Sport For Life 2026 - Annual review
#SportForLife26 is our annual review. It covers the seventh year of our corporate strategy, Sport for Life.
The full annual report can be downloaded here <insert link to publication>.
Table of contents
Minister’s foreword
I am delighted to introduce this report in my new role as Minister for Mental Wellbeing, Public Health, Sport, and Drugs and Alcohol.
This report highlights sportscotland’s continued commitment to strengthening Scotland’s sporting system and supporting communities, athletes, clubs and partners across the country. Through maximising investment and making effective use of data and insight, sportscotland continues to play a vital role in delivering positive outcomes through sport.
A highlight of the year was sportscotland’s work with Orkney Islands Council and partners to maximise the impact of the Orkney 2025 Island Games. Bringing together more than 2,000 athletes and officials from 24 island communities, supported by over 1,000 volunteers, the Games showcased the very best of Orkney’s community spirit and hospitality. sportscotland’s support has delivered a commitment in the National Islands Plan, strengthening local clubs and facilities and helping to ensure a lasting legacy for the islands.
In November, I was pleased to attend a session showcasing the new Active Schools concussion awareness programme, launched to mark the 10th anniversary of the Scottish Sports Concussion Guidance. This initiative demonstrates the breadth of sportscotland’s work, supporting safe participation at grassroots level through to high-performance sport.
The Scottish Sports Awards, refreshed to incorporate the Coaching, Officiating and Volunteering Awards, provided an important opportunity to celebrate outstanding contributions across Scottish sport. I congratulate all the winners, particularly the community heroes whose dedication inspires participation and strengthens communities.
I was also delighted that the Scottish Government committed an additional £40 million investment in sport and physical activity through the 2026-27 Budget. Alongside this, the £20 million Summer of Sport programme has the potential to be transformational, providing free and low-cost opportunities for children and young people across Scotland.
As we look ahead, I am excited by the opportunities the coming year will bring. I look forward to welcoming the Commonwealth back to Glasgow and to continuing to work with sportscotland and partners across the sporting sector to ensure that more people, in more places, can experience the life-changing benefits of sport and physical activity.
Maree Todd, Minister for Mental Wellbeing, Public Health, Sport, and Drugs and Alcohol
Overview
sportscotland is the national agency for sport. Our vision is of an active Scotland where everyone benefits from sport.
We want the people of Scotland to live life to the fullest – and for sport to play a part in making this happen. We all have our own reasons for taking part in sport, whether it's fun, socialising, improving our wellbeing or winning medals. Sport has the power to change lives, so whatever gets us into it, there's always more we can get out of it.
Our strategy Sport for Life was updated in 2025 to align to the Physical Activity for Health Framework (PAHF).
We believe in a world class sporting system that makes the best use of Scotland's assets and adapts to change. It helps the people of Scotland take part in sport at the level they choose.
A sporting system for everyone
Performance summary
This report covers the seventh year of our corporate strategy, Sport for Life. In April 2025, we agreed our business plan for 2025-26, which described how we worked towards the delivery of Sport for Life.
We report on our annual performance through:
A summary of our performance across the year
Our progress towards our key changes and intentions
Personal stories highlighting the impact of our collaborative work with partners across the system.
#SportForLife26
Chief Executive’s review
Scottish sport continued to deliver this year, demonstrating the powerful impact of our coaches, volunteers, athletes and clubs.
To ensure we continue to maximise investment into sport, we implemented an estate rationalisation, and a strategic workforce review and voluntary severance programme during 2025, creating a leaner and more sustainable operating model.
This formed part of our wider contribution to public sector reform. Alongside workforce changes, we have continued to simplify processes, strengthen the use of digital tools and data, and focus our resources where they have the greatest impact.
Our approach is to maintain a strong core workforce, work collaboratively with partners and access specialist expertise where it delivers better outcomes, improved services and best value for public money. In doing so, we are helping ensure that more of every pound invested supports people and communities across Scotland to benefit from sport and physical activity.
Sport inspired at every level, from top performing athletes to those helping local communities thrive. We saw activity from major events like the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games to our Active Schools programme, which ensures every young person can enjoy the benefits of sport and physical activity.
I attended the Milano Cortina 2026 Paralympic Winter Games earlier this year, an inspiring display of talent, resilience and teamwork. It was encouraging to see our winter sports governing bodies experience increased interest in the featured sports.
