Impact of COVID-19 on the sport sector

by Dr. Verity Postlethwaite

Since January 2020, Counsel has been working on designing a product that combines the strengths of higher education research and industry needs. The product brings together evidence and literature on a problem or topic for different purposes and audiences.

The COVID-19 global pandemic accelerated the development of this product, and we are pleased to offer a range of horizon scanning options. As we demonstrate in the piece below, synthesising literature and evidence can be an effective way to gather, analyse and present to a variety of audiences.

See Horizon Scanning product here.

The written evidence submission ‘Impact of COVID-19 on the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport sectors’ was submitted by Counsel and the University of Portsmouth in June 2020 to the UK Parliament, Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee. See UK Parliament website for the original inquiry and publications here.

In the submission we made five evidence points around (1) Ideological underpinnings, (2) Development of sporting policy over the last two decades, (3) Stakeholders, (4) Collaborative working and (5) Monitoring and evaluation. The points emphasise how the DCMS Committee can learn from the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games to consider actions and policy from the DCMS sector and the impact of COVID-19.

This piece is an illustration of what a horizon scan looks like in practice. This type of exercise and document can be used for a wide range of internal, local, national and regional consultations.

The original written submission was accepted by the UK Parliament and we have now translated it into a publicly accessible document. See Counsel and University of Portsmouth piece here.