Introduction

This chapter introduces the book’s focus on the roles and contributions of organisations involved in implementing sport policy in the UK, and how these shape resultant outcomes across different aspects of sport. The chapter recognises how successive UK governments have taken a significant role in the direction of sport policy, through which large-scale public funding has been accompanied by governmental mechanisms to shape implementation by various organisations involved with sport. Some differences in these regards across physical education (PE) and school sport, community sport and elite sport are initially highlighted. Overviews of theories of policy implementation are then provided, as a framework for continued analysis across the remainder of the book. Theoretical developments which are traced encompass: top-down, bottom-up and principal-–agent approaches to analysing policy implementation, as well as related and contemporary thinking on policy ‘enactment.’ The chapter closes by recognising the types of organisations that are key to implementing sport policy and which are covered in subsequent chapters of the book.