Sport England has given a boost to grassroots sport with £12m being awarded to specialist organisations which help to get people more active.

The funding will be made available over the next two years to seven organisations which are Sport England’s National Partners and focus on equality, diversity, coaching, talent, workforce development and safeguarding children.

Sports Coach UK will benefit from £5m, while The English Federation of Disability Sport (EFDS) will receive £2.3m.

Other organisations which will get a share of the bounty are Child Protection in Sport Unit (CPSU), SkillsActive UK, Sporting Equals, SportsAid and Women In Sport.

Sport England’s chair, Nick Bitel, said: “We are confident these investments can add real value to sport. Investing in our National Partners enables sports’ national governing bodies and other partners to receive bespoke support to help them offer more opportunities and meet their targets to get more people playing sport more often.”

EFDS says for the next two years the extra funding boost will allow them to continue to focus on insight, engagement and inclusive marketing communications, to get more people with disabilities into exercise.

EFDS chief executive Barry Horne added: “There is still a substantial amount of work to do to ensure more disabled people can be active for life. For many disabled people, there are still significant barriers to participating in sport and physical activity. We all need to work together to improve the number and types of activities available at every level.”