ABSTRACT
The organization and administration of sport in many countries, including Britain, have undergone considerable change over the past fifty years or so and these changes have had a significant impact on the ways in which SDOs have sought to develop and implement a variety of sport policy and development strategies. While it is impossible to trace here all of the complexities involved in this regard, the central objective of this chapter is to examine some of the major organizational changes that have impacted on sport policy through the shifting priorities of government. This is important, it is argued, for in order to adequately understand something of the ways and extent to which government sport policy and development priorities are currently being implemented, it is necessary to examine how the present situation of sport policy-making and sports development activity has developed. It is equally necessary to examine something about the changing political and policy priorities given not only to the role of local authorities and NGBs of sport in implementing national sport policy, but also to the emphasis given to sport as an aspect of local authority sport policy and development provision more generally.
