New DCMS sports strategy: Chair of the Alliance says "More can be done for the sports sector"

The Sport and Recreation Alliance Chair Andy Reed believes more can be done to join up the thinking and policy across the sports sector following the Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s recent announcement on sports participation.

The plans mark a change in the way funding will be offered to national governing bodies and place new emphasis on binding school and club sport in an effort to reduce the drop off in young people playing sport after they leave school.

Andy Reed said that he believes the changes needed to be part of more coherent plan for sport, from childhood right across to elite adult sports provision.

“The reforms address a number of issues which governing bodies have been highlighting for some time.

“First of all, the move away from the three times a week target is sensible and ensures that resources can be concentrated in areas where particular sports can make the biggest contribution. Some will continue using that as a target but others can now focus their resources on the areas or processes at which they are most effective. Funded sports will welcome that flexibility. The Active People survey was a blunt tool to make fine measurements and not many governing bodies will mourn the end of being assessed by it for their 3x30 targets.

“The policy to help open up school facilities for club use is very welcome. This is something the Alliance has been campaigning on for a long time and makes complete sense, both for clubs who gain access to good quality facilities, and for schools, who will find that having clubs on their premises makes financial sense too.

“The new approach will also fill the gap left behind by the decision to end the ring-fencing of money for school sport. It makes complete sense for the Government to invest in ensuring that children have a seamless journey from school sport to club sport and the policy of putting clubs into schools will help in that respect.

“However, there is still the question of what quality of sport young people will experience before the age level when these new initiatives kick in. Giving school children a positive experience of sport and recreation up to this age will have a serious bearing on whether the new policy will be effective.

“There is still much to be done on producing a coherent strategy for sport which stretches right across government. This is a strategy which should have involved, as a minimum, the Department for Education, the Home Office and the Department of Health. We understand the difficulties of doing that, and we welcome the fact that DCMS understands the value of sport for sport’s sake, but sport needs to play an active role through their whole lives if we are to realise its public policy objectives in health, in education, in fighting crime and bringing together communities.

“There are policies which appear to have been left hanging – where do change for life clubs fit into this, for example?

“We also need to continue to be imaginative about what kind of activities schools offer children. Where, for example, do today’s announcements leave recreation and activities like dance? Dance continues to grow in popularity with people of all ages and has a real appeal to girls, some of whom are often put off by competitive sport. We’d like to see dance and other activities playing a bigger role in the curriculum.”