Memorandum submitted by SkillsActive
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
ABOUT SKILLSACTIVE
1.1 SkillsActive is an employer led organisation
recognised and licensed by Government as the Sector Skills Council
for Active Leisure and Learning. We have been charged with leading
the skills and productivity drive within the Sport and Recreation,
Health and Fitness, Playwork, The Outdoors and the Caravan Industries.
1.2 We are working with and for the sector
to:
— Advise government and influence decision
makers.
— Promote the image of the sector to
the public.
— Ensure the quality of training and
qualifications.
— Help people find the jobs and training
they need.
— Help the industry attract and retain
the right staff.
— Attract funding to meet employers
training needs.
1.3 SkillsActive is a registered charity
and a membership organisation for employers and voluntary organisations
in our sector. We receive funding for our core functions from
the Sector Skills Development Agency, as a result of being licensed
by government.
1.4 We work in close partnership with the
Department for Education and Skills, the Department for Culture,
Media and Sport, the Devolved Administrations and the Home Country
Sport Councils to deliver our programme of activities. SkillsActive's
work is directed by a Board of Trustees, which meets every two
months.
1.5 SkillsActive works with employers to
set national occupational standards for training and qualifications
in the sport and recreation, health and fitness, playwork, the
outdoors and the caravan industries.
SkillsActive feel that it is paramount to use
the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games to address major
issues on the government's agenda, especially in terms of a lasting
legacy for sport and recreation. Hosting the 2012 Games provides
a major opportunity to raise the profile of sport and recreation
throughout the UK and should leave London and the UK with a strengthened
sporting infrastructure (particularly in the voluntary sector
and community sector) and with a noticeably more active population.
This is not purely about Olympic sports, but will impact on all
sports across the board. Sport pervades all communities, and we
must capitalise on the Games to provide greater access to sport
and physical activity and use the opportunity to engage young
people and those communities that are excluded. This emphasis
addresses current thinking in the health agenda as we look to
use exercise to move to a more preventative as opposed to cure-based
medical system.
There are major implications for people working
in the active leisure and learning sector that must be taken into
consideration if we are to be successful in achieving the aims
of the government and the Olympic movement. We feel that legacy
has begun and plans to maximise on the opportunities laid before
us need immediate attention. A clear voice and co-ordinated leadership
for how we are to benefit from the Games for decades to come is
paramount for our industry and that of UK plc as a whole.
1. The costs of staging the Games and the
methods by which the Games are being funded, including the mechanism
for supplementing the existing package as set out in the Memorandum
of Understanding between the Government and the Mayor of London
SkillsActive's primary concern with regard to
the funding of the Games relates to the ongoing support for the
development of sport and recreation down to grass roots level.
We feel that lottery funding must be used to allow all sports
to experience growth and reach out to a relatively inactive nation.
If sports are faced with reduced budgets, then
a reassessment of their priorities will inevitably occur. SkillsActive
has been working to engage National Governing Bodies in the importance
of investing in their people, and each of the 31 priority sports
is in the process of producing a workforce development plan in
conjunction with the Sector Skills Council. There are clearly
budgetary implications within these plans and we must ensure that
any losses in funding terms do not threaten the commitment to
workforce development.
2. Ways of maximising the value of the Olympic
legacy both within London and across the UK
SkillsActive believes that the 2012 Games give
our industry the opportunity it needs establish itself as truly
professional. Put simply, if the country does not have the people
in place to deliver the Olympic objectives, legacy will not be
achieved. This is not a simple case of ensuring supply answers
demand in terms of vacancies—we must strive to create a
competent and qualified industry where the public can engage in
sport and active recreation, safe in the knowledge that they are
in good hands, whether this be at a sports club, a gym, a play
scheme or on an adventure holiday. Investment in skills, through
a process of workforce development planning is, therefore is a
pre-requisite for development of a successful legacy.
In order for this to happen, plans for legacy
must be clear. SkillsActive welcome the elements of the DFES 2012
Olympic and Paralympic Delivery Plan that refers to skills employment
and training (through sub-objectives 3.1.1; 3.1.4; 3.2.4) along
with the London Employment and Skills Taskforce (LEST) recommendations.
The LEST plan recognises the need to invest in the industry's
workforce in London through the development of the London Leisure
Academy, which will act as a centre of excellence, sharing best
practice with the London's leisure training providers in for example
coaching or stewarding. The centre will form a key part of the
London regional hub of the National Skills Academy for which SkillsActive
is bidding to develop and is being primed as a focus for sports
industry skills development in London. The association of legacy
and the 2012 Games with the Academy would further ensure its success.
