ABSTRACT
Over the last 30 years there has been an increased interest and focus on sports development across the UK, with responsibility for policy delivery devolved to the four home countries who, through Sport England, sportscotland, the Sports Council for Wales and Sport Northern Ireland fulfil separate roles within their individual nations. Since devolution it has become more difficult to refer to a ‘UK-wide’ sports policy because, whilst there are still major commonalities in policy in the four countries, since devolution these differences have increased, to the extent that each country needs to be considered as a separate policy domain. The reader should not therefore assume that the features identified in the case of England would be reflective of youth sport policy in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
