Authored by: Steve Osborne, FCIMSPA (Chartered), Interim Chair of the UK Sport and Physical Activity Sector Workforce Professional Development Board, and fellow board members.
Published: December 2025
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to clearly outline the position from the UK Sport and Physical Activity Sector Workforce Professional Development Board (WPDB) regarding the standards we strive toward the sport and activity workforce holding to be employed/deployed in the sport and physical activity sector.
The need for a position statement Sport and physical activity should be inclusive, accessible, and beneficial to everyone. All those working in the sector should be appropriately trained to include, inspire, understand and support the people they work with. The sector should also be a welcoming place for everyone to participate, work and volunteer. Quality training and a diverse workforce creates environments where everyone, can feel like they belong.
We face significant challenges with declining activity levels, which is exacerbated for people with some protected characteristics and children.
- Only 49.1% of children1 meet the chief medical officers’ guidelines of being active for 60 minutes per day.
- Significant inequalities remain in activity levels with Black and Asian and those from less affluent families still less likely to be physically active than across all ethnicities and affluence groups.
- Women and girls are also less likely to be active than boys and men.
- Disabled people are nearly twice as likely to be inactive than non-disabled people. Likewise, disabled children are less active than their peers, and experience significant barriers to participation.
Delivering quality inclusive activity requires knowledge of how to adapt sessions, communicate effectively and deliver a person-centred approach. Appropriate and proportionate training ensures that professionals can deliver safe, appropriate, and effective physical activity sessions tailored to individual needs and skill levels.
A lack of trained and confident professionals, and a lack of role models, discourages people from participating, working, and volunteering in physical activity throughout their life course. This, contributes to social isolation and health inequalities, placing extra pressure on the health and social care sector.
It is a professional and ethical responsibility for providers of sport, physical activity and education to be accessible and inclusive. Quality training and inclusive recruitment is crucial to ensure deliverers meet legal requirements, such as those under the Equality Act 2010.
What we would like to see…
The workforce professional development board commit to supporting the sport and physical activity sector stakeholders, employers, education providers and workforce, to receive proportionate training in working inclusively and embedding inclusive training, recruitment and working practices.
Since 2018, CIMSPA have included an inclusive approach as part of all occupational professional standards. The curriculum of training has been adapted so all front-line practitioners understand how to adapt sessions to meet the needs of the people in their sessions. This should contribute to reducing the barriers or inequalities for people participating in sport and physical activity.
We would like to see that everyone who delivers sport and physical activity:
- has the knowledge and confidence to include people from all backgrounds, ages, ethnicities and those with protected characteristics in their sessions
- has the knowledge and confidence to create welcoming and inclusive environments
- completes training that is endorsed to cover all or part of the working inclusively suite of professional standards relevant to them
- aspires to hold a level of accreditation that reflects this such as, where appropriate holding advanced practitioner professional status awarded by CIMSPA or a sports governing body
- demonstrates they have completed training aligned to the relevant professional standards for working inclusively.
We would like to see that everyone who trains, employs or deploys people to the sport and physical activity workforce endeavours to:
- have inclusive, proactive practices to support and create a welcoming work environment
- align their training to cover all, or part, or the working inclusively suite2 of standards, embedding this in their training offer.
How we will support this movement…
- The workforce professional development board will work with organisations such as, CIMSPA, Activity Alliance, Mind, the Active Pregnancy Foundation, The Well HQ and others to create guidance for employers and national governing bodies to clearly outline the appropriate training for different roles and contexts to ensure inclusion and equality.
- We will increase the references to working inclusively within all occupation professional standards as they are reviewed.
- We will support and encourage employers and deployers to ensure their workforce is taking the appropriate training and achieving professional recognition from CIMSPA or a sports governing body verifying their credentials.
- We will support and signpost employers and education providers to good practice guidance on inclusive training and recruitment strategies.
- We will support and encourage education providers to ensure their learning and development is endorsed to cover all or part of the working inclusively suite of professional standards.
Members of the workforce professional development board
Interim chair: Steve Osborne, Cardiff Metropolitan University
Vice-chair: Richard Millard
Members
Andy Heald, Sportivity
Chris Emsley, University of South Wales
David Mclean, Edinburgh Leisure
Dr Emma Ross, The Well HQ
Emily Reynolds, The Youth Sport Trust
Graeme Sinnott, Active Partnerships Network
Harriet Jones, ukactive
Ian Gray, Hartlepool Borough Council
Jack Garner, The English Football Association
James Buckley, NHS
Laurie Marsden, UK Sport
Mark Gannon and Heather Douglas, UK Coaching
Matt Rhodes, The Association of Colleges
Matt Wenn, Sport Wales
Michelle Hayden, Netball England
Niall Judge, Sport England
Nikki Stewart, sportscotland
Pete Forder, Lifetime Training
Rob Johnson, Future Fit Training
Steve Nelson. SERCO
Steve Russell, Aberdeenshire Council
Susan Brown, Edinburgh Napier University
Further information
For questions regarding this position statement or to learn more about the work of the Workforce Professional Development Board:
- visit the UK Sport and Physical Activity Sector Workforce Professional Development Board
- contact us via CIMSPA.
References
| 1 | Active Lives Children and Young People Survey Report, Sport England, 2025 |
| 2 | The CIMSPA working inclusively suite includes specialism professional standards designed to help individuals develop knowledge and skills for working effectively with specialist populations, for example:
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