Levelling the Playing Field’s upcoming mentoring training programme will be hugely beneficial to the staff and participants of our Local Delivery Partners and will help achieve the project’s common goals.

LtPF’s Tier 3 delivery partners (i.e. those working one-to-one with participants) will receive a package of staff training through Aspire Active Education Group, who offer innovative and tailored training for the sport and physical activity sector.

Each participating LtPF delivery organisation will identify two staff to put forward for the 1st4Sport Level 3 Workforce Mentoring qualification and the RSPH Level 2 Award in Improving the Public’s Health course, as well as training in trauma-responsive mentoring.

The aim is to train 60 qualified mentors (15 each across our four delivery areas; London, West Midlands, Gwent and South Yorkshire), each equipped with a free laptop, a specialised mentoring app and access to a two-day workshop which aims to co-develop a bespoke local mentoring service in their own community.

This mentoring training and support infrastructure for young people will help our network achieve Levelling the Playing Field’s common goals, namely:

• Increase the number of ethnically diverse children taking part in physical activity
• Prevent and divert ethnically diverse children from being involved with the Criminal Justice System

Nikki Clamp from Aspire said: "We will be delivering the qualifications with a specific focus on the priorities of Levelling the Playing Field, rather than just delivering the 'off the shelf' version of these qualifications. We add value and tailor the training content to fit the needs and objectives of the project.

“The combination of the skills and experience of our training staff and the local knowledge and expertise of the staff working on these projects allows for a wealth of learning, good practice sharing and high-value impact for the young people that are part of the programme.”

The Workforce Mentoring qualification, for example, looks at the protocols and practice of mentoring; creating and implementing a mentee agreement; the boundaries of the mentoring role; planning, delivering and evaluating the mentoring process; then measuring success and devising action plans to move towards the mentee’s behavioural and attitudinal change.

“The project is all about increasing participation in physical activity alongside reducing the disproportionality of engagement across ethnic groups,” adds Nikki. “So in delivering the training objectives, we will think about using the mentoring relationship to promote physical activity, mental health and wellbeing.

“You’re using physical activity as a vehicle to engage participants in positive relationships and get them involved in dialogue that will hopefully bring about a meaningful change and reduce the risk of them becoming involved in anti-social or criminal activity.

“The specialist bit is identifying those people who are at greater risk of entering the Criminal Justice System and targeting them for a specialist level of intervention that will hopefully change the trajectory of their future.

“Rather than parachuting in provision that has to establish itself, build relationships and trust with these young people, it’s about using the experts who are already in those communities and understanding the individual uniqueness of each community. Having an understanding of that will be massive in getting them to engage and will increase the speed at which the project can achieve the necessary impact.

“These local practitioners are trusted within these communities. They are experts in working positively with these young people. We’re not teaching grandma to suck eggs. It’s about recognising, the skills they’ve already got, the quality of what they already deliver; and then adding mentoring into that already-successful mix and taking it to the next level to fully support those who are at risk of following that path.”

Justin Coleman, Chief Operating Officer of the Alliance of Sport, who manage LtPF, added: “What’s most important is that the mentoring support we’re offering our Delivery Partners is sustainable.

“We are not parachuting in mentors who would have to build up knowledge and trust with mentees from scratch; we are empowering existing staff members with the skills to augment existing strong relationships with their participants, and raise the level of support they can offer.

“Instead of ‘giving them a fish’, we are ‘teaching them how to fish’, so they have the knowledge and tools to support participants themselves towards long-term positive change.”

For more information about Levelling the Playing Field’s mentoring training programme for our Local Delivery Partners, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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