Levelling the Playing Field has completed a “hugely positive” initial phase of delivery with children inside HMP Werrington via our specialist partners Sharks Community Trust.
Coaches from the community arm of Premiership Rugby club Sale Sharks visited Werrington for a six-week block of rugby sessions with 10 young males, followed by a four-week block with a different cohort of between three to six boys each week.
The work was funded by Sport England’s Tackling Inequalities Fund, which was secured and distributed to Levelling the Playing Field specialist partners by the Alliance of Sport.
The sessions centred around boosting health, wellbeing and engagement through rugby-based challenges in small groups and teams which build young people’s aspirations. Later, they progressed into developing the participants as coaches and leaders of their peers.
Sharks Community Trust’s Education Manager, Des Howlett, said: “Sometimes when working with ‘vulnerable’ young people, they struggle to engage, but the lads at Werrington were terrific. They were really uninhibited and positive. We had some great role models in the group.”
The young people were introduced to rugby through games of tag, dodgeball, kicking and catch tennis, before progressing into matches. They then picked one of the starter activities to lead with the rest of the group, setting themselves targets and evaluating their own performances. “It boosted their confidence and gave them transferable skills,” said Des.
Des added: “Both groups asked for rugby balls to be brought into the prison. Hopefully we’ve added to what the prison PE staff are able to provide and taken rugby activity into the setting, which is one of the aims of the programme.”
Sport England’s Tackling Inequalities Fund (now re-named the Together Fund) funded the programme. “Being part of the Levelling the Playing Field network also gave us training opportunities, connection into a community of learning and a package of CPD,” reflected Des.
The one element of the project that was unable to be developed was linking young people into opportunities to play rugby in community clubs post-release.
“That is the bit of the jigsaw we’d really like to develop,” admitted Des. “We would love to go back into Werrington so we can develop each individual’s skills and character more deeply and connect them with rugby through the gate so the game becomes a long-term support network for them.
“The feedback we got from the young people was overwhelmingly positive. Having raised those aspirations, we now look forward to returning to give more opportunities for them to enjoy rugby and flourish as players and leaders.”
(Children in photos are participants in other Sharks Community Trust programmes, not in HMP Werrington)