Another major highlight was the Orkney Island Games - a week of outstanding competition in glorious sunshine. Over 2,000 athletes and officials travelled from around the world to compete in 12 sports, drawing record visitor numbers to the islands.
Over the course of 2025/26, work began on the £1.6 million Clyde Cycle Park expansion, marking the next stage in developing the Cambuslang site into the leading regional cycling centre in western Scotland.
We celebrated the opening of a new tennis centre in Dumfries, supported by nearly £1.7 million from the Transforming Scottish Indoor Tennis fund, in what represents a major milestone for the sport locally and nationally. Thanks to National Lottery players, around £33 million is raised weekly for Good Causes, supporting projects that strengthen communities.
We gathered in Glasgow in December for our Scottish Sports Awards 2025, celebrating outstanding achievements from grassroots sport to high performance endeavours on the national and international stage.
This year marked the 10th anniversary of the Scottish Sports Concussion Guidance, a world first in 2015 that united medics, academics, parents, sports bodies, the Scottish Government and sportscotland to create a single set of advice for all grassroots sports. Ongoing work has reduced risk for participants and increased awareness of this important issue.
The Scottish Government’s additional £40 million announced in early 2026 will strengthen the sporting system, with a focus on clubs and communities helping us deliver an accessible, inclusive system that maximises participation.
My thanks go to our local and national partners, the sportscotland team and especially the volunteers who give their time to sport. With the progress made this year, I’m confident we’re in a good place.
Forbes Dunlop, Chief Executive, sportscotland
Playing our part
Our business plan for 2025/26 set out how we planned to deliver Sport for Life in 2025/26.
We set out to maximise the funding that goes to the sector, with less spent internally. In 2025/26, 67% of investment was directed externally. In the final quarter of the year we developed plans that will allow 90% of the additional £35 million [1] Scottish Government 2026/27 settlement to be invested into our partners.
We concluded our strategic workforce view and revised the internal staffing baseline, implementing associated workforce planning processes for the start of 2026/27 to ensure that sportscotland is fit for purpose to support future needs of sporting system and is delivering ahead of Public Sector Reform (PSR) targets.
Prioritising support to the clubs and communities environment was one of our key changes. We invested 44% of our environment expenditure in this area. Of the new investment announced for the 2026/27 year, we have made plans to allocate 75% towards clubs and communities.
In performance sport we sought to broaden our emphasis to support progression as well as achievement. We restructured our Performance department to lead the evolution of the sporting system, rebalancing resource towards supporting both progression and achievement through a new pathways investment fund.
We worked with partners to reduce the impact sport has on climate change, completing the estate review which seeks to quantify the level of investment required in the sport estate to deliver Net Zero over the next 20 years. The scale of investment and challenging financial climate will continue to impact on the pace of energy efficiency measures and adaptations and the mitigations can be implemented across the sport estate.
To maximise our impact and better meet the needs of local and national partners we have realigned and deployed our staff across five geographical areas to provide expertise and support partner needs.
We completed several internal improvement projects to streamline our processes whilst ensuring good governance. This included the retiral of our reporting system and development of an integrated business planning and reporting approach, investment process redesign and transition to managed HR and payroll services. We also developed our partner-facing investment portal to support more efficient flow of information. A pilot of the use of artificial intelligence returned encouraging indications that an average of two hours of staff time per week can be released from process-driven tasks.
Across our activity, we set out to encourage data-driven decision making including the development of a live internal dashboard reporting for the senior management team, appointment of independent research and evaluation expertise to lead our evaluation of the Active Schools programme and engaged with Sport England and 4 Global to extend access to their data platforms. We also piloted the delivery of data literacy sessions for local authorities.
[1] £5 million of the total £40 million to be invested in sport is not administered by sportscotland
Performance analysis
Programmes
Our programmes support people to participate, progress and achieve in sport and physical activity by investing in schools, colleges, clubs, communities, performance sport and national centres. During 2025/26, public investment continued to deliver significant reach and impact across Scotland.
A major milestone was the completion of a comprehensive evaluation of Active Schools, which has informed a refreshed vision and future direction for the programme. Active Schools recorded 5 million visits during the 2024/25 academic year, continuing to provide opportunities for children and young people across Scotland.
