Education CommitteeWritten evidence submitted by London Youth

Introduction and Summary of Proposals

1. The Select Committee has asked for submissions of evidence to help it address four questions to help it conduct its Enquiry. Our submission focuses only on the fourth of these questions: “What further measures should be taken to ensure a sustainable and effective legacy in school sports following London 2012.” We offer the Committee some specific policy proposals which concern the potential for broader community based provision of sporting and other opportunities for young people to positively impact on their experience of sport within formal education institutions.

2. Our submission briefly explains our expertise as an organisation and the basis of evidence upon which we make our proposals. It then outlines using case examples some of the potential benefits of policies which seek to support community based as well as school based provision, in the context of providing an effective legacy post 2012.

3. The three specific policy proposals we make are that:

3.1More school sports facilities should be opened up to community usage (and vice versa).

3.2More school based programmes should actively be expected to contain a community element using community based youth centres as a mechanism for engaging whole families in healthy living.

3.3Future programmes should seek to bring a youth work approach into sports education in schools, particularly for young people not currently engaging. The learning from such programmes could inform strategic funding decisions locally and across sports and education infrastructure nationally.

4. Our proposals draw on our own evidence base, but also those of a range of partner organisations, and we quote case examples drawn from these organisations below. These include youth centres across London, but our partners also include strategic sports funding and infrastructure bodies. We recently hosted a parliamentary round table (March 2013) on the importance of community based sports provision with a range of key stakeholders including Sport England, the DCMS, the Youth Sport Trust, County Sports Partnerships and the Sport and Recreation Alliance. The consensus in the room was that more effective partnerships between school and community based provision would lead to better outcomes for young people, and this is the basis of the argument outlined in our submission.

About London Youth

5. London Youth is a network of 400 community based youth organisations located in every London Borough. We support those organisations to become thriving, effective and well-connected parts of the community, serving the needs of young people beyond formal education and family. Our role includes providing quality assurance, learning and development for youth organisations, their staff and volunteers; advocating on behalf of young people and the youth work sector; and delivering opportunities for young people to engage in sport, leadership development and other learning—shaped by them and in response to the local need they identify—through the community based centres they trust and engage in.

Our Experience of using the Power of Sport to help Young People Develop

6. We are not an organisation that delivers sport in schools. Nevertheless, we have a strong track record of providing effective outcomes for many thousands of young people every year through sport. These outcomes lead to positive changes in terms of their employability; their confidence; character; learning and health and wellbeing to complement and enhance their experiences within schools and other formal education.

7. Many youth clubs in London have offered sports opportunities, facilities, coaching and competition to young people for many years. London Youth has been instrumental in helping evolve these into structured programmes that support learning and development. Since 2009, through Getting Ready, a programme funded by the Greater London Authority, Sport England and a number of charitable trusts, over 6,000 young people have been engaged in physical activities, through a structured weekly programme. Most of these were previously inactive, beyond compulsory one hour per week in school, yet a year on, over half are still regularly involved in sport, and 97 young people have so far progressed into paid coaching roles, with many others enrolled on sports coaching courses and qualifications to take their learning to the next level.

8. Getting Ready works with over 30 National Governing bodies, offering young people the chance to choose from a wide menu of sports, and to learn from expert coaches, working alongside trusted youth workers, so that they can learn to enjoy sport on their own terms. The sports range from traditional activities such as football, judo and non-contact boxing all the way through to dance and indoor cricket. The programme is designed to be flexible enough to cater for the needs of young people with disabilities or other particular needs. The results have been excellent and a significant number of young people have gone on to be coaches and take on youth leadership roles within their club and the wider community.

5.1Case Study, Calthorpe Project, London: Ryan is 16, and lives near Kings Cross. He was involved in gang activity, disengaged from school and at risk of exclusion. Though he loved sport, his inability to connect with formal education meant he missed out on what was on offer inside the school gates. Through working with the youth work team at the community based Calthorpe Project, Ryan became involved in the structured sports programme Getting Ready in a place he trusted. He began enjoying sport and taking responsibility within the club, supported by older youth workers. He quickly became a role model for other young people and has set up and now runs local football and futsal leagues from within Calthorpe, doing everything from arranging fixtures, booking referees and pitches to ensuring discipline and high standards of behaviour. He has massively grown in confidence, and has taken his Level One coaching qualification, and enrolled in a Level One youth work programme, reigniting his appetite and passion for learning.

