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1 Mar 2007 : Column 360WH—continued
4.30 pm
Ian Stewart (Eccles) (Lab): I forewarn Hansard that I will be using some unusual names, given my special interest in the sports of Tai Chi, Hsing I and BaGua—the spelling of those names will be provided.
We live in a technology and media-oriented world, in which children of five may have little eye-hand co-ordination, and we have seen a great reduction in collective play. Research shows a worrying decline in participation in sport among children after they leave school. For some children, we must look beyond the traditional sports. We must think outside the box, and extend the range of sports opportunities and options offered to young girls and boys, if we are to keep their interest.
As a child who was severely bullied at primary school, I have seen the benefits of boxing. As a 10-year-old, I had boxing training at the Hoover club at Cambuslang in Lanarkshire. Then, as a 12-year-old, I studied amateur wrestling with Mr. Max Shacklady at the Barton Athletic club in the city of Salford in my Eccles constituency. From the age of 13, I studied Okinawan karate and other martial arts with Mr. Tony Nelson. When I was a teenager, Mr. Nelson introduced me to Mr. Alan Pittman, who is the direct line inheritor of the system of Chinese boxing called Hsing I from the late Mr. Hung I Mein of Taiwan. Mr. Pittman’s senior students Mr. Will Bibby, Mr. Colin Fisher and Mr. Paul Carr are my current instructors.
I pay tribute to those volunteer instructors and to volunteer instructors throughout the country, to whom the Minister has referred—we rarely take the opportunity to thank them for their time and commitment. Those are the people who help build our characters, and it is important that we take the opportunity to thank them.
It was that background that led me to establish and chair the all-party parliamentary group for the prevention of bullying and violence at work. I am also the chair of the all-party boxing group, and the Government’s liaison representative for what are politely called defence sports.
I know that the Government have set ambitious targets and that they have a good record of investment in sport in schools. I have a love of most sports including, of course, football. Coming from Eccles in Salford, I am, as you would expect, a lifelong supporter of Manchester United and of Salford Reds rugby league club. Britain’s success at the Manchester Commonwealth games and London’s securing the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics are all welcome.
I pay tribute to Mr. Lawrie McMenemy, MBE. He is an outstanding champion for the Special Olympics, not to be confused with the aforementioned Paralympics. Lawrie never tires of promoting the excellent work of the Special Olympics for young people with special needs, but the organisation is in desperate need of sustainable support. I hope that those who control the funding will help to stabilise the situation for the Special Olympics as a matter of urgency.
I want to talk today about what I sometimes believe to be the Cinderella sports—defence sports, including boxing, wrestling and the martial arts. I know that some argue that boxing should not be termed a sport, and that some parents would not want their children to pursue that option. I have no problem with that, but I believe that training in those sports can help to develop important skills and self-confidence for some boys and girls. I know that many schools now have martial arts classes, but they are done very much on an ad hoc basis. I would like to see a standard module for education for martial arts training, non-style specific, that could be introduced at primary and secondary levels. Taster courses for schools could also be promoted.
The British Ju-Jitsu Association implements a variety of programmes in its member schools. Those include family awareness, safety training, anti-bullying programmes—winning without fighting—and courses to raise children’s self esteem. Thus the sport is introduced and a variety of benefits are gained. The British Schools Judo Association is in the final stages of amalgamating with the British Judo Association, which is the national governing body for judo, and it believes that that is the way forward for judo in schools and that it will enhance and develop the sport.
The British Wrestling Association has collaborated with Network Rail in its no messin’ campaign, which aims to encourage children to participate in sporting pastimes in order to play safe. The programme targets schools in areas where fatalities have resulted from children playing on railway tracks. The BWA defines wrestling in schools and clubs as a sport of individual participation, functioning within the framework of the team concept. That is a good description, and it applies to a number of defence sports. I believe that those sports teach respect for oneself and for others, and that they help to develop important body skills such as flexibility, strength and leverage, balance, co-ordination and quick reaction time. Often in such sports, teachers and coaches find that because no one is top dog, so to speak, there is no bullying. Again, that is a positive spin off from a physical activity.
