Proof of Play
Sports Social Value Calculator
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Modelled Annual Social Value
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Community Sports · Social Value Calculator

Your club has been worth this for years.
Now you can prove it.

Ampthill Town FC. £1.97M. 444 players.
Mirfield Parish Cavaliers CC. £480k. 118 players.
Falcon Bowling & Tennis Club. £275k. 56 players.
Football, cricket, bowls. Same tool. Ten minutes each.

Grant panels want evidence. Councils want numbers. Your community wants to know you matter. Most clubs lose grants on the paperwork, not the sport. Proof of Play gives you the paperwork — a modelled social value figure backed by government methodology, plus the report, press release and funding guide to use it.

Social value is the measurable impact your club has on people's health, wellbeing and community — beyond the sport itself. Every club generates it every week. Most have never seen the number, or understood why it matters so much.

Takes about 10 minutes to complete
Built on HM Treasury & Sport England methodology
No login required.
How clubs are using this
🏟️ Clubhouse, pavilion, court and facility grants. Whether you're resurfacing tennis courts, rebuilding a cricket pavilion, renovating a rugby clubhouse, refurbishing a bowling green or upgrading an athletics track — your Proof of Play report shows the community return on that investment before a single brick is laid.
📋 Council pitches, courts and facility leases. Most grassroots clubs rent from a local authority or parish council. Councils are now legally required to maximise public benefit in their decisions. A quantified social value report gives your club the evidence the council needs to justify supporting you — whether you're renewing a lease, asking for a fee reduction, or lobbying for capital work on the facility.
🤝 Governing body funding and local sponsorship. Clubs are using their reports to strengthen Sport England Movement Fund bids, ECB, RFU, LTA, England Athletics and Swim England grant applications, National Lottery Awards for All, parish council requests, and conversations with local business sponsors who increasingly want to see the community impact of their support.

The major proxy values used in this calculator come from published government and Sport England research. Some values are internal modelling assumptions clearly labelled as such. Your report is built from the best available published evidence — not a precise audit, but a credible, defensible starting point. See the Methodology tab in your results for the full source table.

What clubs have discovered
£1.97M
Ampthill Town FC — football. 444 players, founded 1881.
£480k
Mirfield Parish Cavaliers CC — cricket. 118 players, founded 1880.
£275k
Falcon Bowling & Tennis Club — bowls. 56 players, founded 1998.
£122.9bn
Annual social value of community sport in England (Sport England, Year 2 — November 2025)
Step 1 of 5

About your club.

Ten minutes from now you'll have a number that's been there for years.

What sport does your club play?
Step 2 of 5

Players

Enter registered player numbers by age band and gender. Wellbeing values are higher for younger participants — so the breakdown matters. Use your most recent season's figures.

Where do these values come from? Wellbeing figures are drawn from Sport England's Social Value Model Year 2 (November 2025), produced with Sheffield Hallam University, Manchester Metropolitan University and State of Life using HM Treasury WELLBY methodology. Active children aged 11–16 generate £4,300 per year in wellbeing value. Adults generate £2,600.
Club type

Tell us who plays — this shows only the relevant sections and applies the correct wellbeing values.

Youth Players
Ages 5–6 Mini / junior
Ages 7–11 £3,100 / child / year
Ages 11–16 £4,300 / child / year
Ages 16–18 Youth/adult transition
Adult Players
Youth training frequency
Step 3 of 5

Volunteers & workforce

Volunteer contribution is typically the single largest number in your whole assessment. Most clubs are shocked by what they find here. Enter everyone — coaches, committee, kit washers, the person who sets up the cones.

