Education CommitteeWritten evidence submitted by Premier Sport and Golden Mile
Executive Summary
Premier Sport and Golden Mile welcome the Government’s recent school sport announcement to support the London 2020 legacy. The £150 million direct funding to schools is extremely welcome and vital if schools are to commission quality PE and sport provision that inspires young people through PE and sport. For this policy to be successful in creating a lasting Olympic legacy however, schools will need to seek advice and guidance about how best to spend this funding wisely and to ensure it achieves value for money. In commissioning provision, schools should ensure this is sustainable and does not just pay for middle managers to create and develop complex partnerships. It must buy real provision and delivery that encourages lifelong physical activity habits through simple, cheap and measurable programmes like Golden Mile, and quality, tailored, highly professional PE and sport provision across a wide range of sports like that provided by Premier Sport, as well as providing skills and training, both to teaching and non-teaching staff.
Introduction
1. As significant providers of school sport and physical activity, Premier Sport and Golden Mile welcome this opportunity to submit evidence to the Education Select Committee’s inquiry into school sport. We believe that school sport is an important pillar our Olympic legacy and to the future of our young people. Physical education and sport, when taught professionally, can have a significant impact on the education and development of children and it is crucial that government policy is fit for purpose and can deliver the outcomes we know it can. London 2012 offers a unique opportunity to inspire a generation of both school age children and young adults, and make a step change in how sport and physical education is delivered in our schools.
Premier Sport
2. Premier Sport (PS) is the UK’s largest children’s coaching company of its kind. We are the market leader in the delivery of sport and physical activity within UK primary schools, successfully delivering more than 20 different sports to over 150,000 children every week in over 2,000 schools. We have been engaging young people in sport for over twelve years and have a network of ninety franchised areas working collectively employing over 500 NGB qualified coaches. We are supported by some of the leading figures in British sport including: Lawrence Dallaglio OBE; Duncan Goodhew MBE; and Paralympian, Daniel Nobbs and have worked closely with charities like the Dame Kelly Holmes Legacy Trust.
3. Premier Sport specialises in enriching the curriculum through sports teaching and instruction and providing extended schools cover from 8am until 6pm. In fully implementing an in and out of school hours learning programme schools only have to deal with one provider who provide a wide range of different sporting experiences. Our core services include:
Curriculum time PE—we currently active in 530 schools, delivering 63,000 hours of sport over past 12months to around 1.8 million children.
Extra-curricular sport (breakfast, lunch, after school)—we currently run 2500 sessions a week, delivering 65,000 hours of sport over past 12 months to around 902,165 children.
Holiday Activities and Camps—we delivered 6,000 days of sport in the past 12 month to 180,000 participating children who had over 20 different sports to choose from.
4. PS has a strong reputation in providing high quality, long-term solutions to curricular staffing. Our staff are all sports specialists (with a minimum NGB level 2 qualification in a sport), trained in behaviour management, and assessed to Ofsted criteria: it is our aim to ensure that our provision is not just meeting government targets for PE but surpassing them. With the help of our senior Education Advisors, we supply structured lesson plans with specific learning outcomes that address all sporting activity areas. PS’s strength is that it provides expert physical activity and sporting lesson support that will contribute to a pupil’s learning, well-being, independence, excitement and engagement—with fun, innovation, knowledge, and quality at the heart of everything we do.
The Golden Mile
5. The Golden Mile (GM) is a safe, simple and measurable health and fitness initiative, accessible to all schoolchildren, regardless of age or ability. Launched in 2012, GM provides a practical method to ensure that children create a regular daily physical activity habit, every week, all year round. GM requires no specialist equipment and a “Golden Mile” course is simply measured out anywhere within the safety of the school grounds. Each child attempts to complete 50 miles during their school year by walking, jogging, running or cycling around the course either before or after school, at lunchtime, or during school. It aims to inspire and encourage school communities through physical activity with the focus on fun, rewarding personal achievement, pupil leadership and school competition.
6. Since September 2012, GM has been used in Primary schools including 20 School Sports Partnerships, where 23,000 children have completed over 6,000 miles. The strengths of GM include:
It measures physical activity and fitness levels—GM is supported by an online system which the school can use to monitor fitness levels throughout the year and over a pupil’s school career.
It is cheap—it costs on average £2.50 per pupil per year.
It is sustainable—schools can fundraise using GM as a tool to raise sponsorship to pay for the initiative, school equipment or raise money for charity (one school this academic year has so far raised £6k).
