Following the release earlier this week of a new roadmap for Local Skills Improvement Plans, Associate Director of Business Engagement, Clare Dunn, shares her thoughts on what it might mean for the sector and the future of CIMSPA’s local skills work.
The launch of Skills England’s new roadmap for the next phase of Local Skills Improvement Plans (LSIPs) shows us that the government is even more firmly behind the shift in how England intends to shape a workforce that supports local economic growth, community wellbeing and national productivity. LSIPs were created to make the skills system more responsive to employers. Over the last three years they have helped localities and regions understand where jobs are growing, where shortages are emerging and where training provision no longer meets demand. Now, in this next phase, LSIPs are being asked to do more than identify skills gaps: they are expected to help close them.
This change matters for all industries, but it is particularly significant for the sport and physical activity sector. Our sector plays a vital role in health improvement, community cohesion, youth development and reducing the burden on public services. That contribution depends on a workforce that is skilled, recognised and supported. The new LSIP approach gives our local skills work, funded by Sport England and the National Lottery, an even stronger platform to help make that a national reality.
In the first round of LSIPs, much of the national effort was focused on understanding employer needs, building new partnerships and setting priorities. That progress is reflected in the tone of the new roadmap, which sets a more confident direction. Skills England now expects LSIPs to be clearer, more detailed and more action-oriented, and it has published updated statutory guidance to support the process.
What is new in this next generation approach to LSIPs?
- LSIPs will cover the full range of skills, from entry-level roles to higher technical and professional training.
- Plans must include delivery roadmaps, not just statements of need, so regions must set out what will be done, who will do it and how progress will be monitored.
- Combined and strategic authorities will have a stronger role in shaping priorities in devolved areas, ensuring skills align with wider economic and public service goals.
- Skills England will provide national oversight, helping share good practice, remove barriers and ensure consistency across regions.
In other words, LSIPs are no longer only diagnostic documents, they are moving toward being drivers of real change in how local training is designed, funded and delivered.
The good news is that our sector is already ahead of the game.
The sport and physical activity workforce is broad and rapidly evolving. It includes coaches, gym and leisure professionals, aquatic specialists, exercise referral practitioners, community activators, sport development leads, youth workers and more. Many roles now operate across health, education, youth services and rehabilitation. This brings enormous potential for social and economic impact, but it also raises questions about skills, quality, recognition and career pathways.
CIMSPA has been at the heart of shaping answers to those questions through its work creating and developing Local Skills Accountability Boards, employer-led training solutions and supporting the creation and delivery of local skills plans across multiple areas of the country. This work, coupled with our management of the sector’s professional standards and our education accreditation, helps training providers to deliver courses that meet real employer needs.
As well as this, CIMSPA’s partnership work with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is helping to support jobseekers to enter and progress within the sector. This work is connecting local employment needs with training aligned to the sectors professional standards and providing jobseekers with professional status that equips them with the recognition to build sustainable careers. The partnership demonstrates how local workforce development can support both economic participation and community health and directly aligns with the employment and labour market connections now encouraged within LSIP planning.
As LSIPs enter a new phase, these strengths position CIMSPA not just as a helpful contributor but as a key partner in shaping how local workforce priorities are understood and acted upon.
With this evolution in local skills policy, the sport and physical activity sector is in an even better position to make clear that it is an economic and social asset, not an optional leisure industry. We are already demonstrating how a strong local skills approach in our sector is supporting:
- health, wellbeing and long-term condition prevention through reducing NHS pressures by supporting active lifestyles and condition management
- stronger communities, cohesion and accessibility by using movement and activity to reduce isolation and strengthen social connection
- youth and opportunity development by creating positive environments for young people to thrive and role models to help them build positive futures
- economic productivity by creating flexible jobs and driving local spending.
To ensure that the next generation of LSIPs deliver real change for communities and the local economy, other sectors can learn from the approach that we are taking in strengthening relationships between employer representatives and combined authorities, ensuring sport and physical activity is formally represented in local priority-setting. Key to this has been the work that CIMSPA has done through skills diagnostics to produce workforce data and employer insights that can shape evidence-driven skills decisions.
This in turn is enabling us to support colleges, universities and training providers to develop courses aligned to professional standards and, where possible, backed by local skills development or employability funding. This results in learners being able to enter the workforce with the professional status that local employers demand, which also strengthens professional identity and improves quality of provision and career progression.
The expansion of our collaboration with DWP and other public service partners is making that essential connection between skills development and employment and health and wellbeing outcomes. Recognising the need for flexibility and alternative approaches to ‘normal’ recruitment practices is helping our sector to lead the way in DWP initiatives to reduce economic inactivity as one of only two sectors pioneering in this area.
The new LSIP roadmap reflects a skills system growing in maturity and purpose. It shows that local communities must be supported by training and employment systems that are aligned to their needs and ambitions.
I believe that if our sector continues to engage confidently and consistently, this next phase of LSIPs can help create clearer routes into sector careers and better recognition for professionals. It can even forge stronger local employer-provider partnerships, ensure more alignment with health and community priorities and develop a workforce able to make an even greater contribution to the nation.
In short, LSIPs – the next generation – could help ensure the sport and physical activity workforce is not only bigger, but stronger, more respected and more capable of transforming lives.