Levelling the Playing Field: A Scalable Community-wide Strategy to Improve Equity in Access to a Universal Children's Sports Voucher Program

The declining wellbeing of South Australian children, particularly those from low socioeconomic backgrounds, is a pressing issue that has shown a concerning trend since 2017, exacerbated further by the pandemic. The benefits of sports participation on children's health and wellbeing are well-documented, but these opportunities are often out of reach for disadvantaged children due to financial and accessibility barriers.

To address this, our consortium of stakeholders proposes a community-wide, collaborative approach in the City of Salisbury, aiming to increase the utilisation of the South Australian government's Sports Voucher Scheme, which is currently underused by low SES urban and culturally diverse children.

Our two-stage project begins with co-designing program elements with children, parents, teachers, sports providers, community and cultural leaders, and government stakeholders. Two distinct co-design streams are planned - one aims to develop comprehensive and easy-to-understand resources to promote the sports voucher to families. The second targets sports providers to increase their willingness to accept the sports voucher and assist them to develop an attractive welcome package that can be covered by the $100 Sports Voucher.

The second stage involves a two-year implementation of the community-wide intervention, evaluating its effectiveness using a rigorous non-randomised controlled trial design. Outcomes will include awareness, acceptance, and uptake of the voucher, sports participation, and physical activity. Alongside these effectiveness outcomes, process evaluation measures will be used to inform ongoing improvement and implementation.

If successful, this initiative has the potential to be scaled up and adapted to other disadvantaged communities across South Australia and potentially nationally, providing a roadmap for increased sports participation and improved wellbeing for children in need.

The SA government’s $100 Sports Voucher scheme aims to help children participate in sports, due to sport's many health, wellbeing and emotional benefits. However, disadvantaged children, who have the most to benefit, are least likely to access it. We will work with stakeholders to evaluate a community-wide strategy to increase Sports Voucher uptake and sports particpation. In future, the program may be scaled up to other disadvantaged communities across SA and nationally.