March 4, 2019

We recently received the great news that we, Active Cumbria have been rated as 'Very Good' in the new Quest Assessment - Quest Plus for Active Communities.

The tough assessment by Sport England’s leading national quality scheme involved a robust self-assessment, followed by a two-day external assessment and a partners forum looking at seven core modules and an additional three choice modules.

The next stage is a round table discussion with Sport England as part of the quarterly review. The assessment and round table discussions are part of the new performance management and improvement framework (PMIF) for County Sport Partnerships in England as required by Sport England and CSP Network followed by a review of County Sport Partnerships undertaken by Andy Reed MP in 2016.

This is a great result for us. The new Quest standards are more demanding and challenging and it is now much more of an achievement to succeed in Quest at any level. These results reflect the hard work and commitment from the Core Team and our Advisory Board in continually reviewing and improving our services and performance. Over the last 12 months or so we have gone through a period of significant change; we have developed a new 3 Year Plan to tackle inactivity across Cumbria, and shifted the way in which we work, and also the partners and stakeholders with whom we engage. We’ve also completely reviewed our governance arrangements, ensuring that we meet the highest standards laid down in the Government’s Code for Sports Governance. We’d like to thank the many partners that have helped us shape our new ways of working, and to those who provided feedback as part of this assessment.   

Jason Gooding the Chair of our Advisory Board said: 

“I warmly congratulate the team on this significant achievement. Active Cumbria continues to improve the health and wellbeing of our communities by getting and keeping people engaged in sport and physical activity. This is very important work and I’m pleased that an external assessment has confirmed that the team is carrying it out so effectively.”

The report from Quest can be seen here