ABSTRACT
Since the late 1990s and the rise to power of New Labour, sport in the UK has experienced a plethora of social inclusion and equity initiatives for race, disability and gender (Sport England 2004a). Through the mechanism of ‘standards’ (prescriptions for service delivery and performance outcomes), the public and voluntary sectors have co-operated in efforts to institutionalize social inclusion and to make organizations accountable for their funding from the public purse. This form of soft social engineering has attracted criticism from some quarters as interference by the ‘nanny state’ and obsession with ‘political correctness’. For others, it is simply a means of reducing inequality and enhancing diversity and fairness in society.
