Participation - Deloitte Parasport

The biggest obstacles to success in Paralympic sport have traditionally been the level of grassroots investment and the number of people playing sport at community level. Having identified, alongside ParalympicsGB, that there were no clear development pathways for disabled athletes in the UK, Deloitte Parasport was created in 2007.

Parasport aims to connect people with a disability to high-quality sporting opportunities. This ground-breaking online resource allows disabled people to find out which sports might be suited to their disability, and where and when they are available. Once people are active in sport, the site encourages them to become competitive and to enter the talent identification process. Deloitte people work as volunteers to maintain the quality of the information on the site and support its development.

Parasport is getting more disabled people active through sport and is having a measurable impact on participation in disability sport across all disciplines, acting as a vital pipeline for finding the next generation of Paralympians. The site was recently awarded the Inspire Mark by London 2012.

The site is already the primary national platform for disability sport, receiving 30,000 visits a month, with referral links from the BBC, London 2012, sports governing bodies and the National Lottery. Most importantly though, there is great communication through the site, providing disabled people with access to advice from the top of their target sport about how to get started in it.

Parasport has also been selected to host the national "Playground to Podium" programme. This is an integrated plan for school support, coaching, community sport and high performance for disabled people, which will coach over 20,000 gifted young people and aims to increase the ParalympicsGB squad for London 2012 by 50%.