January is always a good time to talk about sport and physical activity. We al know that millions of people make those new year resolutions to change their lives - from taking up learning the piano to the most popular of course to lose weight and 'get fit'.

Yet we all know (and the gym membership model seems to work on it) that those January good intentions very rarely last the a few months never mind a whole year!

However, is it good enough for us all in the sector to shrug our shoulders and just admit defeat? Surely we have enough collective wisdom now to know what works for keeping people engaged for a lot longer. I was struck by the (good publicity btw) campiagn launched by Fitness First to keep members which seemed to basically trash all they had done before by admitting they had let Gyms become lazy and soulless places. Looking at some of their ideas to retain members seemed self evident but clearly are surprisingly seen as innovative.

We all know that we are all struggling to grow participation to the levels we would like. So what are the challenges in 2014 and what are we going to be looking at here at the Sports Think Tank.

First we realise that 2014 is not going to be all about 'Sport'. Increasingly in the public arena and around public health and wellbing sport is no longer acceptable as a short cut for physical activity, movement, activity, and recreation. If we are to reach the various communities excluded from sport at the moment doing more of the same is not the answer.

So we (and that includes the 'Sports' Think Tank are going to have to get used to be interested in much more than just sport in the public arena to maintain interest. We need to understand the new landscape around health and wellbeing an public health. After all apart from Gold medals and glory this seems to be the main motivator amongst politicians for funding sport.

Next we need to be thinking about where sport sits in the various manifestos as we head towards a 2015 general election. We will be playing our full role in developing ideas that we hope the parties take up and use. If you have ideas and concepts and want these included in our thinking and writing let us know. If you want to help us create the environment with policy makers to explore these ideas please contact us to talk about thepackages we have available from breakfast roundtables to full reports.

As we have highlighted before we want to drive a consensus around the need and delivery of school PE and Sport. It has been a little bit of a political football (as the Education Select Committee highlighted) since the cut of the SSPs in 2010. We aim to see a recognised pathway and funding stream accepted generally by all the political parties.

Our next big public policy challenge is around the austerity measures hitting local government and particularly in the period 2016 onwards when the LGA are expecting 'there will be no money to spend on leisure'. As local government at around £1bn is still the largest spend on sport and leisure what does this mean? There are many ideas being used to change the model and to be more efficient but when there is no money is tinkering enough? What should the priorities be?

As we have a new Chair at Sport England and increasing challenges to deliver a participation legacy there will be changes in 2014. What will these mean for NGBs and which private providers will be allowed into the 'market' of sports participation to dleiver SE and DCMS a Return on their Investment as they see it?

On top of these major issues we have broadcasting, anti-doping, UKsport No compromise, betting integrity, disability sport, gender and BME participation. We still have major disparities by social class and in areas of deprivation.

I am sure you have your pet area of concern. If you do and have produced a blog or paper - why not share it here on the Sports Think Tank? We will start to really push the debate here, on twitter, facebook and Linkedin this year as our intern starts work. But we want this to be an open debate so please work with us as the key policy makers in government are interested in what we have to say.