The challenge
The Sports Governance Academy (SGA) is the governance support hub for the sport and physical activity sector established in 2020 through a partnership between The Chartered Governance Institute UK & Ireland and Sport England.
In 2022 the partnership expanded to include all the Sports Councils of the UK. In autumn 2023, Substance was appointed to carry out an impact assessment of the SGA, focusing on its reach across the UK sports sector, the individual and organisational outcomes it drives, and its role in supporting sector level changes in governance approaches and standards across the UK.
How we helped
In August 2024, Substance published the first impact assessment of the SGA, focusing on:
- The SGA’s Theory of Change, and the processes through which outcomes are delivered at different levels
- The reach of the SGA, including assessments of the types of people engaging with its services
- The impacts of the SGA on the people engaging with it and the organisations for which they work.
A second impact assessment was published in November 2025, which built on the first report and included more detailed assessments of the SGA’s impacts on specific organisations and the initiative’s role in driving sector level governance improvements across sport in the UK.
Substance’s work with the SGA continues and a third impact report is due to be published in November 2026.
