Part One: SPARC's strategy
Vision and mission
Our vision is:
Everyone. Every day. – enjoying and excelling through sport and recreation.
Our mission is:
Creating a sport and recreation environment where more New Zealanders participate, support and win.
What we want to achieve by 2015
There are many goals we have set ourselves for the next six years (see pages 8–13), but by 2015 we are committed to achieving measurable increases for our investment:
More kids in sport and recreation
As measured by:
- 80% of school-aged children participating in organised sport and recreation for at least three hours a week – delivered through schools, after-school programmes, clubs and organised activities
- more young people staying in sport and recreation after secondary school.
More New Zealanders in sport and recreation
As measured by:
- half a million more adult New Zealanders participating at least once a week in sport and recreation
- more than 1 million people volunteering in sport and recreation by 2015.
More winners on the world stage
As measured by:
- New Zealand winning 10 or more medals at the 2012 London Olympics
- the Black Caps, Silver Ferns and All Blacks winning world championships by 2015.1
SPARC’s priority areas
Over the next six years, we will provide opportunities for New Zealanders to participate in sport and recreation every day and get more New Zealanders winning on the world stage.
Our key Government priorities for sport and recreation are:
- Young New Zealanders: More kids in organised sport – the more we can improve participation in sport among young people, the greater the prospects they will carry on that participation into their later lives, with all its benefits for us as a nation.
- High Performance: Enhancing high performance, to position ourselves as a nation of winners, both in sport and in all the ways we compete internationally.
- Grassroots Sport: More resources to clubs and sport at the frontline, where our teams and kids need support to regularly participate in sport.
- Recreation: Vital for our tourism industry and the benefits it brings to our health and our view of ourselves as a nation.
- Partner Capability: In order to do all the above, we depend on the partners we invest in being capable organisations.
Young New Zealanders
We want young New Zealanders (aged 0–18) to develop a love of sport and recreation that leads to lifelong participation.
To achieve this, we will focus on:
- more resources getting to primary schools to get more kids into organised sport, including after-school programmes and a range of school and club-based initiatives
- more support for secondary schools to get school students involved in organised sport and recreation
- more support for clubs and grassroots providers to encourage young people to stay in sport after secondary school
- ensuring young people (aged 0–12) have the fundamental movement and basic sport skills to participate in sport and recreation for life.
High Performance
We want New Zealand’s most talented athletes to be identified and developed, and to win on the world stage.
To achieve this, we will focus on:
- enhancing training facilities, coaching and support personnel
- moving high performance to the next level, through talent identification and development, coaching and pinnacle event planning
- delivering results at the Summer and Winter Olympics, Paralympic Games, world cups, world championships and other pinnacle events.
Grassroots Sport
We want healthy, sustainable and co-ordinated organisations delivering quality sport to their communities.
To achieve this, we will focus on:
- increasing the number and quality of volunteers, especially officials, coaches and administrators
- building stronger links between school and club sport to keep young people participating in sport into adulthood
- national sports organisations being better structured to deliver sport at national, regional and community levels.
Recreation
We want a healthy, sustainable and co-ordinated recreation sector, delivering quality opportunities that get more New Zealanders participating.
To achieve this, we will focus on:
- more young people participating in recreational activities, including through schools
- strengthening recreation organisations, to increase participation in recreation
- implementing our outdoor recreation strategy, including working with the Sir Edmund Hillary Outdoor Recreation Council.
Partner Capability
We want our partners to be sustainable and capable of delivering results.
To achieve this, we will focus on:
- improving partner organisations, especially in leadership, governance and management of finances and people
- providing partners with tools, resources and practical help to lift their game
- providing technical expertise to partners in specialist areas like high-performance coaching.
SPARC’s partners
Implementing this Plan requires a shared agenda. We recognise that much of SPARC’s work and success depends on the ongoing support, commitment and success of our partners in the sector. We will continue to work with, and bring together, key organisations to support the delivery of sport and recreation opportunities for New Zealanders. To achieve our goals, we will work with the following partners:
- National Sports Organisations and National Recreation Organisations, to deliver increased participation and high-performance outcomes for their codes
- Regional Sports Trusts, to develop sport and recreation opportunities in their regions
- Territorial Authorities, to enhance community sport and recreation and support the design and management of facilities
- gaming and community trusts, to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of investment in the sector
- commercial partners, to identify areas where synergies can result from closer collaboration with the sport and recreation sector, right from the many small businesses that support their local clubs and teams, to large corporate partners
- New Zealand Olympic Committee, to enable athletes to be the very best they can be at the elite level of competition (Olympic, Commonwealth and Youth Games)
- New Zealand Academy of Sport, to provide a world-class training and support environment for high performance athletes, coaches and teams
- Drug Free Sport New Zealand, to provide a sporting environment free of banned doping methods for New Zealand sport and athletes
- Sports Tribunal of New Zealand, to ensure national sport organisations and other parties to a sports dispute, such as athletes, have access to an affordable, just and speedy means of resolving a sports dispute
- community organisations, by investing in programmes to support all New Zealanders participating and performing in sport and recreation
- iwi, to promote the value of sport and recreation to, for, and as Maori
- central government, to promote the value of sport and recreation and its wider contribution to New Zealand
- New Zealand Secondary School Sports Council, to foster healthy participation and achievement in quality secondary school sport
- additional providers of sport and recreation and sports service organisations such as College Sports, to co-ordinate, maintain, increase, promote and support quality sport and recreation opportunities
- universities and other research and private institutions, to partner in the research, science and technology we need.
SPARC’s approach
The driving goal of the new Government is to grow the New Zealand economy in order to deliver greater prosperity, security and opportunities to all New Zealanders. Sport and recreation has a part to play in this.
In difficult economic times, it is even more critical for us to account carefully for every dollar spent, and for what we buy with that dollar. We have to rely on our partners to deliver efficiently and effectively, we want to get the money out the door to the frontline where they can make the most difference with that investment.
Our approach with our investment in partners, therefore, will be:
- We will target our investment to organisations that are the most capable and ready to deliver on our sport and recreation outcomes. That means “investment-fit” and able to get on with the job.
- We will hold ourselves to greater account for what we do with sport and recreation investment by tightening our own monitoring and measurement and asking our partners to do the same. Through this, we will be clear about what outcomes are expected for government money.
- SPARC’s investment will, where possible, operate as a “single pot”. Investments in individual organisations will be streamlined and consolidated into a single investment process, thereby simplifying things from a recipient’s point of view and also reducing bureaucracy.
- We will continue to raise the bar, both in terms of our own and our partners’ performance.
1 By winning world championships, we mean the Black Caps winning an International Cricket Council World Tournament by 2015; the Silver Ferns winning the Netball World Championship in 2011; and the All Blacks winning the Rugby World Cup in 2011. After 2011/12, we will revise our goals for netball, rugby and the Summer Olympic Games
→ Part Two: SPARC's game plan
Updated | 31 Jul 2009.
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