The role of youth clubs in complementing school based sports provision for young people who do not access mainstream development opportunities

9. Based on our experience, we propose that as well as making substantial and sustained efforts to improve the sports offer inside schools, weight is also given to improving opportunities for young people to participate in a wide range sports and physical activities within their local community.

10. The Government’s 2011 Positive for Youth strategy sets out the guiding principles that local partners must work more closely together to help all young people reach their potential. This applies to how they develop within and through sport, and is important as context for why school and community based offerings should be better integrated.

11. While significant resource has been put into programmes such as National Citizen Service (NCS), which seeks to give young people the chance to supplement their formal education with opportunities to engage in structured social action programmes, there has been much less support for broader social action through community based youth organisations. It is important to note that this is not an argument for one at the expense of the other—indeed, London Youth is a successful and respected delivery agent in three London boroughs for the NCS programme led by The Challenge franchise—but simply seeks to make the case that the learning from this model could be taken into other spheres.

11.1Case study, Hackney quest and Coram fields Zambia 2012: As an example of this, in 2012, young people from two inner London community youth centres, Hackney Quest and Coram Fields, decided that they wanted to combine sports learning and coaching with opportunities to broaden their experience in other ways. They were aware that within their schools and colleges, some athletes and others had had opportunities to travel overseas to compete, but as many of these young people were not dedicated sports players themselves, and were often from disadvantaged backgrounds, this kind of opportunity did not appear to be open to them. In partnership with the Tag Rugby Trust, the RFU and the Dallaglio Foundation, London Youth worked with young people from the two clubs, supporting them to complete a 12 month leadership programme in their local communities. This included engaging the young people in fundraising and other leadership development activities, until by October 2012 they were able to make a life changing visit to Zambia to coach young people there. In preparation for the tour the young people achieved a cocktail of qualifications—including Community Sport Leader Award Level 2 and Introduction to Youth Work; gained qualifications as Tag Rugby Tutors; and attended first aid and public speaking courses. And as a result of the trip, and the period of development leading up to it, the young people have become more engaged in community activities in London, and sought to further their learning through formal education in ways many of them did not think was ever going to happen. Since returning to the UK some of the young people have gone onto apprenticeships also and others are now working to mentor another group to undertake a similar programme in the future.

The role of community based sports provision in complementing school based learning for young people and families with particular needs

12. The extent to which school, community and family support together offer young people opportunities to develop is often a deciding factor on how quickly they develop and begin to fulfil their potential.

13. Undoubtedly enhanced school sports provision can help young people and their families to learn about the benefits of healthy lifestyles and physical exercise. Our experience is that young people can be role models and influencers within their families and within the wider community if they are engaged in the right way. Some of this will be in school. But again, there appears to be a significant role for community based sports provision to enhance this too.

13.1Case study, Attlee youth club, Tower Hamlets: An example that illustrates the ability of youth clubs to combine family and wider wellbeing with sport is the experience of some teenage Muslim girls who are members of Attlee Youth Centre in Tower Hamlets. Some are not particularly engaged in school sport, and tend to be from families where traditional and conservative expectations of women’s roles and behaviours can prevail. Through the Getting Ready programme within their youth club, some of these girls took the opportunity to develop for themselves a project which combined sport with healthy cooking and eating, giving them the opportunity to demonstrate to their families that their learning was valuable, while at the same time improving their own leadership, confidence and wellbeing. Some of the girls have engaged in regular sessions of non-contact boxing, and one is now a qualified coach, giving other teenagers the chance to learn from her. The success of this intervention has helped the girls and their families in a community setting, complementing whatever opportunity they have had through school and the family itself.

14. Young people are at school for only 15% of their waking hours. There is a risk that the fantastic work many schools do to support young people’s wellbeing and development through sport is lost because there is no provision available at evenings, weekends or through the holidays. Integrated provision with local community centres can help address this.

14.1Case study: Westminster House, Nunhead, London SE15: In one of the poorest wards in one of the most deprived parts of London, Westminster House has provided open access youth services for 125 years. Its services include offering sessions with young people at risk of exclusion during the school day, homework clubs and other after school provision, and the indoor and outdoor sports facilities within the club (although by no means elite standard) offer the opportunity for young people to try out sport and other physical activities through the Getting Ready programme. By combining sports provision at the end of the school day, at weekends and through the holidays the club is able to have a major impact on the wellbeing of young people in the community. The sports offer works in tandem with other activities, such as more formal learning, Duke of Edinburgh awards, healthy eating classes and family support. One of the challenges for Westminster House is that as an open access club, working with a wide range of ages and abilities, the young people are drawn from over 30 schools in the area. So as well as “one to one” partnerships, there is a need for more strategic “community-wide” partnerships that ensure integration between the sports offers made inside and outside school.

