The Activity Alliance vision is for people with disabilities to feel empowered to be active for life. Their strategy includes the Inclusive Activity Programme, which aims to equip coaches, activators and health and care professionals with the skills to engage with people with disabilities and long-term health conditions more effectively.

Gone are the days of separate groups and games for people with disabilities. Gone are specialist coaches. Gone are the assertions to 'be careful' of specific impairments.

What has taken their place?

Awareness, positivity and creativity.

The gloves, in many ways, are off.

That has been the – very deliberate – message coming from the Activity Alliance (previously the English Federation of Disability Sport (EFDS)), who are committed to helping people with disabilities lead active lives.

The Inclusive Activity Programme: background

The Inclusive Activity Programme (IAP) is a joint project between UK Coaching, Activity Alliance and Sport England that evolved from the Sainsbury’s Inclusive Community Training programme (ICT).

It is comprised of a three-hour face-to-face practical workshop delivered by experts. Attendees are further supported through ongoing learning and development opportunities.

“Originally, we [Activity Alliance] had the ICT, which aimed to upskill people who weren’t coaches; so volunteers, care home workers, youth centre staff – anyone in the local community who had the opportunity to get disabled people more active,” Activity Alliances' Inclusive Activity Programmes Manager Rhian Carroll explains.

“Since then we’ve done a lot of research into where the demand is for that kind of training, which told us that there is a demand from many coaches who are interested in learning how to make their sessions inclusive and accessible.”

Key to the programme is ensuring that coaches can work with participants that both do and do not have disabilities.

The IAP is intended to give coaches the confidence and skills to support all participants, including those with disabilities, so that when new or existing participants with physical or cognitive differences attend their sessions, coaches both know how to react and feel empowered to deliver a meaningful session for all.

“People often don’t realise,” continues Rhian, “that they already have the skillset to be able to adapt a session to include everyone, and this course helps many people realise they have the ability to adapt sessions and make them inclusive – therefore increasing their confidence to be able to coach everyone in their sessions.”

The IAP’s effectiveness

The IAP looks to a future in which coaches have a flexible approach to inclusivity. As a result, the IAP is based around tools such as the STEP Model and the Activity Inclusion Model, as instead of teaching coaches how to deliver specific activities, they contain guiding principles around which activities and sessions can be modified to meet a broader range of needs.

As an IAP Lead Tutor, Adam Colley got an early look at the content. He was immediately impressed by the direction in which the programme takes its learners.

“How this course helps people who have fallen into that trap is by giving them a bank of ideas of how to incorporate anybody with any disability, because the coach will always have another plan, another option to try out if the first ones don’t work.”

Key to the programme’s effectiveness is its emphasis on equipping coaches with strategies and ideas, connecting theory with practice to encourage confidence and creativity. These are skills applicable to coaches at any stage of their journey.

“That’s why this has been designed as a really practical course, with so many elements of it being able to be taken away. We didn’t want to just be talking at coaches and hoping they are making good notes and taking everything in.”

Those taking part in the programme are also encouraged to work together and share their ideas.

“It’s great to see the learners actively taking part in activities that the tutor introduces, then other activities that learners come up with themselves. That allows people to get so much out of the three hours: not just the knowledge of the tutor but that of all the other learners.”

Who is the programme for?

Adam is clear that people attending the course with no prior experience of working with participants with disabilities will get as much out of it – and feel just as included – as attendees who have substantial experience in the sector.

“For people who aren’t knowledgeable in this area of physical activity, it’s giving them little nuggets of information that they can take away and start immediately applying to the work they do.

“As long as it’s got some reasoning behind it, give it a go – if it works, brilliant, if it doesn’t, no problem, you’ve given it a shot and learnt from it.”

The next chapter

Rhian is open-minded as to how the programme will evolve.

“We’re rolling this out through County Sports Partnerships (CSPs) initially, which may see coaches coming on our courses or our content being embedded on a sport’s courses through National Governing Bodies of Sport (NGBs).

“We’re also looking for this to be spread by word of mouth, for coaches to hear about what we’re doing and want to encourage others to sign up.  I’m sure there are other coaching networks we should be looking at too, so please get in touch with us and help drive it nationwide.

“We have a target for the programme of training 8,500 individuals from across the coaching family, health and care professionals and local community activators.”

As Adam is keen to point out, attending the workshop is only the start of the story.

“What’s great is that once coaches attend the workshop they can access additional support from AA and UK Coaching – we’re not just cutting them loose once they walk out the door."