Children and Families Minister Edward Timpson has announced a £300,000 fund to get more young disabled people into playing sport.
The Youth Sport Trust will manage the Project Ability programme to organise Paralympic athlete visits and to deliver specialist training to teachers. The funding is being handed out to raise the confidence of disabled young people - and get them playing more sport.
The Minister announced that the funding will be extended for another year as he addressed the Youth Sport Trust's annual conference in Telford yesterday [5 February]. The Project Ability programme enables 49 schools to act as centres of excellence for disability sport in their region.
Children and Families Minister Edward Timpson said: "As part of our plan for education, we want to get all young people into sport from a young age - including those with disabilities.
"I have been extremely impressed with the commitment and work of the Project Ability network and I am delighted to announce they will get another £300,000.
"This funding will ensure the project can grow and extend its reach - and get more disabled young people into sport."
Key achievements paid for by the government's grant over the last year include:
- 100 events staged for 1,652 members of the school workforce to improve their ability to engage young disabled people in PE and school sport
- more than 60 primary and secondary schools connecting with national disability sport organisations to support young disabled people, parents and carers
- inspirational mentoring visits from Olympic and Paralympic role models to more than 1,250 young disabled people
The grant, which is the same amount as last year, will be distributed through the Youth Sport Trust to build on the excellent work already carried out through Project Ability schools.
Youth Sport Trust Chair Baroness Sue Campbell said: "We are delighted with this announcement of further funding for Project Ability. This will help us to continue to ensure young disabled people receive high quality physical education and school sport."
