The Voice of the Participant

Maximising opportunities and tackling inequalities by listening to the voices of sports participants from potentially marginalised groups

In line with the Sport England’s 10 year Uniting the Movement strategy, the Voice of the Participant project aimed to gather the views sport and activity participants from potentially marginalised groups.

Originally the project focused on marginalisation or inequality on the grounds of age, disability, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other protected characteristic that may result in potential differences in opportunity or treatment. Ultimately the research centred on activity groups for older people, alongside sport and activities provisions for people living with learning or physical disabilities.

The project sought perspectives from individuals and groups regarding their safety and wellbeing when engaging in their chosen sport or activity. Rather than sport and activity organisations, the project focused on those participating in sport and activities, along with those who support them to do so. The researchers acknowledged, though, that there would often be some crossover between these groups.

Download The Voice of the Participant Report

Key Findings

The researchers, Anne Patterson and Tina Thordal, spoke to participants from 18 sport and activity organisations over a three-year period. The researchers were particularly interested in hearing the views of participants who belonged to a potentially marginalised group, by virtue of their age or of a disability.

It’s the ‘small things’ that matter

Participants seem to value a sense of belonging more than they value ‘typical’ safeguarding concerns, such as physical safety.

Participants seem to feel it’s more important to get these ‘small things’ right than it is to design and implement formal safeguarding policies and procedures. Indeed, if nothing is going wrong, then participants seem to take it for granted that these safeguarding policies are operating effectively in the background, and are therefore beyond their concern.

We can enable and support activity leaders and volunteers to ‘get it right’

If participants value the ‘small things’, then we must ensure that activity leaders and volunteers have all the support and resources they need to create environments in which participants can feel known, and valued.

At the same time, participants seem to place a great deal of trust in activity leaders, which could lead to situations where they are afraid to challenge them if something does not feel right. To get around this, all clubs should appoint a dedicated welfare officer or safeguarding lead, who could handle concerns and disclosures independent of the activity leader.

We can support participants’ agency, and encourage them to speak up

A lack of safeguarding concerns could mean that all is well. Or it could suggest that participants are not aware of certain safeguarding risks, or that they do not feel comfortable in speaking up.

Safeguarding awareness campaigns could help here, but they would need to strike a balance: We need to empower participants and promote their agency without creating cultures of fear and mistrust.

We need to raise awareness of third party support

Many participants told us that, if they had a concern, they would report it to their club leader. This raises the obvious question of who they might turn to if they had a concern about their club leader. We should promote greater awareness of outside agencies, the sort of support they can offer, and of how participants might contact them.

There must be a balance between competition and inclusion

Some participants valued the social side of sport and activity. Others valued the competitive aspect. Activity leaders and volunteers need to find a way to cater for these differing priorities so as to ensure that nobody feels pressured, isolated, or unfulfilled.

A person-centred approach can help activity leaders meet diverse needs

Activity leaders need to accommodate varying levels of ability, along with varying levels of possible risk. A person-centred approach in line with participants’ respective abilities can help ensure that nobody gets left behind, and that nobody feels rushed.