Forbes Dunlop

The CEO of sportscotland speaks to Tom Walker and outlines how the national agency plans to use a systems-based approach to get more Scots taking part in sport

Forbes Dunlop was appointed CEO of sportscotland in January 2023. He took over from Stewart Harris who had held the role for more than 16 years. Dunlop, one of Scottish sport’s most respected and experienced sports administrators, started his career working in local government before moving to sportscotland in 2003, where he held various positions over a 10-year period. In 2013 he was appointed CEO of Scottish Swimming where, during a six-year-period, he delivered year-on-year membership growth, the roll out of the National Learn to Swim Framework and medal success on the global stage. He then returned to sportscotland as Chief Operating Officer in April 2019, before succeeding Harris 20 months ago.

SportsNation spoke to Dunlop shortly after he had returned from the Paris 2024 Games, where he was on hand to see Andy Murray play his last ever match as a professional.

People

You worked at sportscotland first from 2003 to 2013 and then from 2019 as COO. How much has that experience, across the organisation, helped you in your role as CEO? I definitely feel it’s an advantage. In my first stint I really got to know sportscotland, its responsibilities and the work it does in a number of different areas – and at different levels.

Moving to Scottish Swimming to become its Chief Executive in 2013 then gave me an understanding of leading an organisation and the responsibilities that come with that. What also helped was that swimming was my sport.

I loved my time at Scottish Swimming and we had a brilliant team, a great membership and fantastic stakeholders who worked very closely together – from local clubs to facility owners. The six years I spent as CEO taught me a lot about leading.

When the opportunity to return to sportscotland as COO came up in 2019, it was an attractive proposition because it was an area of the business I was probably the least familiar with. I knew about sport and sports development, but when it came to the governance of the organisation and corporate services – including the “behind the scenes” operations, such as the political work – I was less well-versed. It was a steep learning curve, made even steeper by the COVID-19 pandemic.

I think my career journey has put me in a really good place. It has certainly resulted in me knowing sportscotland and its partners really well. I had built a good network across national governing bodies and local authorities and understood the work they do.

You replaced Stewart Harris, who retired after 16 years in the role. How was it to take up a post that someone had held for so long? I worked really closely with Stewart during my time as COO and when he decided to step down, in the summer of 2022, we began working together even more closely in a number of areas. It made for a really smooth transition and Stewart was very generous with his time, support and help. As a result of that support, I never felt pressure over the fact that Stewart had been in the role for so long and done such an amazing job, while I was the “new kid on the block”.

What does the picture look like, when it comes to physical activity levels in Scotland? The data tells us that physical activity levels have been pretty static for more than 10 years. Given all the financial pressures we’ve seen in that period, the figures can be looked at either through a glass half-empty or a slightly more positive lens. The thing to recognise is that, worldwide, the trend is very similar – so we definitely aren’t alone in having static levels.

However, I do think there’s a slightly more worrying trend sitting behind the data, which suggests that health inequalities, in general, are getting worse. So while statistically there might not be much of a change in activity levels, we know that those living in areas of deprivation and those with long-term conditions are increasingly less likely to be physically active.

There’s an often quoted stat about Scotland, which is that there is a near 25-year gap between the life expectancies of those living in the most affluent and the most deprived areas of the country. The challenge for us – and the wider health sector – is to find ways to narrow that gap and tackle those inequalities.

There has been some really good work done recently by Public Health Scotland, which looked at a systems-based approach to physical activity. We know that sport is one very important component of a physically active nation, but what you need is all strands of that systems-based approach to be working together, if you really want to make a population- wide difference. So there’s work to be done – particularly in reaching the people living in the most deprived areas of the country.

How do you plan to tackle the barriers that exist for people to get active in Scotland? We’ve identified three critical areas. One is facilities, the second is people (and the volunteers within that) and the third is the cost barriers faced by people wanting to take part. You can look into each one of those and find hundreds of different lines and detail that need to be considered, but those three areas are the ones we are targeting our efforts on – as well as highlighting in our messaging. All three are very much at the front of mind when we plan our programmes, investments and overall progress.

People

Sport for Life, your 10-year strategy, was published in 2019. We’re now half way through – could you outline its main aims? The vision of Sport for Life is to have an active Scotland where everyone benefits from sport. To help us deliver the many benefits of sport to everyone, we’re guided by six key principles. These are to be inclusive, accountable, responsive, person-centred, collaborative and world class.

Sport for Life is actually based on that systems- based approach as it recognises the importance of all three main areas of sport – school and further/higher education sport, clubs and communities and performance sport. The strategy itself is then underpinned by people and places and we recognise that you need to take that systematic approach to developing sports.

It’s our view that you can’t just go “all in” with school sport, with clubs or with performance sport. They all complement each other and promote each other. This is reflected in our mission, which is to help the people of Scotland get the most from the sporting system – whatever their level or experience.

Our mission is to help the people of Scotland get the most from the sporting system – whatever their level or experience

Sport for Life mentions “fantastic facilities” in relation to achieve your goals. What are the priorities when it comes to facility investment? We are now in the middle of a national review of sports facilities in Scotland. The review will look at all facilities – from schools to community venues – which will give us a real- time picture of what’s out there and what the lifespan of the existing facilities will be.

In some ways, that will be the “easy bit”, to capture the first tranche of information and paint an up-to-date picture. But as part of the process, we will also need to look at the investment that has been made over the last few years into the facility estate, so we’ll also have a picture of what has actually changed. Because it’s easy to focus on buildings that are closing, or focusing on maintenance bills that are growing, without recognising some of the investments and additions that have happened to the estate.

