The development of Wales’ sport partnerships

Funding North Wales organisations

Actif North Wales is now into its third year of its Innovation Fund, which has been a good way of trying out new and innovative approaches:

Manon adds: “It’s helped us bring together a real mix of organisations with different skills, relationships and perspectives. It’s creating a richer, more joined-up, local and inclusive offer for communities. What’s most exciting is that many of these partnerships are continuing; sharing insight, developing opportunities and responding to what local people say they need.

Examples include a collaboration with the Ramblers, who are now self-funding and expanding their work with young women and girls. Meanwhile, another standout project has taught girls how to ride (and fix) a bike on Wales’ largest council estate, Caia Park.

Next steps

A key priority across the region is workforce development. Actif North Wales is investing in training, coaching, and mentoring to support both the Actif funded roles within local authority sport development and leisure teams and officers working across wider locality partnership roles and teams. 

Staff are now working much more deeply in their localities. They are:

• building relationships
• listening to communities
• responding to what people say they need.

To do this well, they need the confidence, skills and support to work in a more flexible, people-centred way. This includes a training package to help staff better understand the realities facing many children and young people living in the region’s most deprived communities, and the barriers that can limit their opportunities to be active.

Working in new ways

This shift from delivering programmes to working alongside communities requires new tools, new ways of thinking and the time to build trust. Actif North Wales is committed to giving staff the support to do this well.

Using data, insight and community conversations, Actif North Wales is trying out new, more flexible approaches to remove barriers and make it easy for people to take part, such as:

• flexible, drop-in sessions with no kit requirements
• hyperlocal delivery so transport isn’t a barrier
• working with youth workers to build trust first
• female only or culturally safe spaces where needed
• supporting families as well as young people
• using community venues instead of traditional sports and leisure settings

Growing the team

The core team at Actif North Wales is being strengthened too, with the recent appointment of Lewis Thompson as Regional Club Support Manager. He will be working with grassroots clubs to understand what they need to become stronger, more inclusive and better connected to their local communities.

A Digital Content & Storytelling Manager is also joining the team to capture voices and lived experiences of underrepresented groups. This will help showcase impact, share learning and inspire others across North Wales and beyond.

Actif North Wales is continuing to build momentum - working with communities, listening deeply and creating opportunities that feel local, relevant and welcoming for everyone.

West Wales Sport Partnership

The story so far

Jamie Rewbridge took the reins as CEO of the West Wales Sport Partnership (WWSP) in summer 2024 with Kate Williams joining as Head of Strategic Partnerships and Development. The executive team also includes a Business Support Officer.

Much progress has been made with a regional strategy and brand soon to be launched alongside a website.

Developing the West Wales network

WWSP has also been keen to develop staff across its network of partners to move to a more place-based approach. Jamie explains that it is vital that, together, partners adopt a more targeted approach, reaching those areas with stubborn inequalities and low participation rates:

Jamie says: “In order to create an impact, we first need a clear understanding of the communities we are trying to support.

“These are things such as:

• the quality of local facilities
• the strength of club infrastructure
• the presence of community leaders
• how people move around the area, including reliance on public transport.

“These insights only come from our partners being on the ground, listening to people, and engaging directly with those who live and work there.”

Funding West Wales projects

WWSP has also funded six projects via its Innovation Fund. To get the ball rolling, it staged an Innovation Exchange event. Training was delivered to 50 organisations about how collaborative system approaches could work. 

With £240,000 available, organisations were challenged with designing collaborative approaches to increasing women and girls’ sports participation. One of six projects was the appointment of Alice Hope, a Women & Girls Lead, across the four local authorities.

One of the other projects that has progressed well is a collaboration between the FAW, Swansea Council and Wales Netball, working with women in a mosque community, ensuring that they can take part in sport at a time and in a space that suits them. 

Next steps

WWSP is:

• sharing its strategic investment framework with senior leaders in the region
• encouraging senior leaders to further collaborate at all levels.
• looking at creating a learning syllabus to upskill partners in place-based and systems-focussed work to support the shift in direction.
• using the data and trends from the upcoming State of the Region report and School Sport Survey to determine where resources need to be targeted
• making the data easy to understand by working with the Welsh Institute of Physical Activity, Health and Sport to build a data dashboard.

“Regional data and insight will be at the heart of why we are investing so we need to make the data accessible. If somebody wants to look at a specific part of the region or a specific demographic, that needs to be done in a straightforward way which turns data into insight, and insight in action,” adds Jamie.

Mid Wales Sport Partnership

The story so far

Gemma Cutter is the Regional Director of the Mid Wales Sport Partnership and was appointed in January 2025.