Successfully promoting such sports in schools and sixth form colleges will need good links between schools themselves, and between schools and further and higher education institutions, local authorities, the governing bodies of the sports, the Sports Council and the Government, all of which have a role to play. High-quality coaching, which the Sports Council has been actively promoting, is essential.
Finally, I want to talk about what may be considered the most contentious sport—boxing. Amateur boxing is a popular Olympic sport at which Britain has done well in recent years. It should not be compared with professional boxing, which some have described as a business. It is not pertinent to my contribution to the debate, which is about younger children.
Amateur boxing is highly regulated, and the safety and well-being of the participants comes first. Good sportsmanship, discipline and fair play are integral to the sport. It has minimal equipment and space requirements, so is good for schools. Boxing in schools can be taught and practised as a purely
recreational activity—a non-contact activity—in which schoolchildren can learn to move, punch and master self-defence techniques without physical contact. It is sometimes called “boxexercise”. However, it can be extended to include technique and conditioned sparring, and then, of course, competitive boxing should the student wish. I welcome the Schools Amateur Boxing Association’s efforts to promote boxing among schoolchildren and its provision of coaches and sports leader education for teachers and sixth formers.
Hugh Robertson: I do not suppose that I am the only person to have been inundated with letters from an organisation called Save Independent Judo. Its argument appears to be common across the martial arts spectrum, in that it represents a number of individuals who deliver training individually, whereas the British Judo Association is probably saying, quite rightly, that common standards are needed and that everyone must buy in to that. Has the hon. Gentleman’s all-party group come across that, and what advice would he give us?
Ian Stewart: My all-party group is for boxing, but I would advise the hon. Gentleman not to interfere in internal sports politics. [Laughter.]
A recent newspaper article in the Evening Standard reported on the work of the London Boxing Academy in Tottenham, which received a significant donation from the fund set up in memory of Tom ap Rhys Price, who was so tragically murdered near his home in London. The academy helps children excluded from school to get an academic education together with boxing and physical education at the boxing gym. The London Boxing Academy could be a model of good practice and be promoted throughout the UK. Like many other sports, boxing teaches self-control and channels aggression. Boxing and defence sports in the wider sense are not simply for those who may be labelled delinquent or antisocial, because they can also help the timid gain self-confidence.
There are circumstances in which the application of behavioural tools, such as ASBOs, would be enhanced by the inclusion of a sport requirement where appropriate. I wish to inform the Minister that I have already spoken to the Minister for Policing, Security and Community Safety, who is interested in looking at that concept further. In conclusion, is the Minister prepared to meet me and the Minister for Policing, Security and Community Safety to examine that idea more closely?
4.40 pm
Mr. Andy Reed (Loughborough) (Lab/Co-op): It is a pleasure to follow hon. Members who have already spoken. I see that there are familiar faces here today and I know that those who have contributed are passionate about sport—particularly sport for young people.
As the Minister knows, I usually start debates on this subject, which seem to be held fairly regularly at the moment, by recounting how well I did at rugby at the weekend. Unfortunately, our result was not dissimilar to that of the England team as we had a 45-nil loss in
our league game against the league leaders. I should have guessed what the England result would be.
The debate has been partly about providing a slap on the back and saying well done for what we have achieved and partly about listing the areas for improvement. My speech will cover both of those aspects.
As the Minister knows, I spent some time in his Department with the former sports Minister, the hon. Member for Vauxhall (Kate Hoey), back in 1999 and 2000. The landscape then was pretty dire—particularly the situation with school sport and participation rates among young people—and playing fields continued to be sold despite our best attempts to reduce that trend. Considering the average age of hon. Members here, we all probably have some glorious memories of school sport. I went to high school at Stonehill during the teachers’ strike, which probably marked the end of the golden era of sport in school as we knew it for a whole generation. From that point in the early 1980s through to the years 2000-01 when real attempts were made to reverse that trend there was a massive void in terms of sport in schools. We must recognise the role of the Youth Sport Trust in addressing that issue. The hon. Member for Faversham and Mid-Kent (Hugh Robertson) mentioned that in his contribution and said that, only last night, he had met the heads of specialist sports colleges. As is to be expected, the Youth Sport Trust is based in Loughborough—the home of British sport. [Interruption.] I always like to wind up my colleagues and I am sure that they have their own views on that.
