Memorandum submitted by UK Sport
UK Sport is pleased to submit a written contribution
to this Inquiry. The organisation was founded by Royal Charter
in 1996. The Charter requires our objective to be "fostering,
supporting and encouraging the development of sport and physical
recreation and the achievement of excellence therein" in
the United Kingdom.
It is on this basis that we are making a submission
to the Inquiry. As you are aware the principle focus of our activity
is at the "elite" level, working in partnership with
other sporting organisations to lead sport in the UK to world
class success. As such, our strategic and financial involvement
in promoting community sport is limited; however there are important
elements of our work which impact upon it.
Sporting Role Models
UK Sport's work is primarily directed at improving
standards of performance in the Olympic and Paralympic family
of sports. We currently invest around £20 million of National
Lottery money per annum in developing world class athletes to
compete successfully at the highest level and win medals. In doing
so, we support the creation of sporting role models to inspire
and motivate both young and old to take up sport, either to attempt
to emulate their heroes or just to improve their overall health
and fitness.
Whilst mindful of achieving a balance in the
demands that we place upon our top athletes, we also ensure that
they "give back" to society by becoming involved in
programmes designed to engage local communities in sport and recreation
at a national and regional level.
An excellent example is our hosting of the staff
delivering the "Changing Lives" programme—a joint
initiative between the Youth Sport Trust, DfES Behavioural Unit,
BSkyB and UK Sport. The programme takes recently retired athletes
into schools to help re-engage young people back into school life.
The athlete mentors aim to motivate, inspire
and challenge the young people by talking about their own lives
and experiences, focusing on the six "attributes of successful
sporting attitude" defined by the British Athletes Commission:
mental toughness, hunger to achieve, people skills, sports knowledge,
breaking barriers and planning for success.
The programme commenced in February 2005 with
Bryan Steel (double Olympic medallist from Track Cycling) visiting
a group of targeted young people in Hull Trinity House School,
and the aim is to visit the 250 schools across England that are
part of the BSkyB Living for Sport initiative. UK Sport hosts
the programme manager, provides office space and equipment, and
also drives the recruitment of the athletes through our Performance
Lifestyle programme for World Class funded athletes.
Drug-Free Sport
In addition to our promotion of world class
sporting success UK Sport is committed to promoting ethically
fair and drug-free sport, with the aim of producing sportsmen
and women that compete and win fairly at all levels. As the country's
national anti-doping agency, UK Sport currently coordinates over
6,000 tests carried out over more than 40 sports every year. We
also take the lead in promoting Drug-Free Sport and provide education
to new and existing generations of sportspeople through our ongoing
"Start Clean" and "Stay Clean" initiatives.
Leading athletes play a prominent role in UK
Sport's promotion of Drug-Free Sport. In May this year we are
launching a major new education and outreach campaign which will
use high-profile sporting role models to promote the importance
of competing drug-free. The initiative will provide education
resources to schools and individuals to ensure that everyone involved
in sport is well informed about the decisions that they make.
At the same time, to ensure that our policies
continue to remain relevant and that we understand the attitudes
of future generations to this important area of work, we will
continue to work with specialist sports colleges to determine
prevailing views.
Sporting Conduct
Another key area for the Inquiry is our promotion
of standards and behaviour in sport at all levels. Knowing the
power of our leading sportsmen and women to influence future generations,
we have undertaken extensive research in this area. As part of
our ongoing Sporting Conduct Initiative we have carried out a
series of spectator surveys on fair play issues at high profile
events in football, rugby union, cricket, golf, rugby league and
tennis.
This work also involves in-depth discussion
with players, coaches and officials about the values and norms
of behaviour in their sports. Following this activity, we are
also engaging actively with the relevant governing bodies, players
associations and other interested groups to help devise practical
and achievable strategies for tackling fair play issues and to
showcase the steps they are taking to improve behaviour within
the wider sporting community.
Equality and Diversity
As part of our promotion of sporting standards,
UK Sport is also firmly committed to equality and diversity. We
recognise that discrimination is unacceptable and will not tolerate
it in sport at any level. To underline our commitment, we have
developed an Equality Strategy and Race Equality Scheme, which
establishes principles and policies within UK Sport and our work
with partner organisations.
We have also developed "The Equality Standard:
A Framework for Sport", in partnership with home country
sports councils, the Central Council for Physical Recreation and
equality organisations. This framework seeks to guide sports and
community organisations towards achieving equality and assist
them in developing structures and processes, assessing performance
and ensuring continuous improvement in equality. We are particular
active in promoting gender equality in sport, coordinating the
development, with the Women's Sport Foundation, of the UK's first
Strategy Framework for Women in Sport and measuring performance
against targets for involvement and inclusion on an annual basis.
It is on the basis of this activity that UK
Sport actively engages with community sport and its promotion
in the UK. Ultimately our ability to influence future participation
is through our promotion of success at the elite level; we recognise
however the many linkages between elite sport and the wider community
and believe there is much we can do to ensure that the impact
of sport on society at large is positive and provides opportunity
for all.
31 March 2005
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