“Of all the partnerships, Mid Wales is the largest in terms of land mass and the only one that borders every other Regional Sport Partnership in Wales. It makes up 39% of Wales’ geography. But it has just 7% of the population. We have a region that is rugged and rural and we want to celebrate that in everything we do and embrace the challenge it poses,” explains Gemma.

To date, the focus has been on culture, laying the foundations as an organisation and building relationships:

“So far, we’ve been busy developing the company from scratch, setting up our governance and operational systems – HR, office and finance support, compliance and so on. While we’re really excited about what lies ahead and the difference we can make, the reality is that we’re still building.”

Building relationships with local organisations

The organisation has, however, been meeting with stakeholders – existing and potential new partners to help unlock opportunities. This task has been aided by the appointment of Elin Wozencraft as Partnership and Programme Manager:

“Elin and I have both grown up in Mid Wales and live here. It’s an area in which we do need to get a full picture of rural inequalities in order to shape our long-term strategy.

“It’s been important to meet different organisations to start exploring opportunities. We’ve been listening to what could work well, what might not and how we as an organisation can help support.”

MWSP is now commissioning local authorities directly to deliver local and regional priorities and it will shortly be announcing its first two successful projects to receive investment from its Innovation Fund.

MWSP is also supported by Emma Cullingford, Partnership Support Officer.

Next steps

The organisation will shortly start developing its strategy together with organisations and communities across the region. 

A major step forward will be the finalising of its first State of the Region report, which is a summary of data and insight around physical activity and sport across Mid Wales.

It is also developing its brand identity to strengthen engagement with partners, communities and the wider sport system across Wales.

And currently, the organisation is recruiting two new non-executive directors to join its board. Gemma says it’s crucial that they gain commercial, communications and compliance expertise.

“We have a way to go yet in terms of confirming our strategy and long-term direction but there’s a lot of excitement in the region and a big appetite for change and opportunity” adds Gemma.

Central South Active Partnership

The story so far

Gavin Hawkey’s appointment as Managing Director of Central South Active Partnership was announced in May 2025. Like Mid Wales, the organisation is in a build phase, creating strong foundations to create future change. That includes:

• gathering insight
• making new connections
• developing systems 
• building a small team to support a wider network. 

That core team consists of Gavin and April Napier (Business Support Officer).

Adopting a whole system approach

Gavin also recognises that change takes time:

“We’re just getting started and we have ambitious plans. Pacing will be crucial to success. We need to move quickly enough to build momentum whilst ensuring we capture insight from a diverse range of stakeholders.”   

Gavin goes on to describe the whole system approach being adopted by the partnership:

“Movement has a wide range of wellbeing benefits for people and communities -but we know that people from some groups are far less likely to experience those benefits than others. 

“We need to think about movement in a way that fits real lives. Whether that be playing in school, cycling to work, enjoying the outdoors or joining a sports club.

“That’s why we’re adopting a whole system approach. We plan to build on success and explore new ideas. We’ll be working with partners to reshape how systems work and how the story of movement is told. By working in new ways, we aim to make movement part of the everyday.”

Next steps

A key focus which is set to continue is system leadership - supporting people across communities and organisations to lead change, whether they are a community coach or policymaker. 

A first State of the Region report is planned later by the summer to help build data and insight across the patch.

From there, focus will shift to engagement. This includes:

• listening to communities
• gathering real stories and lived experiences, 
• engaging system leaders and partners – housing associations, health boards, local authorities, NGB and so on. 

Gavin sets out that 2026–2027 will be a year of engagement, learning and developing a vision for movement in the region, while 2027–2028 will focus on communicating the strategy and preparing for a new investment cycle.

“We need to build on the assets in communities and help create the conditions which enable people to make active choices that fit real life. It’s ambitious, challenging, and complex, but also an exciting opportunity to do things differently and better over the long term.”

Gwent Sport Partnership

The story so far

Gwent is the new kid on the block. In the January 2026 announcement that Kevin Bounds has been appointed as Chair, he explained:

“In Gwent, we face difficult issues such as childhood obesity, poor mental health, and an ageing population with increased care needs. This, in turn, has a huge impact on public health and care budgets. We need to do everything we can to prevent these issues, providing accessible and affordable opportunities so that people across Gwent enjoy moving more often.

“There are persistent inequalities within and between the different local authorities so the Gwent Sports Partnership will aim to bring organisations and individuals together to identify those communities in most need of intervention.”

Next steps

Next steps include the recruitment of a Regional Director to drive forward the partnership.

 Currently, the organisation is governed by a shadow board and that will switch to a full board in the coming months. It will be composed of five Local Authority nominations, five independent directors and an independent chair.

“We are very much in our infancy, but we aim to appoint a Regional Director as soon as possible to plan the way forward, together with new and existing partners across the five local authority areas.”