The role of the Youth Sport Trust has clearly been central in addressing issues relating to sport in schools and it has been the driving force behind delivering school sport as we know it. I was pleased to hear the feedback that the hon. Gentleman has had because, in my experience, there is a widespread view that the trust has played a vital role in delivering improvements in school sport. What the trust has achieved is no small feat in trying to turn around sport. I only have figures from the past two years, but the trust has hit the target of 75 per cent. of children having two hours of quality PE by next year early and in a short period of time. When we consider Government targets—for example, the participation rate targets among adults mentioned earlier—there are not many organisations or parts of the Government that have managed to turn around such a situation in such a short time. Our congratulations to all those involved should be put on the record. We should congratulate those involved from the top right down to the bottom, including partnership development managers and school sports co-ordinators in every partnership that has made such progress possible.
It is worth knocking the myth of competition on the head and I am glad that other hon. Members have raised that. When I was a child, Wednesday afternoons were for inter-school competitions, on Saturday mornings I played ruby and on Saturday afternoons I played football. Figures show that levels of participation are good and if there is a school sports day, participation can be up to 97 per cent. However, I hope that hon. Members are not satisfied simply with a school sports day once a year. I enjoy seeing my son at his school sports day as it demonstrates the activities
that the children have taken part in throughout the year, but it is not the same as my school sports day was. In addition, I do not like the levels of competition that exist on a school sports day. Other figures are improving and if one third of schools are now taking part in inter-school competitions, that is to be welcomed.
There are now additional pressures in schools. I remember playing my first football game for my primary school at an early age. It took up a whole afternoon. Even playing in a local league in north Leicestershire would mean losing a whole day of school and I can imagine that many heads and teachers find that difficult to achieve within a crowded curriculum. My son participates in football on a Saturday or Sunday morning and the school tennis league is on a Saturday afternoon, which alleviates the pressure on school hours. It can be difficult to balance participation rates with school hours and I hope that we can try to find ways for more competitions to take place in an extended school period. There could be a fixed point of the week for that to take place—for example, the traditional Wednesday afternoon. If people know that on a Wednesday school does not finish until six and that lots of participation activities are taking place throughout the school, that would help them manage their time, which I appreciate can be difficult to do.
Hon. Members have mentioned that one of the difficulties is the inequality that exists among improved participation rates. Out of all the challenges that we face the drop-off rates at 16 or 17 years of age is the biggest.
The hon. Gentleman was right to say that, largely, we have got elite sports right. UK Sport and the British Olympic Association have said, “You have given us the money and it is now down to us to deliver.” We must keep a careful eye on what they are doing and ensure that they deliver between now and 2012. We have given them the tools with which to do so and they are doing an excellent job in trying to turn the situation around.
In terms of what the Youth Sport Trust is doing in schools to drive up participation rates, we are there. How we will achieve four hours of sport a week is a slightly different matter, but I am confident, considering what has been delivered in terms of two hours of sport, that if the trust is given the resources, it can deliver four hours. However, the drop off rate particularly for girls in the 13 to 17 years of age group is still a problem—particularly the drop off rate at 16 or 17 when children leave school, which links to access to a club. Some hon. Members have suggested ways of overcoming that problem—for example, leaving it to clubs to deal with or perhaps trying to strengthen links between children and clubs. The problem is that the level of capacity is simply not there in clubs that rely on volunteers. By way of anecdotal evidence, in my club we have been desperate to have a junior section, a colt side and an under-16 side for years, but the people involved in the club are also the players and the management committee. I am the club president. I would love to be available to do coaching mid-week at the school where we play and where rugby has now taken off, but we do not have the individual capacity because everybody works from nine-to-five, five days a
week. We need one point of contact through which we can get into the school or to encourage children to come to mini-rugby on a Sunday morning , like many rugby clubs do, otherwise we cannot bridge that gap.
The reality is that participation rates in sport are good at school and there are clubs locally that provide mini-sections, but the physical ability to utilise the capacity coming through is not there. In the Rugby Football Union magazine this week, RFU figures rightly demonstrate that since 2003—the Rugby World cup—a plan has been in place to drive up levels of participation, particularly at youth level through to colts level. However, it seems that there has been a small drop-off in the number of adult players. Again, my anecdotal evidence indicates that the number of teams that each club is putting out has reduced over the past few years. There is a worry that by 2010 youngsters will have four hours of quality sport in school, but they will not have the quality time waiting for them in the community.
