2025-26 ANNUAL REPORT - PARTNERSHIPS (PREVIOUSLY COMMERCIAL)
This report 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.
In 2025-26, the Commercial Department was renamed to Partnerships. The change reflects a broader evolution in how BF works with organisations across education, community sport and leisure sectors to grow fencing and deliver meaningful impact – outside of Sport England and UK Sport funded activity.
The Partnerships Department objectives were aligned with the BF 2030 Strategy, specifically the goals of growing participation, delivering social impact and ensuring long-term sustainability for the sport.
Starting the first half of the year with reduced staffing of two in the department, new team members joined to support areas such as education partnerships, programme development and partner engagement:
In November 2025, Olivia Harper joined as the new Commercial Officer. Olivia’s work will focus on building and developing relationships with local and national community deliverers through BF’s existing partner program.
Jessica Pearce also joined as the new Partnerships Manager in January 2026. Jessica’s role will support BF in growing partnership opportunities and creating a sustainable future.
These roles allow BF to support partners more effectively, from the design of programmes through to training, quality assurance and long-term development.
Objective 1. Diversify Portfolio of Partners
By March 2026, formal agreements were in place with 53 organisations compared to this time last year which reported 61 organisations seeing a slight reduction in school partners due to the uncertainty of funding across the education sector. These existing agreements split into 36 schools delivering ‘We Are Forging Futures’, four activity providers delivering ‘Train the Trainer’, five Official Designated Partners, two Sponsors and six Supporters. All of these agreements are a minimum of two years, supporting programme sustainability and developing long term partnerships.
We Are Forging Futures continued to have positive impact across the education sector, strategically diversifying fencing’s participant base with 97% of schools partnered being state funded by the Department for Education (a change from 95% in 2025), only 3% are private independent schools, evidencing our focus on tackling inequalities and challenging the stigma of fencing being elitist and for the upper class.
From the 36 schools (down from 44 in 2025) successfully delivering the We Are Forging Futures educationally-aligned resilience and self-efficacy programme, nine of these are SEN special schools (a change from 6 in 2024) delivering to children and young people meeting their specific needs to help develop vital life skills.
What’s more, 36% of the schools partnered with us were in the most Deprived Places (a change from 35% in 2025), and 33% in the poor Health and Disability domain (31% in 2025) according to the Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD).
Partnering with schools in these areas enables us to engage as many pupils as possible in physical activity, including those who would otherwise lack access to fencing opportunities, providing clear evidence of British Fencing’s positive impact across diverse communities.
2025-26 saw the successful partnership renewal of Centre Parcs, Scout Adventures and Carnival UK for 2 – 3 years with organisations continuing to be part of the BF Train the Trainer programme, formerly known as the License Partner Programme (LPP). Through these renewals, settings are able to continue training workforces and delivering fencing sustainably to thousands of participants.
The newly formed, NAYC & Action Centres UK partnership continues through the Train the Trainer programme, as does the long standing partnership with Crown Hills Community College, BF’s Official Training Partner.
BF’s official ‘Have a Go’ partnership continued with PGL, the leading provider of introductory fencing experiences in the UK. The partnership began in 2016 and has positively grown each year. Over 3,000 PGL fencing instructors have been trained since 2018 and almost 100,000 people were introduced to fencing in 2025 alone.
As part of this ongoing partnership, we delivered an annual national two-day refresher event for their instructors in November 2025, at PGL Liddington. The event brought together PGL instructors from across the country, allowing them to become licensed coach developers and deliver core coach training. This event also included a session from BFs Inclusion Lead on Neurodiversity to ensure inclusivity when delivering the sport.
Objective 2. Strengthen our Commercial Offerings through Data and Insight
Since the launch of We Are Forging Futures into schools in January 2023, this educational programme has impacted participation on the sport as follows:
- 62 schools partnered
- 32,828 pupils the opportunity to fence at school
- 274 teachers have been Core Coach trained growing workforce
- 9 SEND Schools partnered
- 10,360 pupils eligible for Free School Meals
- 4,386 pupils with SEN Support
Following this growth and development in recent years of the ‘We Are Forging Futures‘ school programme, focus moved to capturing real-life delivery to help promote the positive impact the scheme is having on children and young people.
In January 2026, BF visited Salusbury Primary School (located in northwest London), a partner since October 2024. The partnership aims to broaden access to sport by giving young people the chance to try activities they may not otherwise have access to. Through the programme, pupils at Salusbury Primary have been able to experience fencing for the very first time, developing new skills while discovering a unique and engaging sport.
The content captured at the visit will be used across the programme’s website and social media channels to showcase the benefits of introducing new sporting opportunities within schools, with a case study due to be published in 2026-27.
Objective 3. Sustain
2025-26 saw the ever-changing landscape continue to shift which saw revenue decline from £168k, to £134k. With delays in government confirming PE & School Sport Premium and stretched budgets affecting the number of schools able to sign up to our We Are Forging Futures programmes this was a challenging environment for delivering our fencing programmes into schools and income was down from £57k to £43k. Additionally, Coach Education courses across the club framework declined due to lower bookings enrolled, down from £37k to £24k.
Alongside existing initiatives, the Partnerships team has been working on a new repertoire of programmes designed to expand fencing’s reach even further and to reduce reliance on income from schools. Together, these programmes represent the next stage of partnership-led growth:
1. Leisure Centre Programme
The Leisure Centre Programme development was completed in 2025-26 and launched in early 2026. The programme aims to introduce structured fencing experiences within leisure centres. By working with operators and training instructors, the programme will allow fencing sessions to run alongside other recreational activities.
2. Leadership through Fencing Scheme
After two successful pilot programmes in 2025-26, the Leadership scheme launched early in 2026 with accreditation through the Leadership Skills Foundation.
The scheme combines fencing participation with leadership development, giving young people the opportunity to build confidence, communication skills and responsibility while engaging with the sport.
Participants will gain recognised accreditation while also becoming ambassadors for fencing within their communities.
Connecting Back to Clubs
One of the challenges in expanding fencing experiences through schools and partner organisations is ensuring that interested participants know how to continue their journey. Without clear pathways, many first-time fencers may enjoy the experience but never find their way into regular participation.
In 2025-26 we developed the Club Connect, to strengthen the links between partnership programmes and local clubs.
Club Connect expressions of interest will launch early 2026-27, in collaboration with the new BF Club Development Officer, giving early-adopting clubs an opportunity to help shape the programme to suit clubs’ needs.
Looking Forward to 2026-27
The coming year will see continued development across the Partnerships portfolio. Existing relationships will deepen; new programmes will launch and initiatives like Club Connect will help ensure that the benefits of partnership activity are shared across the fencing community.
Click here for the full 2025-26 Annual Report.
This post is related to the BF 2030 Strategy goals to Grow Participation, Create a Sustainable Future and Deliver Social Impact.