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.
This funding comes on top of £10.2 million of National Lottery funding for 44 projects, specific funding for plans to encourage greater participation from disabled people in 40 sports and an additional £13.6 million for other disability participation and sports talent programmes.
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, according to research conducted by Sport England. A survey by the Federation revealed that eight out of ten disabled people were motivated to participate at some level in sport by watching the Paralympic Games.
The Federation 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 sport, golf and volleyball.
Considering the success of the Irish team at London 2012, and the standard bearers like Jason Smyth, Bethany Firth and Michael McKillop that are likely to still be at their peak in 2016, Ireland is likely to have just as high a demand.
Funding from the Irish Sports Council continues to pay towards around 14 Disability Sport officers within local sports partnerships. This is down from the high of 22 seen when the programme was fully funded at its launch in 2007 and up to 2009 but it is still a strong commitment.
The base for this programme is the Cara Adapted Physical Activity Centre at Tralee Institute of Technology.
Core funding for Paralympics Ireland and other specific Disabilty Sport governing bodies is also provided to ensure that a support structure is in place to encourage participation but costs are higher in many cases and the massive success achieved by Irish athletes will be tested by a £43 million increase in performance funding announced for British Paralympic Sport over the next three and a half years.
The Government has vowed to prioritise Paralympic sport but core funding for the next twelve months is yet to be finalised, just as it has for all sports, and this does place a real burden on the administration of programmes for athletes.
Multi-annual funding is, of course, the best path but commercial support, so strong with the Irish Paralympics Team for London is always needed and can make a real difference.
Key Take away for Business: Paralympic Sport delivered Ireland's greatest ever haul of medals and inspiration from a single major event. Helping to repeat that in 2016 could bring huge CSR as well as loyalty rewards for business looking to get involved.[/ismember]