An additional problem, which should be considered a solution rather than a problem, is that if we are driving up 50 per cent. sport participation rates in higher education, people are investing a lot of time in developing young people through clubs, club structure and schools. However, 50 per cent. are then leaving largely because people move away to higher education establishments and then move away from the town or the area where they have participated in sport. Unless that first experience at university is good, people can easily be turned off sport. They are then not only lost to the area, but they are lost to local sports groups in the places and universities where they were participating.
Loughborough has a fantastic record on sporting facilities and the numbers of international athletes—a couple of hundred—who come from the university. However, that is also part of the problem. Sometimes players who have played at county level, for their schools or in their local areas, in a particular sport think that they will get into the first team at Loughborough, only to realise that they will struggle to get into the first team for their hall of residence. That disappointment can have a knock-on effect. I have spoken to many people who have played sport—in particular, rugby, in my experience—to a reasonable level, have struggled to get into a decent side early on and have then dropped out into a student lifestyle. With the exception, obviously, of Sheffield and Bath, even the use of some of the best facilities is not enough to hold on to potential athletes.
We have to keep a close eye on the school-club link and ensure that it works. The PESSCL—PE, school sport and club links—work is fantastic, but it needs the same level of resources and enthusiasm that we put into the school sports co-ordinating work and the partnerships. My hon. Friend the Member for Sittingbourne and Sheppey (Derek Wyatt) touched on this in a way. We need those little groupings of clubs in each of the disciplines—16 to 20 in each school partnership—in which perhaps someone takes the lead on behalf of the others, so the small partnerships and
the concentric circles all work together to deliver what is needed. There is probably a way through by that means.
I am impressed by what we are doing on elite performers and the talent ID programme. Obviously, I am disappointed that I am not 6 ft 3 and aged 16 to 24, so could not rush off to Trafalgar square to join the Minister the other day on talent ID. I asked representatives of UK Sport the previous day when we had a meeting whether it had a post-40s talent ID for those who had failed at everything—those who had tried everything at least once, but who thought that there might still be one thing left. The people from UK Sport pointed out that at Olympic standard often archery and shooting were the only sports left for hon. Gentlemen who had reached their 40s. However, I hope that there is a chance for us all.
Let me return to the issue of inequalities, which my hon. Friend the Member for Worsley (Barbara Keeley) talked about. We talked about hairdryers as an example, but it is symptomatic of and fundamental to the problems that all the research has shown exist. As the Minister knows, the Youth Sport Trust and Nike research of three or four years ago highlighted all those problems. I have raised the issue here before. People pooh-poohed the point about self-esteem and the idea that getting sweaty and not being able to shower in the right conditions is enough to put people off sport, but that is where we are at. As my hon. Friend said, people can go into a private members’ club where there is a sauna and other facilities available, including good shower facilities. Contrast that with the worst aspects of some local authority stock and clearly we see the enormous gap in provision. We must find other ways to achieve the necessary levels of participation and not just rely on traditional methods and the idea that three or four sports at each school will do. That is why I am pleased if it is 16 to 22 different sports that are offered, with dance playing a crucial part. That is the way we will encourage people to lead an active lifestyle.
There is a clear link with the issue of young people walking to school. I still preach that and practise it personally. In fact, I have doubled it up: I now walk to school on a Monday and Friday with my son. The journey is about a mile and a half long. My children walk every day, but now I run back from the school the long way round the village to get a 30-minute run in as well, and more often than not I am back home faster than the people who live round the corner from me and drive their 4x4s to the school. Vehicles clog up the school gates and then people worry that it is all too dangerous. It is too dangerous only because they all try to park too near the school and make it dangerous for others.
We did have a walking school bus, which made an enormous difference in terms of changing people’s attitudes. It is not in operation at the moment, because many parents saw the benefit of it and now walk their own children to school, so we have done a great deal. Despite the great effort that has been expended on trying to change the culture, the efforts have still not reached as far as I would like, knowing that there are people who could walk but who currently do not. I will not name names, but I will be tempted to do so at some stage, if we do not start to make some progress.
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