Methodology: Volunteer economic value is calculated using the DCMS/London Economics 2024 replacement cost rate (£13.20/hr) × hours contributed. On top of that, Sport England's Social Value Model Year 2 places the wellbeing value of volunteering at approximately £2,100 per volunteer per year for weekly volunteers (£1,000 for monthly). Both figures are cited in your methodology appendix.
Volunteer numbers & hours
Don't just count the coaches. Most clubs undercount their volunteers by half. Include everyone who gives unpaid time: committee members, social media managers, treasurers and secretaries, kit and equipment managers, facility setup and teardown, canteen and refreshment helpers, fundraising organisers, first aid trained staff, registration and membership admin, travel and fixture coordinators, website managers, timekeepers, scorers, umpires, lifeguards, marshals and officials. If they give time to make the club run — they count.
Qualified workforce
Step 4 of 5

Community reach

This is the section most clubs forget — community hires, programmes beyond your main sport, facility access. A lot of hidden value lives here.

Community programmes
Facilities & wider access
Step 5 of 5

Financials & support needs

Optional but powerful. Income figures allow us to calculate your Social Value to Cost Ratio — showing the pound value generated per pound invested. The ND/MH section adds a dimension no other social value tool provides.

Club financials (optional)
£
£
Neurodiversity & mental health — the hidden picture

Every squad has players who need a bit more understanding. Most clubs have never seen how many.

This section adds withinu's signature layer. Using established prevalence data, it estimates how many players may be neurodivergent or experiencing a mental health difficulty — and what that means for your club's support responsibilities. This appears as a dedicated section in your full report and press release.

Important if using this in a funding application: these are statistical projections based on national averages — not diagnosed beneficiaries. Grant assessors will challenge any club that presents these figures as confirmed fact. To use them credibly in a bid, pair them with evidence of your club's inclusive coaching practices — for example, governing-body-qualified coaches, a welfare officer in post, or relevant neurodiversity or welfare training. The numbers show likelihood; your policies show readiness.
Conservative (10%) 14% High (20%)
The 14% figure reflects published estimates of neurodivergent prevalence in youth populations (ADHD: ~5–7%, autism: ~1–2%, dyslexia: ~10%, with significant overlap). Source: NHS England; British Dyslexia Association.
Quote for your report & press release
Now you've seen the figures, add a short quote from someone at the club. This appears in your chairman's summary report and press release. Keep it genuine — a sentence or two is plenty.
Your Report & Outputs
Here's what you do with it.
What sits inside your club right now
Most of this is invisible. The value below is real — but so is the fragility.
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players may be neurodivergent
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likely to experience a mental health difficulty this season
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likely to need additional understanding and support
£0
of social value at stake if those needs go unmet
Estimates based on published NHS England and British Dyslexia Association prevalence data. This is not a diagnostic tool — it is a planning reality.

Chairman's One-Pager

Here's the value your club creates when that environment is held together properly.

Your Club
Social Value Assessment · Proof of Play · Powered by withinu
£0
estimated annual social value generated for your community
Participant Wellbeing Estimated
£0
From improved life satisfaction across youth and adult players
NHS & Health Savings Estimated
£0
Reduced GP visits, disease prevention and mental health service savings
Volunteer Contribution Estimated
£0
Economic and wellbeing value of volunteer time
Community Impact Estimated
£0
From community programmes, facility access and social cohesion
Calculated using Proof of Play, powered by withinu · withinu.net Sources: Sport England Social Value Model Year 2 (November 2025) · HM Treasury WELLBY · ONS 2024

Full Technical Report

Complete assessment with methodology notes. Suitable for governing body submissions, funding applications and institutional audiences.

Social Value Assessment

Proof of Play · Powered by withinu ·

Press Release

Ready to send to local press, your governing body and any media contacts. Edit the bracketed sections before sending.

Social Post Pack

Four ready-to-post versions for different platforms. Edit to add your own club photos before posting.

Funding Guide

Your social value evidence strengthens every application below. Each section includes a ready-to-use paragraph for your application.

Methodology & Sources

Full transparency on the proxy values and assumptions used in this assessment. Attach this to any institutional submission.

