Sport England and UK Active have signed a five-year partnership agreement which will see the two organisations tackle inequalities within the sport and physical activity sector.

The systems partnership, spanning seven strategic areas, includes £5.25m worth of funding over the five-year period, provided by Sport England.

The seven areas in which the two organisations will work together are campaigns, digital transformation, health and wellbeing, inclusion, infrastructure, quality standards and children, young people and families.

The move is part of Sport England’s wider systems partnership work, which will see more than 120 organisations across the sector working with Sport England to level-up access to sport and physical activity across the country.

All partner organisations were selected by Sport England due to their ability to "influence change and improvement at the heart of the system they are a part of".

UK Active and Sport England have previously worked together on a number of projects, such as ​​the This Girl Can guide for gyms, to improve services for women and girls and a landmark report on the sector’s digital maturity and effectiveness.

Huw Edwards, CEO of UK Active, said: “The role of UK Active’s members in reducing the inequalities we see across the UK must not be underestimated and we are determined to do everything we can to support the sector’s development over the coming years to achieve our ambitions for growth."

He added that the sector has the potential to reach more than five million new members by 2030, by working in partnership with the Government and its agencies to drive change.

The agreement is part of Sport England's 10-year Uniting the Movement strategy, which will see £550m being invested in total, under a new funding model from Sport England that provides longer-term financial security as organisations recover and reinvent from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Tim Hollingsworth, CEO of Sport England, said: “Sport England’s goal is to get everyone active – no matter who they are, where they live, or what their background is.

"But we know that certain groups – such as women, people with long-term health conditions, disabled people, people from ethnically diverse communities and lower socio-economic groups – are more likely to be inactive.

“We can only innovate and tackle inequalities effectively by thinking about long-term change; Uniting the Movement is a long-term vision, and our funding approach needs to reflect that. Changes to our funding model will help us achieve our goal, by making it easier for our partners to do what they need to do to level-up and deliver.”