Encourages pupils put off by team sports and lack sporting confidence—Pupils are not forced to jog or run and do not have to wear PE kit.
Encourages competition—against themselves, other pupils, classes or between schools.
7. While not within the remit of this inquiry, GM has also engaged 12,000 children of Nursery age who have completed 20,000 miles and raised £55,000 for Dame Kelly Holmes Legacy Trust. Furthermore, our Corporate Partner, Lloyds Bank, has had 2,400 of their employees participate completing some 100,000 miles, a scheme which won a European Award for Employee Engagement.
School Sport following London 2012
8. As organisations working in Primary schools our evidence to the Committee reflects our experience in this field over 12 years. As commercial organisations who are passionate about school sport, we work closely with schools and other organisations such as NGBs and CSPs in the sector to delivery high quality PE and sport provision. Since the inception of Planning, Preparation and Assessment (PPA) in 2005, PS has been working alongside schools to meet the curriculum demands placed on them and we were the first organisation of its kind to be awarded the highly prestigious QiSS (Quality in Study Support) kitemark for quality. In a recent survey, 91.2% of schools said that “PS offered an outstanding to good overall service”.
Question One—The impact and effectiveness of current Government policy and expenditure on increasing sports in schools?
9. We welcome the Government’s recent announcement on school sport. We are delighted that the Government has set out a firm policy direction and will provide £150 million funding to support a policy that focuses creating a sporting and physical activity habit in children at primary school. PS and GM remain dedicated to working alongside Head Teachers to ensure the Olympic legacy aspiration is delivered in our schools.
10. We believe the new policy will enable schools to build on current provision and create sustainable PE & sport programmes. We support the Government’s commitment to fund schools directly to ensure this funding is actually spent on the delivery of PE and sport directly. Our schools need consistent, high-quality sustainable provision over a generation that builds on the previous school sport policies.
11. In our view, the previous strategy of School Sport Partnerships (SSP), despite some claims to the contrary, was clearly not sustainable. When Government funding ceased, so did many of the programmes, despite many years of funding to develop local partnerships. We believe too much precious government funding (and tax-payers money) has been spent on supporting middle managers and administrators in roles rather than being directly invested into training or the delivery of PE and sport provision. While this investment may have very successfully supported the school sports policy in certain areas, we are of the view that the PS and GM model mixed with effective training for teachers and Physical Activity & School Sport Professionals is much more effective, efficient and sustainable in the long-term.
12. We support those who argue that schools should aim deliver more than two hours a week quality PE and sport on a regular sustainable basis. We observed however, while the two hours a week PE and sport in schools target provided a good foundation for sport provision, in reality many schools where simply not achieving this.
13. We believe the £150 million that the Government has announced is a welcome start to securing a long-term schools legacy from London 2012. As an indication only, our calculations suggest that £9k per school could provide:
200 school sports sessions over a year or a sport session everyday of the school year (this could be a different sport each day); or
A physical activity professional for nearly two full days curricular enrichment during school time every week of the school year—this alone achieves the two hour PE offer.
While we would advocate a mixed provision, based on these simple calculations, we believe this funding will support a basic provision in our schools. In the case of schools who use PS, they already receive high quality PE and sport provision and those schools which pool resources and work as a cluster, create additional value which they successfully invest back into sport provision.
14. In our view, while the Government’s partnership approach has many merits and strengths, it can create excessive management and administration and some schools “miss out” on opportunity. Our greatest concern about the recent announcement is that while we welcome the Government’s desire for schools and others to create partnerships, we believe this is very likely to result in the amplified fragmentation of delivery, potentially diverting funding into wasteful middle management and administration and inefficient delivery.
15. A particular strength of the PS model is that our coaches hold NGB coaching awards in over 20 different sports. We work directly with schools and NGBs (particularly the smaller NGBs and minority sports), to bring a wide range of sporting opportunity to the school gates. This is delivered by professionals who spend their whole working life striving to deliver excellence in this environment. Our core business is focused on delivery, in the school, from 8am-6pm providing a clear continuity of provision throughout and around the school day, across a wide range of sports all with one organisation and offering pathways into community clubs and opportunity for Gifted and Talented pupils.
16. Finally, we also broadly welcome the Government’s focus on competitive sport as a part of a balanced and mixed school provision. In our experience however, travelling to compete is an issue for many schools. While there is little substitute for real face to face competition, GM does provide a potential online alternative to help foster competition. Via its online portal, GM pupils can compete against any school in the country without leaving the school gate.