Outcome measured Proxy value applied Primary source Year
Wellbeing value: active child, ages 7–11 £3,100 / child / yr Sport England Social Value Model (Sheffield Hallam University / Manchester Metropolitan University / State of Life)
sportengland.org		 Year 2 (November 2025)
Wellbeing value: active child, ages 11–16 £4,300 / child / yr Sport England Social Value Model (Sheffield Hallam / MMU / State of Life) Year 2 (November 2025)
Wellbeing value: active adult (2+ sessions/week) £2,600 / adult / yr Sport England Social Value Model Year 2 (November 2025)
Wellbeing value: fairly active adult (1 session/week) £1,200 / adult / yr Sport England Social Value Model Year 2 (November 2025)
Wellbeing value: disabled/long-term health condition adult £5,100 / adult / yr Sport England Social Value Model Year 2 (November 2025)
Health & productivity savings per active adult £478 / adult / yr Conservative derivation from Sport England Secondary Value Model (£10.5bn total across active population). Includes GP visit reduction and mental health service savings.
sportengland.org		 Year 2 (November 2025)
Health & productivity savings per active child (internal proxy) £90 / child / yr Conservative derivation, Sport England Secondary Value Model (youth health outcomes component) Year 2 (November 2025)
Volunteer economic value (replacement cost) £13.20 / hour DCMS/London Economics 2024 — replacement cost methodology based on SOC mapping of volunteer roles. This replaces the previous ONS median wage proxy (£17/hr) with a more methodologically appropriate figure.
gov.uk		 2024
Volunteer wellbeing value per volunteer per year £2,100 / vol / yr Sport England Year 2 (November 2025) — median estimate of wellbeing value of regular volunteering, adjusted to 2023 prices. (NCVO reports average 8 hrs/month volunteered.)
measure-up.org		 2023
Community programme value per participant Removed Previously £650/participant/yr — removed as no defensible evidence base could be identified. The £14.2bn community cohesion figure belongs to earlier Sport England research and is not part of the current Year 2 (November 2025) model. Community value is acknowledged qualitatively in reports but excluded from the headline social value figure. N/A — removed
WELLBY monetary unit (1-point life satisfaction change) £15,900 / WELLBY HM Treasury Green Book Supplementary Guidance on Wellbeing (2021), uprated to 2024 prices. LSE / Simetrica-Jacobs methodology. Base value: £13,000 (2019 prices).
gov.uk		 2024
Neurodivergent prevalence estimate 10–20% (user-selected) ADHD: ~5–7% (NHS England); Autism: ~1–2% (NHS England); Dyslexia: ~10% (British Dyslexia Association); with significant co-occurrence. Default of 14% reflects combined conservative estimate with overlap adjustment. 2023
Annual mental health difficulty prevalence (children/youth) 20% / year NHS England Mental Health of Children and Young People in England Survey 2023. ~1 in 5 children and young people (updated from previously cited 1-in-4 figure). 20.3% of 8–16-year-olds, 23.3% of 17–19-year-olds had a probable mental disorder. 2023
Value at Stake — scenario model 12% disengagement assumption This is a scenario model, not an evidence-based projection. It applies a 12% assumed disengagement rate to the additional-need cohort (players estimated to require additional support), multiplied by average wellbeing value per player. The purpose is to illustrate the fragility of social value when hidden need goes unmet — not to claim precision. The 12% figure is a conservative planning assumption; no published study directly measures dropout rates attributable specifically to unmet neurodivergent or mental health need in community sport. This figure should be treated as a prompt for reflection, not a forecast. Model assumption
Important caveat: Proof of Play produces estimates, not audited valuations. All proxy values are drawn from primary published sources and applied conservatively. Figures represent the approximate social value attributable to the activities entered — they are not a claim that this value has been precisely generated or independently verified. For formal social value assessments or academic submissions, we recommend commissioning a full Portas Consulting or Sheffield Hallam SIRC evaluation. This tool is designed to help clubs understand and communicate their social contribution with credibility. Methodology by withinu. Powered by Proof of Play. withinu.net