The New Strategy
The strategy sets out how British Blind Sport (BBS) will develop their services to engage, support and ensure quality experiences for blind and partially sighted people in sport.
British Blind Sport (BBS) have published its Strategic Plan for 2023–2027. The 5-year strategy outlines the organisation’s core mission, vision, values and overarching objective of increasing blind and partially sighted people’s participation in sport, while also leaving a lasting legacy around the 2023 IBSA World Games.
The new strategy outlines how BBS will use strategic funding, rigorous research and a strong network of community organisations in the sport and slight loss sectors to tackle inequalities, level up access and help more blind and partially sighted people get active and play sport.
There are almost 2 million people in the UK living with sight loss. This number is set to increase to over 4 million by the end of 2050. Research has found that half of blind and partially sighted people are always or frequently limited in the activities that they would like to take part in. This includes sports and fitness and access to volunteering opportunities.
Work has already begun on delivering key elements within the strategy. BBS received an investment of £1 million of government and National Lottery funding from Sport England to co-deliver the ambitions of its Uniting the Movement strategy, which will be used to support the sector to recover from the impact of the Covid-19 crisis over the next five years.
In 2021, BBS established a new 3-year partnership with the RNIB, funded by Sport England, to deliver an ambitious £1 million programme called See Sport Differently. The three organisations will work together to develop opportunities for blind and partially sighted people to access and participate in sport, with a mass participation event to take place in April 2023.
The IBSA World Games is the largest high-level international event for blind and partially sighted athletes. Following a successful joint bid to host the event from BBS, Birmingham City Council, Sport Birmingham, UK Sport and the University of Birmingham, the World Games is set to take place in venues across Birmingham and the wider region from 18th-27th August 2023. This will be the first time the Games have been held in the UK. Over 70 nations will travel from across the world to compete in 11 different sports, with qualifying tournaments for the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris.
Alaina MacGregor, CEO of British Blind Sport, said: “As an organisation, we aspire to create a visible difference through sport, knowing that sport and physical activity can address numerous issues including social isolation, loneliness, health inequalities and confidence. Our 5-year strategy signals our intention to work with partners and other stakeholders to instil confidence back into both the sight loss and sport sectors by demonstrating what we can achieve together can create a visible difference for many.”
In response to the Strategy release, Rebecca Evans, from Living Sport said: “We are keen to continue our good working relationship with BBS and sight loss partners to ensure that blind and partially sighted people can have the access to sport and physical activity in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. BBS are a key partner for us in the disability sporting landscape, we have worked on many projects together, most recently using the [Sport England] Together Fund to bring further investment into the county for clubs specifically working with participants with sight loss and we are pleased to support the See Sport Differently campaign locally by promoting the campaign to our disability network – The Ability Plus group.”
To read more about BBS’s vision and Strategic Plan for the next 5-years, visit: https://britishblindsport.org.uk/about/strategy/
To read more about BBS and RNIB’s See Sport Differently Campaign visit: https://britishblindsport.org.uk/see-sport-differently/
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