Question Two—The scope, appropriateness and likelihood of success of the Government’s plans for a school sports legacy from London 2012
17. We agree with Ofsted that there is not enough strenuous physical activity in many PE and sport lessons with teachers and others often lacking the specialist training. While the Government’s investment in school sport will make an impact, this has to be delivered by the right organisations and professionals. We believe that organisations like PS and GM can help to make a real impact by not only providing excellent value for money but assessing a schools needs and tailoring a programme to deliver highly effective PE and sport provision.
18. As schools have measurable criteria linked to the funding and are accountable for its use, Head Teachers will need to create and find suitable programmes that fit their school, its ethos and inspire participation amongst its pupils. What may prevent the policy from working effectively is that in some schools, when Head Teachers, faced with a multiple delivery partners including individual sport NGBs, professional clubs, amateur clubs, residuals elements of the school sports partners and the Youth Sport Trust, all with a range of abilities to deliver quality provision, do not have the expertise to make the best decision for their school. In lacking access to the best advice about commissioning suitable provision they could waste funding by investing into local partnerships, to “manage” these programmes on their behalf, or by spending all their money on new sports equipment they cannot use because they do not have the specialists required to deliver.
19. It is therefore crucial Head Teachers receive the best advice and guidance about how to use this funding most effectively: to assess which model or provider is best for them, rather than what they current know, or whoever the closest local provider. The Community of Providers of Physical Activity and School Sport (COMPASS) will be advising schools on what good provision should look like, and are increasing the industry standards via a new Level 3 qualification for Physical Activity and School Sport (PASS) professionals in August/September 2013. This has been funded by the private sector. A skills register funded by the government is being developed in conjunction with Skills Active and this will direct Head Teachers and schools to appropriate professionals.
20. We also believe that schools must increasingly explore employing professional physical education and sport providers. As a commissioner, schools must be seen as a customer as this will help to ensure good value for money. In short, if the school commissions a private sector provider and the service is below standard, the private sector professional will lose the contract. If a publicly funded body is below standard, the school and the pupils are often stuck with poor provision.
21. To ensure we offer a highly tailored service we provide, as part of our preliminary assessment of a school’s needs, a Health and Physical Activity (HPA) evaluation. Currently we are offering, as part of the Responsibility Deal, 1000 free consultations to schools about how sustainable PE, sport and physical activity programmes can be embedded into school life long after the initial two year funding period finishes. It is our aim to ensure that pupils are never subjected to restricted PE, sport & physical activity opportunity again.
22. PS and GM work in direct partnership with 2,000 schools every week to create bespoke programmes which are efficient, sustainable and focused on need. In our experience most schools will not need two whole days PE cover per week but bespoke mix of activity which is fully, part and non-funded across the school day. We also strongly believe that, where possible, the provision should be sustainable beyond any funding window—free provision is suitable to an extend but we have found that participation continues for longer when parents are asked for a small contribution for clubs outside school hours. We also provide however, around 450, 000 places, free of charge, on our events, for disadvantaged children.
23. Where a school may prefer to have their own professional staff member, we would argue that using a private sector professional is more cost effective in the long-term. Where a school will have to pay to train the professional, that member of staff may also move jobs after one term. In using a provider like PS, we will pay for the continued up-skilling of our staff and a school will always have access to the best quality professionals. Furthermore, with only one PE and sport specialist, a school is susceptible to lessons having to be cancelled. If a school uses a special PE and sport provider a replacement replaces them and the pupils do not miss out.
24. Another key aspect of whether this policy will be successful was highlighted by Ofsted: in its view “tougher assessment of sport provision via Ofsted should ensure the funding is bringing the maximum benefit for all pupils”. Schools will therefore need to engage those inactive children that do not have the confidence or self-esteem to attend extra-curricular clubs, or shy away from PE lessons. The whole GM approach is non-threatening to this group of children: to ease them into physical activity by removing the barriers and preconceived fears of “physical activity”. Children do not have to compete against other pupils just themselves; they set their own targets, they are not forced to run or wear sports kit—they can simply walk holding hands with their friends. While this might not seem to some as physical activity it is in our experience a significant and often life changing move in the right direction to get all children active.
25. Furthermore, one of the many strengths of GM is that it is a very simple benchmark for levels of physical fitness of all children. This web based initiative can provide a measurable way to record impact, regardless of what facilities or equipment the school has. GM can provide measurable results, engagement, inter/intra competition for the academic year for approximately only 4% of the new annual budget.
