2025-26 ANNUAL REPORT - PROJECTS & PROGRAMMES
This article forms part of a series of reports which accompany the 2025-26 BF Annual Report.
Please note that all financial figures in this report are subject to final audited accounts.
BF’s Projects & Programmes work, primarily funded by Sport England, delivers to identified under-represented groups in a series of agreed projects.
In this report:
- 2025-26 Highlights
- Strategic Background
- Fencing 4 Change: Autism Spectrum Disorder Project, in partnership with The Change Foundation
- Muslim Girls Fence
- Increasing Access and Opportunities to People with Disabilities
2025-26 Highlights
- Fencing4Change, BF’s Autistic Spectrum Disorder project in partnership with The Change Foundation, continued with the addition of pilot locations in Birmingham and some international discussion opportunities.
- The Muslim Girls Fence community projects are now firmly established in seven areas, supporting local communities and fostering the growth of a local workforce.
- Interest in further supporting people with disabilities to access fencing gathers momentum in the community. We have had a good early uptake of the SwordSeat and are continuing to see an increase in clubs declaring accessibility and becoming welcoming of our wheelchair fencing community.
Strategic Background
With the new BF 2030 Strategy, “En Garde for the Future”, launched in July 2025, the Projects and Programmes Team aligned its objectives with the strategic goals, with a focus on Goal 1: Grow Participation, Goal 4: Support Women and Girls and Goal 5: Deliver Positive Social Impact.
BF’s Projects and Programmes work is primarily funded by Sport England as part of their “Uniting the Movement” strategy, a ten-year vision to transform lives and communities through sport and physical activity. Uniting the Movement prioritises tackling deep-rooted inequalities, getting the least active people moving, and embedding environmental sustainability.
Working with identified under-represented groups, BF uses fencing as the tool to achieve wider societal outcomes. These outcomes maximise the wider benefits of fencing and the positive impact it can have on people’s lives.
Fencing 4 Change: Autism Project in Partnership with The Change Foundation
Fencing 4 Change: Autism Project, is a programme delivered in partnership with The Change Foundation that uses fencing to improve physical literacy and reduce the risk of social isolation for young people aged 11–16 with Autism Spectrum Disorder, (ASD). Over 85% of the young people involved in the original 24-week project showed an increase in one or more of: their friendship networks, using and understanding empathy, motor skills and ability to deal with change.
During year three of delivery, the programme engaged eight schools in London and nearly 100 young people.
In May 2025, the second Fencing 4 Change inter-schools competition took place at the Leon Paul Centre. Participants, some returning for a second year and some new to the sport, competed against other schools.
The Neurodiversity CPD course was delivered side by side with The Change Foundation to:
- BF Learning Week 2025
- BF Fencing Development Team
- PGL delivery partner, as part of our partnership
A Fencing 4 Change Pilot project was also delivered to three schools in Birmingham.
Looking ahead, to 2026-27:
- Conversations with The Change Foundation are underway, understanding that the current funding climate is a challenge.
- The Change Foundation will be attending an international round-table discussion in Rome with British Fencing President Pat Aiyenuro and Inclusion Manager Rick Rodgers, where they share their hands-on experience delivering to participants with autism and take part in further discussions about how the fencing international community can support neurodivergent individuals.
Muslim Girls Fence (MGF)
During 2025-26, Muslim Girls Fence continued to grow and develop existing projects. The programme is now in seven areas. These are:
Birmingham, Bradford, Doncaster, London, Manchester, Peterborough and Bolton.
All of the above programmes continue to develop and make a long-lasting impact within their communities.
During 2025-26, 18 women from Birmingham completed their Core Coach training, with the aim of being able to better support new women joining the sessions. The partnership and team at Ladywood Leisure Centre continue to support the growth and long-term sustainability of the group, a model that we hope can be adopted in other areas of the UK. Nalette, MGF Bradford, is now a member of the fencing development team and co-tutored the above course.
Looking ahead, to 2026-27:
Increasing Access and Opportunities to Disabled People
Building on the recommendations from the Level Access Survey, work has continued to:
- Prioritise the inclusion of disabled people in fencing clubs.
- Roll out workforce continuous professional development CPD) training.
- Promote new equipment use, through the SwordSeat, to increase the number of clubs that can deliver seated fencing activities.
Work continues on the Wheelchair fencing CPD to digitise some of the provision, which will reduce in-class time and thus reduce the costs of participation. We intend to relaunch that training early in the 2026-27 season.
Throughout the year, the team has attended six come-try events. This includes one at NAIDEX, a disability roadshow. We also continued our attendance at WheelPower events and added LimbPower to our list of National Disability Sport Organisations whose events we have supported.
By the beginning of 2026, the number of clubs using Sport:80 to share accessibility information on their clubs, including information on whether they offer level access, disability-specific sessions, available toilet facilities and para-fencing equipment, has topped 170. We continue to encourage clubs to review their information on Sport:80 and update accordingly.
After overcoming the logistics challenges of arranging postage of the ready-made SwordSeat™, we opened sales for ready-made sets and printed patterns in July. 2025, we then released a downloadable design file a couple of months later, in September 2025.
Since release, we have sold 13 ready-made and nine printed patterns. The ready-made SwordSeats are laser-cut by a supplier and sold at cost. Printed patterns come as three A0 sheets of paper with the SwordSeat™ cutting pattern printed out so people can use it as a guide when cutting their own. These are also sold at cost. The design file is a virtual booklet describing the measurements and shapes a person needs to cut the SwordSeat™ entirely unaided and is downloadable for free from our website.
BF launched the International SwordSeat™ Family programme in 2025-26, supporting other NGBs with access to printing files and training resources so they can support their own communities’ inclusive development. In November and early December 2025, the first two members of our International SwordSeat™ Family, France and the USA, joined up. We are also aware of the SwordSeat™, through the design file download, being in use in Canada.
To support clubs in using the SwordSeat™, an online CPD has been developed and is available for free for all coaches and clubs to access. Our ambition is to have a SwordSeat™ in 50% of clubs by the end of 2030. Purchase of the SwordSeat™ is an automated process through the website.
Swords After Surgery
During this year, we will be developing a working group to design a new programme called Swords After Surgery, a sword-based exercise class for people recovering from breast cancer treatment.
This post is related to the BF 2030 Strategy goals to Grow Participation, Support Women and Girls and Deliver Positive Social Impact.