Education CommitteeWritten evidence submitted by Sport England

Sport England’s role is to get more people aged 14 and over playing sport more regularly, though some of our programmes and funding support younger children. We recognise that if people are to develop a sporting habit, it is vitally important that children are given the right start in terms of opportunities to play sport and acquire good physical literacy early on.

Sport England’s Youth and Community Strategy “Creating a Sporting Habit for life” provides several interventions to increase the number of young people playing sport. Of our £493 million investment going directly into 46 sports governing bodies over the period 2013–17, 60%, around £295.8 million, will be specifically targeted at getting more young people playing sport and fulfilling their potential. In addition we also fund the School Games (an intra and inter-school competition), Sportivate (a project to get 11–25-year-olds doing more sport) and Satellite Clubs (a programme which helps young people make the move from school sport to community sport).

The school sport programme announced on 16 March 2013 will see ring-fenced investment of £150 million a year which will go directly to primary schools to spend on sport provision over the next two years. Sport England is investing £13.4 million into the primary school premium over the period 2013–15. We will also invest £1.5 million a year of National Lottery funding through the County Sport Partnerships (CSPs), which will help primary schools link up with local sports coaches, clubs and sports governing bodies. CSPs are responsible for facilitating the delivery of sport at a county wide level.

Details of the scope and progress of these Sport England funded programmes are provided below.

Sainsbury’s School Games

The School Games is a competitive school sport programme designed to motivate and inspire millions of young people across the country to take part in sport. It supports children and young people aged between 5–19. The programme is made up of four levels of activity:

level 1—competition in schools (intra-school sport);

level 2—competition between schools (inter school sport);

level 3—competitions at county level; and

level 4—national finals event.

The School Games is designed to build on the events of 2012 to enable every school and child to participate in competitive sport, including opportunities for disabled youngsters.

Nationally and locally the School Games is being delivered through partnerships. The national partnership is made up of:

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport, which has overall policy leadership, supported by the Department for Education and the Department for Health.

Sport England, which supports the engagement of Sports Governing Bodies and County Sports Partnerships.

The British Paralympic Association, which brings the vision and inspiration of the Paralympics.

The Youth Sport Trust, which has been commissioned by Sport England to provide development support to schools, sports and other local partners.

Over £150 million of Lottery and Exchequer funding is being invested to support the School Games. This includes:

up to £35.5 million Lottery funding from Sport England between 2010–15;

£50.4 million Exchequer funding from the Department of Health and Sport England to fund 450 School Games Organisers (SGOs) and Change 4 Life Clubs;

£65 million Exchequer funding from the Department for Education to release a PE teacher for one day a week in all secondary schools.

At a local level, the School Games is delivered by schools, clubs, County Sports Partnerships and other local partners. Local organising committees have been set up, chaired by head teachers, to oversee the Level 3 county festivals.

The latest results show that 16,128 schools had registered on the School Games website. In 2013 there will be 100 summer and winter festivals, with at least 110,000 finalists from the level 1 and 2 competition.

Sportivate

Sportivate targets those young people who are not currently choosing to take part in sport in their own time or who are doing so for a very limited amount of time. The programme gives young people access to six to eight week courses in a range of sports including judo, golf, tennis, wakeboarding, athletics, and parkour. It aims to support them to continue playing sport in their community after this period is up.

From September 2013 Sportivate activities will be available for young people aged 11–25 and we will continue to want to see a strong spread across this age range (previously 14–25).

Sport England is investing £32 million to fund Sportivate. It is being delivered by the network of 49 County Sports Partnerships which work closely with local clubs and providers.

To date, Sportivate has provided 188,028 semi sporty teenagers and young adults an opportunity to take part in coaching sessions. Of these, 156,547 have completed their courses. Sampling data from year one (2011–12) shows that 90% have continued to play sport.

Satellite Clubs

Satellite Clubs are extensions or outposts of community sports clubs which are established in a new venue, usually a secondary school or college. Delivered by coaches and volunteers from the community sports club, they provide a valuable stepping stone to ensure more young people transition from school to community sport.

A key element of the Youth and Community Sport Strategy 2012–17 is to create at least 5,000 satellite clubs based on a secondary school or college site with the vision that by 2017, every secondary school in England will have been offered a satellite community sports club. Each satellite club will have a direct link to one or more sports depending on the clubs in its area.

The Premier League 4 Sport Programme, funded by the Premier League and Sport England and delivered in partnership with the Youth Sport Trust and eight sports, has proved that the satellite club model successfully attracts new young people to community sport. Since its inception in 2009, over 57,178 young people have taken part, with over two-thirds continuing to take part in sport on a regular basis.

Sport England is investing up to £49 million into satellite clubs between now and March 2017. This will be invested in three ways:

£20 million through the investment into 26 sports ranging from football and athletics which will deliver 2,000 and 1,000 satellite clubs respectively and to boxing and handball which will deliver 270 and 120;

£21 million targeted at local satellite club delivery, with schools able to secure local funding to set up satellite clubs; and

£8 million to employ a network of Club Link Makers, at least one in every County Sports Partnership, who will work with schools and NGBs to set up the clubs locally.

As of 31 December 2012, 450 satellite clubs are in operation and by 31 March 2013 we expect to have another 50 up and running.

The recent school sport announcement stated that the target age group for satellite clubs will now be lowered to start at age 11.

April 2013