Investment in clubs and communities helped strengthen local delivery. Awards for All invested £500,000 in 128 clubs, while Community Sport Hubs and the Get Active Scotland Fund expanded opportunities for participation, particularly among less active people and communities facing barriers. A sector-wide review of clubs and communities also established five areas of focus: roles and responsibilities, data, learning and development and investment.
In performance sport, we streamlined our operating model, established a new pathways investment fund and continued to support athletes, coaches and performance environments. Scottish athletes contributed to success at Milano-Cortina 2026, while preparations for Glasgow 2026 continued.
Our National Centres also delivered strong results. Glenmore Lodge recorded 16,366 participation days and 97% customer satisfaction, while National Sports Training Centre Inverclyde hosted more than 31,000 participant days and made significant progress towards UK Sport Elite Training Centre accreditation.
Partners
Partnership working is critical to maximising the impact of public investment in sport and physical activity. During 2025/26, we continued to advocate for the Scottish Government’s commitment to double investment in sport and active living, welcoming confirmation of an additional £40 million investment in the 2026/27 sport budget.
As part of the UK Sport Councils Recognition Group, we collectively approved four governing bodies of sport in Scotland. Working with local, national and UK partners, we strengthened delivery across schools, clubs and communities while supporting wider health, inclusion and policy objectives. More than £16 million was invested in local authorities and partners, with 13 local authorities receiving support to align local approaches to the Physical Activity for Health Framework. Three local authorities published strategies during the year.
Investment in Scottish Governing Bodies remained a key mechanism for delivering outcomes, with over £20 million approved across 35 governing bodies. Alongside investment, we strengthened assurance processes and supported SGBs through the Moving to Inclusion self-diagnostic tool.
National partnerships helped extend reach to groups facing the greatest barriers to participation. Through partnerships with organisations including SAMH, Scottish Sport Futures, Scottish Student Sport, Scottish ClubSport and Enable Works, support was provided to young people experiencing poverty, disabled people and the wider workforce through training, mentoring and employment opportunities. Together, these partnerships demonstrate how collaborative investment can deliver greater reach, improved inclusion and stronger outcomes for communities across Scotland.
People
People remain at the heart of Scottish sport. During 2025/26, investment in coaching, learning, volunteering and leadership strengthened the workforce that supports participation, progression and achievement across the sporting system.
A significant achievement was the launch of the National Progression Award in Sports Coaching with Qualifications Scotland. More than 135 schools, colleges and local partners applied to deliver the award, creating new opportunities for young people to gain coaching qualifications and progress into further learning, employment and volunteering. Alongside this, almost £365,000 was invested through coach education subsidies across 29 sports, with a strong focus on equality, diversity and inclusion.
We continued to strengthen coaching quality and governance through development of the Scottish Coaching Certificate and investment in a new cohort of coach developers, increasing the availability of support across the sporting system.
Digital learning and workforce development expanded significantly. The Brightspace platform supported 58 partners, hosted 966 courses and engaged more than 56,000 learners, representing a 25% increase on the previous year. New learning pathways and provider frameworks improved access to high-quality learning opportunities.
Investment in future leaders also continued, with growth in the Young Ambassadors programme, support for the Young People’s Sport Panel, and leadership and volunteering initiatives that strengthen the sustainability and diversity of sport in Scotland.
Places
Creating and maintaining high-quality places for sport and physical activity is essential to supporting participation, wellbeing and performance. During 2025/26, we focused on improving understanding of Scotland’s sports facilities estate, strengthening strategic planning and targeting investment where it can deliver the greatest impact.
A major achievement was the completion of Scotland’s national review of the sports facilities estate. Developed with local authorities, leisure trusts and tertiary education partners, the review provides a comprehensive evidence base on the scale, condition and future needs of Scotland’s sports infrastructure. The findings highlight the challenges associated with an ageing estate while helping to inform future policy, planning and investment decisions.
We also continued to protect opportunities for sport through the planning system, responding to 39 planning applications as a statutory consultee to help ensure sport and physical activity remain part of local development decisions.
Targeted capital investment supported improved facilities across Scotland, including £1.86 million through the Sports Facilities Fund, £866,000 through the Cycling Facilities Fund and £765,000 for strategic projects. Previous investment also helped deliver the Orkney 2025 Island Games and supported the opening of a new indoor tennis facility in Dumfries, demonstrating the long-term value of investing in community and performance infrastructure.