The hardest bit will come after that first stage, which is to decide what we need to do going forward. It’s one thing to say ‘this is what we’ve had available during the past 20 to 40 years’. But the world has moved on. Local planning has changed, the way people live and move has changed and the way people exercise has changed.

We have to adapt too and the hard bit will be to predict what the estate needs to look like over the next 10 to 20 years. What types of facilities should we be supporting? That’s why we’re working with local partners to see what their particular needs are. In terms of investment, through our Sports Facilities Fund (SFF) we invest around £2m a year in community facilities – with a particular focus on areas of deprivation in order to tackle inequalities. The investments we make also unlock funding from other sources. This means that, in 2023 alone, our SFF investment of £2.4m led to a total investment of around £20m. So while we might be a relatively small contributor to facility developments, by putting some money into them – and importantly, bringing our expertise into the process – we can really add value.

We also have a Cycling Facilities Fund, which is an £8m programme that was put together ahead of the UCI Cycling World Championships in Glasgow in 2023. The pot was set up with the recognition that we’re hosting a great championship with great potential to create a lasting legacy. The fund was set up to ensure we could maximise the positive impact.

People

There are increased

cost pressures on local authorities and other sports facility owners and operators

Then there’s our third major facility investment strand, which is the £15m Transforming Scottish Indoor Tennis Fund (TSIT). Half of the money comes from sportscotland and the other half from the LTA. So far, TSIT has resulted in the opening of two centres – Oriam, a six-court venue in Edinburgh and Moray Sports Centre in Elgin, which has four courts. A third one will open in Dumfries in 2025.

On a general level, we recognise the challenges that our local partners face and the pressures on the facilities they own and operate. There is very little capital investment for new facilities and also continual pressure on maintenance budgets and running costs. We know from the conversations with our local partners that we also have an ageing facilities stock. That’s where the national review will come in, to help guide our planning.

In July 2023, Scottish Sports Minister, Maree Todd, published a strategic guidance letter for sport. It identified tackling inequalities as a key priority. How have you been doing on that front? Tackling inequalities is at the front and centre of all our planning. We recognise that it is really important to acknowledge and understand the inequalities that exist. If you do that, you can then start to communicate and educate people about them.

We spend a lot of time and quite a bit of resources in putting on training and leadership opportunities for people working in sport. A lot of the content focuses on understanding the demographics of Scotland and the diversity of its local communities – and is all backed up by data and insight. This is because, from a sports delivery point of view, we will be ever more reliant on club and community groups led by volunteers. It means that we need to make it as easy as possible for volunteers to become successful leaders on inequality.

The best work we see is where club and community groups truly know and understand their communities and those who live in them.

They know their members and engage them, while making sure their club or group is open and accessible to them. For me, that is the long- term solution to getting every part of the nation active. Having local clubs and groups – as well as schools, which are a critical part of the equation – who understand their communities and have the skills and the insight to successfully engage with them and invite them to take part in activities.

Could you outline sportscotland’s overall priorities over the next two years? Our future plans are driven by our commitment to a systems-based approach, which recognises the importance of our three main areas – school and education, clubs and communities and performance sport. We will continue to invest in facilities and people, both the professional and volunteer workforces. Within that, I am particularly focused on club and community sport and the volunteer network, because of the cuts and the pressures sport faces at a local level. It wasn’t that long ago that we had teams of sport-specific development officers in local authorities across Scotland. Those are now gone, as cuts have removed a lot of the people and infrastructure.

We are now increasingly reliant on volunteers and the challenge for us is now to find the most effective models to get investment and support to volunteers and clubs – and that isn’t easy to do.

sportscotland’s facility investments

Cycling Facilities Fund

The £8million Cycling Facilities Fund (CFF) was established to build on the growing interest in cycling by developing a network of accessible facilities to encourage people of all ages to ride bikes and enjoy the sport. The fund, administered by sportscotland and Scottish Cycling, has helped to provide accessible community and club facilities that inspire new and existing cyclists to make cycling a sport for life.

It will also deliver a tangible benefit as part of the wider policy objectives from hosting the historic event, when 13 existing World Championship cycling disciplines were brought together in one event for the first time. The investment has been made possible through a £4million commitment from Scottish Government and £4million from sportscotland through National Lottery funds.

Around £6.5m has been invested in 46 facilities through the CFF, and when contributions from local partners to deliver the projects are factored in, over £13million has been invested in cycling infrastructure through the fund so far.

The Transforming Scottish Indoor Tennis Fund (TSIT)

At £15million, TSIT is the largest capital investment programme in the sport’s history in Scotland and the aim is to create more and better opportunities to play tennis all year round. The fund is made up of £7.5m from sportscotland (through National Lottery funding) and £7.5m from the LTA.

The Oriam Indoor Tennis Centre was opened to the public in December 2023 and officially opened in February 2024. The six-court facility cost a total of £4,497,020, with sportscotland contributing £1,505,000 through the TSIT fund.

The Moray Sports Foundation Indoor Tennis Centre was opened in July. The four-court facility in Elgin cost a total of £1,628,993, with sportscotland contributing £558,868 through the TSIT fund.

The Sports Facilities Fund

Sport Facilities Fund (SFF) supports capital projects that help to create or improve places where people take part in sport and physical activity.

24 awards were made last year (April 2023-March 2024). Two of those projects also received supplementary funding. These awards totalled £2,426,938 and enabled investment of £19,714,890.