26. We also believe that employment legacy is also crucial. According to one source, sports coaching was the second fastest growing employment sector in the UK in the recession and it is estimated that around 50,000 people are employed as private sports coaches (many working in schools), across the UK. PS has seen coaching applications double and this trend is continuing. It is our view that this policy will assist and generate employment in an industry that has grown pre, during and post government funding into school sport.
27. We also believe that another important and under-mentioned aspect is the skills legacy. With the forthcoming Level 3 diploma as a Physical Activity & School Sport Professional, many of the people working in the industry are young adults who have started via apprenticeships. By continuing to improve standards and the increasing demand for sports coaching inspired by major sporting success such as the Olympics, there is an increasing group of skilled professionals teaching PE and sport across the country. Many are forging careers in the industry, becoming employers themselves and in many cases have the skills required to enter the teaching profession in later life.
28. PS itself is growing and we continue to see an increase in the number of franchises we have. We predict this to grow and we are planning to double the size of our network to 165 territories, covering approx 12,500 of the UKs primary schools in the coming years. While it is too early to measure the exact impact, it is our view, this will help the economy to grow. There is also increasing opportunity for our coaches to work overseas.
Question Three: The impact so far of London 2012 on the take-up of competitive sports in schools;
29. While it is too early to provide firm evidence, our participation rates are up substantially. PE provision has grown by 23% since this time last year as more schools use outside experts to work alongside teachers. Furthermore the average number of our out-of-school-hours clubs has also grown by a similar figure and demand within these clubs is growing.
Question Four: What further measures should be taken to ensure a sustainable and effective legacy in school sports following London 2012
30. The Government has a great opportunity to deliver on a range of policy agendas such as employment, skills, youth unemployment, health & obesity, education and sport by working with appropriate (non-funded) organisations who can deliver across all of these areas. Not only could this be a flagship sport policy, it could be a perfect example of how public/private/charitable sector partnerships can impact across many platforms and government should not waste that opportunity to support, embrace and advertise that. Skills, training and hopefully employment will continue long after ring fenced funding and therefore should be supported.
31. School PE & sport provides the base of any sporting legacy. In our view, successful engagement is key. From this, clear and well signposted pathways for children’s ongoing participation are vital. Those who do not want to play sport should be encouraged to maintain a level of fitness through activities they can do simply and easily to ensure a lifelong physical activity habits. In using a tool like GM, a school can simply create a firm physical activity foundation which it can measure progress over time and PS can take that and deliver an effective and rich school sport programme which interweaves ongoing physical activity, sport skills and awareness, and competitive sport. Those who show an interest and aptitude for sport should be encouraged through further opportunities to participate, and enhance their current skills. They should be challenged through appropriate competitive school sport, and encouraged and supported to join local clubs to access better coaching, and then to continue their sporting interests at secondary school.
32. Initiatives like GM should play a significant part in the Olympic legacy in schools as the foundation for physical activity and sport. It simply ensures pupils participate in regular physical activity. In addition schools using GM continue to report a dramatic increase in attendance and improvement in children’s concentration level, and through this, a rising academic level. Children also improve their confidence and have stronger self-esteem, more energy, better memory, and simply a good feeling about themselves. GM also introduces sport through its reward structure that motivates and encourages children to complete more Golden Miles which are collectively celebrated, giving a sense of achievement, and introducing a sense of competition.
33. We were particularly struck by how schools in Norfolk saw their GM involvement as a significant Olympic Legacy project for 2012–13 and beyond. Over 4000 pupils are involved and staff are using it will raise health awareness and improve activity levels, not only of pupils, but of staff, family and friends. The project represents significant investment into school physical activity at a difficult financial period for schools and one of the extended aims of the project is to raise funds for future PE and sport investment, to provide an extended Olympic legacy for all the schools/pupils involved.
Conclusion
34. While quality school PE and Sport can be achieved in many ways, in our experience this is best undertaken by highly trained and skilled professionals, who can deliver across a wide range of physical activity and sport and have the expertise to do this in the school environment. As the PS and GM model proves, this provision does not need to be expensive nor does it need to be unsustainable in the long term. More awareness is needed about the range of provision available for schools, especially of those provided by the private sector to ensure they get the best value for money and most effective, customer focused PE and sport provision and delivery for their pupils.
April 2013