in order to make new connections within the Welsh spot sector and beyond, please speak to your Sport Wales contact or email our [javascript protected email address].

'Extra Time' will celebrate our partners’ innovation and successes, share good practice and aid learning and development.

Brian Davies, Sport Wales Acting CEO

School Sport Survey 2022

In keeping with the learning theme, I’d like to make you aware that the School Sport Survey 2022 will launch on Monday 28 March and will remain open until Friday 22 July.

One of the world’s biggest surveys of young people, the 2022 School Sports Survey will discover which sporting activities Welsh children enjoy the most, and which ones they’d like to do more of.

It will also uncover what barriers are standing in the way of young people in Wales living a more active lifestyle. Given the impact that COVID-19 has had on the sector, and indeed, the country as a whole, I think this year’s survey will be even more important than ever in understanding young people’s activity habits and attitude towards sport.

The School Sport Survey is a perfect example of Welsh sport taking a person-centred approach. It helps the Welsh sport sector to identify areas that need our attention and helps us to make best use of our resources. We’ll work with the sector to analyse trends so that we can continue to develop and improve an offer that motivates children and young people.

And of course, together with data taken from the National Survey for Wales, the results of the School Sport Survey influence how funding is allocated by Sport Wales to a number of our partners.

There will be improvements to this year’s survey, based on feedback given by partners during a consultation concerning the 2018 survey. We will share those changes with you soon.

As always, we are extremely grateful for the huge amount of support that our partners, and local authority partners in particular, put into the delivery of the survey. Between now and the end of March, local authorities and schools can expect to receive all of the information they require to help give young people a voice again this year. Look out for details soon.

The School Sport Survey will discover which sporting activities Welsh children enjoy the most, and which ones they’d like to do more of.

Additional investment of £4.5m from Welsh Government

Sport Wales welcomes the announcement of an additional investment of £4.5m from Welsh Government to support the improvement and development of sport and leisure facilities the length and breadth of Wales.

It will make improvements, and support development across a multitude of facilities including multisport venues, cycling tracks, indoor venues, running tracks, swimming pools, and 3G pitches, among others.

All of the investment has been earmarked following an expression of interest process that took place at the end of last year, which demonstrated a need for the additional money and has allowed us to identify priority projects.

We’ve worked with the sector to ensure a geographical spread and that a range of sports and activities are to be supported. Careful consideration has also been given in attempting to ensure that the investment will benefit those communities who need it most.

All of the projects that will be supported need to progress towards completion by the end of this financial year, so it won’t be long before the Welsh public start seeing the benefits of the allocation.

Plas Menai

The National Outdoor Centre for Wales at Plas Menai has, over the last 39 years, built a reputation for delivering world class outdoor adventures for all ages.

In 2021, after a period of review, the Sport Wales Board agreed that developing a partnership with an appropriate organisation would help to ensure Plas Menai is best able to maximise its potential for years to come.

We’re now ready to invite organisations to register their interest via Sell2Wales and you can find out more here.