Lancashire Sport Relationship Manager Paul Blythin shares his experiences of working with partners to develop deaf sporting activities in Lancashire.

Lancashire Sport is one of 45 County Sports Partnerships (CSP`s)across the country. Each CSP acts as the coordinating body for sport and  physical activity in its area. We work with a wide range of organisations at all levels from strategic to local clubs.

I was invited by Clive at UK Deaf Sport to be involved with the North West DEAFinitely Inclusive network about 18 months ago.Prior to being involved with UK Deaf Sport we had limited involvement with deaf people. Our involvement was mainly through the funding of a couple of Sportivate projects for the deafffnw group

As a County Sport Partnership we haven’t been through the accreditation ourselves as we are more facilitators of activity rather than deliverers, but we decided it was important to be involved in the network and promote the DEAFinitely Inclusive accreditation. Increasing the number of people taking part in sport and physical activity in Lancashire is a key objective of ours and the participation levels of people that are deaf or hard of hearing are well below what they should be and so we would like to help work towards improving this.

Becoming a member of the North West DEAFinitely Inclusive Network has been fantastic for helping to link us with organisations and groups that work with people that are deaf or hard of hearing. The network has allowed us to bring together sports deliverers that are keen to engage people that are deaf or hard of hearing and organisations that work with deaf people, who are valuable advocates for promoting any opportunities that are available. Without the network we have generally struggled to engage with groups or organisations that work with people that are deaf or hard of hearing. The organisations that attend the network meetings are all keen to create more opportunities and see more deaf people taking part in sport, which is great to see.

I would encourage any club or facility to become DEAFinitely Inclusive and to look to make themselves as inclusive and welcoming as possible. As a county sport partnership we are keen to support any clubs or organisations in Lancashire that are keen to do the accreditation. Becoming DEAFinitely Inclusive offers a great opportunity to gain new members/customers for your club or facility and help increase the number of people taking part in physical activity and sport.

We will continue to work with the network to look to increase the number of opportunities for people that are deaf or hard of hearing to take part in sport. As a county sport partnership we will support any clubs or facilities in Lancashire that are keen to go through the DEAFinitely Inclusive accreditation process.