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CLARIFICATION ON THE ANNOUNCEMNETS ON SCHOOL SPORT Following yesterday's announcements on school sport we wanted to respond to many of the queries we are getting and also to say a huge thank you to all those who have provided information and representation that has helped to secure some re-investment into school sport. Much of the specific detail behind the announcements will be confirmed in the New Year and we understand that DfE will write soon to all School Sport Partnerships to confirm exact implications. However, in the meantime we wanted to detail the main points of the announcements and to offer as much clarity as possible. Whilst the announcements do not reverse the cuts to school sport they do represent a major re-think and there is no doubt that the public opinion that has been voiced since the CSR announcement in October has played a major part in this. The re-investment gives us an opportunity to again demonstrate the major difference that PE and school Sport makes to schools and to young people and we must now turn our energy into re-building things and to delivering the tasks in hand. The February payment to School Sport Partnerships will cover the period up until the end of the 2010/11 academic year. Clarification on exactly which posts this will cover will be sent directly by the Department for Education. This gives us a little longer to undertake transition planning and we at the YST are committed to supporting this process from January 1st as previously outlined. In addition the Department for Education has announced funding of £65 million for the period September 2011 to August 2013. This will be used to enable every secondary school to release a PE teacher for a day a week in the school year. Whilst this is a reduction from the current two days per week that School Sport Co-ordinators have it gives us a great platform on which to build. We will be maximising the period between January and July to help schools transition and hopefully to encourage and support many to utilise additional funding of their own to sustain the two day a week role. We will also work hard during the 2011-13 period to support schools in sustaining the role beyond August 2013 and embedding it in the structure of the school. The DfE has also announced that the Youth Sport Trust will work to expand our Young Ambassadors programme, so that every secondary school and some primary schools can create more Young Ambassadors in the approach to London 2012. This is something we are delighted about and it is further recognition of the excellent work that Young Ambassadors play across the country and the mature role they undertook throughout the recent advocacy campaign. The Government's Legacy Plans for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games were also published yesterday and contained further commitment to a nationwide School Games, the development of which will be led by the Youth Sport Trust. The announcement of additional resources including some from the Department of Health (DH) to support participation by primary schools and to create opportunities for those who are least active, will fund people at local level to support and manage delivery of the School Games. Over the next few months we are committed to working closely with government to support transition. The YST will be recommending that the development of a new local delivery structure takes into account existing local arrangements. Whilst the DfE funding for Partnership Development Managers will stop from August 2011 we are confident that, through our work with DCMS and DH, we will be able to support a large number of Partnership Development Managers to transition into new roles that will support both competition and participation objectives and engage primary schools in the new School Games. All of this signals a growing understanding of the work undertaken by the School Sport Partnership infrastructure led by Partnership Development Managers. The additional announcement of DH funding to expand Change for Life Clubs (which have been successfully driven through SSPs) and recent confirmation that the Department for Transport will continue to implement a significant part of Bikeability through SSPs offers further support of the need for a school led local delivery infrastructure.For your information, we have attached three key documents from yesterday I therefore attach a number of documents as way of background information:- - Department for Education press release (20th December 2010)-
- Youth Sport Trust press response (20th December 2010)-
- DCMS: Plan for the Legacy from the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games
On our return from the Christmas break we will be working hard to build on where we are now at and hope that you will all join with us, seize the opportunities that we have and that we can work together to ensure our world class reputation for school sport is maintained. In the meantime we hope that you will enjoy a well earned break over the Christmas and New Year period and that you will take good time to reflect on the amazing difference that you have made to school sport and to the lives of young people. Best wishes Sue Campbell and Steve Grainger To read the latest letter from Steve Grainger please click Update SSP Jan 2011 To read the Dec 2010 letter from Steve Grainger please click Update Dec 2010 |