SkillsActive's Sector Skills Agreement (SSA)
has shown that there is a need to address the skills and development
of both paid and unpaid coaches, as worryingly, less than four
in 10 hold a coaching qualification. There are 1.2 million coaches
in the UK, 81% (or 970,000) of which are volunteers with only
60,000 in full-time paid employment. We have already seen the
creation of legacy in relation to coaching as industry consensus
as to the crucial function that coaching has to play, not least
in relation to legacy, has pushed this issue to a high political
level. Through government involvement from both the Skills and
Sports ministers, negotiations are now being finalised as to how
coaching will become a priority for public funding through the
Learning and Skills Council. Additionally, in light of the limelight
being placed on sport through 2012, the LSC is supporting the
role-out of the Advanced Apprenticeship to support the vocational
and educational needs of aspiring competitors and the LSC London
region has allocated £3 million in 2006-07 to Olympic related
activities, increasing to £5 million in 2007-08.
We must use the opportunities brought about
by the games to further address issues of up-skilling; not least,
the development of the five million plus volunteers in our industry.
Most sports and sports clubs rely on volunteers for their operation
with only a few paid employees. As a nation we need to adopt a
mindset that the sport workforce includes all those who are both
paid and unpaid. Volunteers offer added value to sport but the
key focus for the future is not necessarily their quantity (which
is already established) but their quality. We must capitalise
on 2012 to mobilise the voluntary workforce and give them the
recognition they deserve through a qualifications system that
considers their flexible needs and recognises the areas where
training can genuinely add value. This wonderful resource is in
place—the support structure around it must now evolve.
Leaving behind a lasting Legacy for the development
of volunteers could feasibly be one of the key achievements that
London 2012 will be remembered for.
Although the training and skills issues mentioned
above will be essential in delivering legacy and increasing participation
rates (and therefore improvements to the health of the nation)
post-2012, they are requirements that must be addressed now. We
need a skilled workforce to contribute to the success of various
events and activities before the Games including the Olympic training
camps, the National Schools Olympics, the World Gymnastic championships,
the extended schools programme and a range of community activities,
and not least, the trial events in 2011.
Although progress is being made in terms of
Olympic legacy, along with the development of the workforce within
this, SkillsActive believes that a more coherent plan for delivering
what must be the key Olympic objective in terms of legacy—to
"maximise increase in UK participation at community and grass-roots
level in all sport and across all groups" (Objective 4.4)
is required. Once plans are laid out for how this is to be achieved,
presumably co-ordinated by Sport England on behalf of DCMS, it
will be easier to identify how we must look to address the skills
needs of those required to deliver.
3. Deriving lasting benefit for the nations
and regions of the UK from the staging of the Games, in particular
through encouraging participation in sport and tourism
The opportunity to improve tourism in Britain
through 2012 is one that must not be missed. Not only will London
and the UK feel the eyes of the world for the four weeks of competition,
but it will change the way we are perceived as a visitor destination.
SkillsActive welcomes the recently published consultation Welcome
Legacy: Tourism Strategy for the 2012 Games from DCMS and believes
that such planning will allow for focus and therefore vast improvements
in certain areas—particularly customer service.
The Tourism Strategy for the 2012 Games is,
however, one that needs to be replicated for sport. This is not
to be a strategy that focuses simply on the four weeks of competition,
but a much wider-reaching, UK wide plan that promotes flexible
delivery, addressing, as stated above, how we can engage a greater
number of people in active and healthy lifestyles. We must not
presume that hosting the games will naturally inspire inactive
individuals to change their ways; on the contrary, the viewing
of such super-human feats as seen in the Olympics may deter your
average citizen from engaging in activity. More rigorous planning
is needed.
Such a strategy must consider how, on a regional
and even sub-regional level, activity can best be promoted. What
are the key factors in reaching inactive groups? What activities
can be provided that will appeal to them? How can we keep those
engaged in sport interested as they reach the infamous post-school
drop off age? Secondly, we must have sufficient facilities to
meet this demand. Are all individual's within easy reach of leisure
facilities through public transport? Are we making the most of
the local landscape to provide sport and recreation opportunities?
Do we need to upgrade existing facilities; how much capital expenditure
does this need? What is the role of the private sector in this
sense? Finally, as has been emphasised throughout this response—we
must have the people in place to work at the places that are able
to make that difference with the population.
SkillsActive feel that legacy for sport must
become ingrained in regional and local government planning. The
Games give sport the opportunity to convince Regional Development
Agencies that it must become a priority and be central to developments.
The example of the Greater London Assembly in London and its activities
in terms of legacy and 2012 related activity is one that must
be used as a benchmark across the UK.
13 October 2006
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