Outcomes

15. London Youth is currently developing a bespoke framework for measuring the outcomes of community based sports provision and other programmes for young people, funded by the Department for Education, and in partnership with social research organization The Young Foundation. Based on our learning to date we will be looking at the extent to which such programmes reach measurable outcomes across the following themes:

15.1Health: the health benefits of wider participation in sport are well known and understood. Enhanced school based provision will improve these outcomes for young people, but better integration between school and community programmes, embedding sport as part of a whole community approach to tackling obesity, wellbeing and adolescent mental health, should make these outcomes more sustainable, particularly amongst poorer and less engaged young people and families.

15.2Employability and skills: as well as providing further opportunities for young people to engage in sport, community based programmes can complement school based provision by directly offering the chance for participants to train as sports coaches, and take broader youth leadership roles, thereby enhancing skills and employability.

15.3Confidence and wellbeing: a significant reason for young people not engaging in school based sports, and indeed a significant risk factor in their overall participation in formal education, is a lack of confidence and wellbeing. Engaging young people in sport outside of school, in settings they trust, with youth workers that they may respond to, will give them a chance to build that confidence, to the point which they will re-engage in more formal learning.

16. Of course, while schools and formal education providers operate under strict national standard setting frameworks, because youth clubs operate predominantly on a non-statutory basis, there is not the equivalent of an Ofsted type regime. However, London Youth has pioneered the establishment of an accredited Quality Mark specifically designed for youth clubs, and accredited by City and Guilds, which is recognised by a wide range of funders and local authorities across the capital. This offers assurance to young people, their families, and local school partners that the services and provision on offer within clubs that have achieved London Youth Quality Mark status can be trusted as appropriate, safe and effective in addressing young people’s needs.

Key Policy Proposals

17. Based on our learning and experience, we would propose that in addition to any specific investments and innovations that the Committee may consider in relation to school-delivered sports programmes, if those programmes are to have the most chance of succeeding for all young people, there is also the need for some specific policies to enhance the complementary role of community based delivery. Specifically this might include:

17.1Shared facilities: the lack of facilities in many schools has been well documented and is sure to be part of the Committee’s considerations. This is not something that will be quickly rectified, making it all the more important that the notion of shared community facilities be actively encouraged. Sports provision that is accessible to young people through school in the day time, and community based youth centres in the evenings and at weekends, will afford more young people the chance to engage for longer, and as our examples show, may offer the chance to those who are not currently involved in school sport to become so. More school facilities should therefore be opened up to community usage (and vice versa).

17.2Joint programmes: while London Youth is confident about and proud of the success of our Getting Ready programme working through youth clubs, we recognise the potential for an expanded model which took the principles of a youth led, structured programme and combined it with the learning and curriculum based opportunities in schools. It is one thing to run out of school sports provision after hours within a school environment—but for the young person who does not like or engage with school, it would be better to also offer that level of provision in a community space where they feel safe and supported. More school based programmes should therefore actively be expected to contain a community based element using community youth centres as a mechanism for engaging whole families in healthy living. This is particularly important at weekends and in the holiday periods, where school based support is very limited, and non-existent in some areas.

17.3Shared learning and intelligence: this would need of course to be supported by much better sharing of learning and intelligence between schools and youth centres. The fact that sports coaches may work in both environments gives an opportunity for this, and there should be much stronger links between teachers, learning assistants and youth workers. We’d like to see a pilot scheme in London seeking to bring a youth work approach into sports education in schools, particularly for young people not currently engaging. The learning from such a pilot could inform strategic funding decisions locally and across sports and education infrastructure nationally.

Conclusion

18. We are aware that we are not experts in school sports, and have presented more of a qualitative evidence base than other submissions are likely to. However, we believe that the challenge of improving young people’s opportunities to engage in school sport will be greatly enhanced by also thinking beyond school, and considering some of the points that we have raised in relation to the role of broader community based provision. We’d be delighted to talk in more detail to the Committee, along with representatives from our member clubs, including young people, about any of our evidence should you wish to hear more.

April 2013