What Are Place Partnerships?
Place Partnerships are a key initiative by Sport England to foster local change and encourage physical activity. These partnerships are part of the broader Uniting the Movement strategy. This strategy focuses on addressing inactivity and the inequalities that contribute to it.
In 2017, Sport England launched 12 Local Delivery Pilots (LDPs) to collaborate with communities and organisations in areas of greatest need. This place-based approach aimed to tackle inactivity and related inequalities by identifying barriers and developing local solutions together. Listen to the 6-episode podcast series featuring 18 place partners sharing their experiences.
Funding in Norfolk: What areas will benefit?
Amongst the initial 53 areas announced in 2023, to receive Place funding were King’s Lynn & West Norfolk, and Great Yarmouth. Both of these areas were identified as being in the top 10% of the country for inactivity, social need, deprivation and health inequality at a national level. These partnerships have seen us collaborating with local stakeholders and partners to target inequalities in those areas.
In November 2025, Sport England announced a further expansion of its work and added an additional 27 places to the Place Partnership expansion. One of these additional places was Breckland, which was identified as being in the top 20% for inactivity, social need, deprivation and health inequalities at a national level.
We have already begun working with Breckland Council and local organisations to identify the priorities for Breckland and are excited to begin work in tackling inequality across the district.
Place Universal Offer
In 2025, Sport England also launched the Place Universal Offer across England. This aims to ensure everyone has the opportunity to be physically active.
While certain areas have been prioritised for greater support and investment based on need, this initiative aims to extend support universally.
During July 2025, Active Norfolk received confirmation of a successful application for Place Universal funding to help tackle inequality and inactivity in Broadland and South Norfolk, Norwich and North Norfolk.
Evaluation of Place Partnerships work
The National Evaluation and Learning Partnership (NELP) supports learning and evaluation of whole systems and place-based approaches. NELP has identified 10 key features or ‘conditions’ that may be necessary for place-based approaches to address inequalities. To learn more, watch NELP’s video series (in the Learning and Resources section) detailing each condition and its key components.
How will the funding be used?
Active Norfolk led a two-part development award application to Sport England, co-produced with local partners. The first phase funded a project coordinator and an insight and evaluation officer.
Additional funding, secured in October 2024, is helping us to understand local priorities. This work includes reviewing data, consulting stakeholders, exploring assets, and engaging with communities to identify knowledge gaps.
We know that the investment needs to target areas where there are barriers to participation, be it financial, accessibility, or lack of facilities, especially for underrepresented groups.
For this, we need to successfully work with local partners and communities to identify and tackle these barriers head on. We will also focus on influencing decision making and change. We want to ensure people can walk, cycle, or take part in recreational activities safely and easily.
Full award submissions for Great Yarmouth and King’s Lynn and West Norfolk and a Development Award for Breckland, codesigned with partners and informed by our work in Place to this point, were submitted in December 2025.
To find out more about our Place-based work, or to see how you can get involved please check out our Active Communities page where you can get in touch with your local officer.