Corporate services
Corporate Services provides the people, systems, governance and evidence that enable sportscotland to deliver its Business Plan efficiently and effectively. During 2025/26, significant progress was made in strengthening organisational capability, improving decision-making and supporting the delivery of increased investment into sport.
A key achievement was supporting increased Scottish Government investment in sport and active living. Following confirmation of additional funding, a new funding application portal was designed and launched within three weeks, enabling rapid and efficient distribution of investment to the sporting system
The Strategic Workforce Review established a refreshed staffing model and workforce planning approach to ensure the organisation is equipped to meet future needs and deliver the ambitions of Public Sector Reform targets. Governance and efficiency were strengthened through reviews of legal and information governance processes and improvements to business planning and reporting.
Investment in digital transformation improved resilience and insight. This included live management dashboards, enhanced data and evaluation capability, cloud migration, strengthened cyber security and the successful trial of Microsoft Copilot to explore opportunities for improving productivity and delivering efficiencies in the way we work.
Communications and policy activity also increased the visibility of sport and demonstrated the impact of investment. National campaigns, major events and the refreshed Scottish Sport Awards helped strengthen public and political understanding of the contribution sport makes to health, communities and Scotland’s economy.
People and stories
Discover some of the people and stories which highlight the impact of our work across the sporting system.
Our data
The sportscotland Performance Measurement Framework is used to measure our progress towards our strategic outcomes. To promote consistency of reporting and monitor trends across over multiple cycles our established strategic measures remain broadly stable from one year to the next.
Our key performance indicators are summarised in the dashboard below. This illustrates our contribution to sport and physical activity across Scotland. All indicators are gathered through routine monitoring and evaluation.
We applied a 1% threshold for the one-year comparison. We will continue to review these thresholds as we collect longer term trend data.
| Indicator | Value | 1 year trend |
|---|---|---|
| Total Participants | 1,126,768 | Increased |
| Active Schools Participants | 278,542 | Static |
| % of pupils taking part in Active Schools | 40% | Static |
| SGB club members | 847,537 | Increased |
| Inverclyde Participant Days | 31,713 | Decreased |
| Glenmore Lodge Participant Days | 16,366 | Decreased |
| Glenmore Lodge Learning and Development | 3,737 | Increased |
| Places - Investment | £2,725,255 | Decreased |
| Places - Enabled investment | £11,636,975 | Increased |
| People - Number of people accessing sportscotland learning and development across projects | 13,051 | Increased |
| People - Number of active learners on the digital learning platform | 56,565 | Increased |
| People - Number of partners involved in the digital learning platform | 58 | Increased |
| SIS supported athletes | 689 | Increased |
Our full data reports provide trend data and commentary on all indicators as well as a breakdown of equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) characteristics of participants, where available.
About the data
The data is from routine, internal monitoring across our programmes and national centres.
The data for Active Schools relates to academic year 2024/25 but is reported in 2025/26. This is due to when the academic and financial year line up.
Participant days for Inverclyde and Glenmore Lodge is collected from all residential and non-residential groups, excluding local community bookings. Participant days is the length of stay multiplied by number of group participants. Data methodology for Glenmore Lodge participant days has now been updated to match Inverclyde. Trend data is available in the full reports.
The figure for people accessing training opportunities is not distinct. This means there may be double counting of people accessing more than one training opportunity.
Facilities investment includes Sports Facilities Fund which is funded through National Lottery and Cycling Facilities Fund which is funded equally through Scottish Government and the National Lottery.
Our full data reports provide trend data and commentary on all indicators as well as a breakdown of equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) characteristics of participants, where available.
Financial summary
Note: The 2025/26 financial summary will be updated when the audit process is completed in December 2026.
Future plans
Our business plan for 2026/27 outlines our priorities and goals for the year and our progress towards the strategic outcomes of Sport for Life. The additional £40 million budget allocation for 2026/27 shows Scottish Government’s commitment to on-going investment in the Scottish sporting system and recognised contribution sportscotland makes in leading the sector.
We know the 2026/27 year provides us with a unique time bound opportunity and that is why we have made a strategic commitment to maximise the impact of investing this additional funding.
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