The objective of Sports Physiotherapy for All is to promote and facilitate access to post-graduate education and to provide common structures for the assessment and recognition of formal and non-formal learning.
Sports Physiotherapists work with people of all ages and abilities to prevent injury, restore optimal function and enhance sports performance. They work in a variety of different settings from recreational sports and the leisure industry to national, international and Olympic level sport.
Sports Physiotherapists need to keep up to date with new innovations and knowledge from research to ensure best practice. However a survey undertaken by the International Federation of Sports Physiotherapy (IFSP) founders in 1999 identified inequality in the provision and access to Continuous Professional Development across Europe. IFSP represents the interests of 13,000 Sports Physiotherapists from 20 countries, of which 15 are European.
As a recognised Subgroup of the World Confederation for Physical Therapy, IFSP were keen to establish International Competencies and Standards for Sports Physiotherapists that would facilitate education programmes and procedures for the accreditation of Sports Physiotherapy qualifications.
Access to accredited programmes which meet the competencies required of the profession and which can facilitate a common platform of learning will enable convergence and migration of Sports Physiotherapists across Europe and beyond.
IFSP and its University partners were successful in achieving funding from the Leonardo Da Vinci Community Vocational Training action Programme (Second Phase 2000-2006) to take this work forward.
