Ensure next generations not deprived of sports

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Gerry Sutcliffe MP calls on the government not to reduce investment in school sporting opportunities given the benefits to their health and academic ability.

In Singapore, six years ago, when we won our bid to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games, we made a promise to the international community and the people of this country – to inspire a generation of young people through sport.

We set challenging but achievable targets as a measure of our ambition – that by 2012 two million more people would be physically active, a million more would be playing sport regularly, and 60 per cent of young people would be doing at least five hours of sport per week.

In schools, a decade of investment by Labour – £2.4bn – was yielding real results, giving young people in state schools the same sporting opportunities that have long been enjoyed in private schools.

Between 2002 and 2010, the number of young people doing at least two hours of sport per week rose from 25 to 90 per cent. Central to this progress were the two main funding streams for school sports: School Sports Partnerships (SSPs), a network of 450 school sports co-ordinators across England, and Specialist Sports Colleges.

Right up to the 2010 general election there was a cross-party consensus that the school sports partnership infrastructure, introduced by the Labour government, was a success; a consensus that Labour had, generally speaking, got it right on school sports.

It was only after the election that the consensus disappeared. Labour's record was rubbished by ministers quoting misleading figures on participation rates. The lead academic evaluator on SSPs criticised David Cameron for "a selective use of statistics that ignores the tremendous improvement over the past decade."

The School Sports Partnership network was decimated, to the astonishment of experts the world over. It was genuinely seen as a world class model. Andy Burnham, then Labour's shadow education secretary, offered our support for a reduction in funding for SSPs as long as the infrastructure was maintained. Ring-fenced financing for specialist sports colleges was cut, to the equivalent of £129 per pupil. The cuts will effectively mean an end to the infrastructure that supports school sport, at the very time that we should be seeking to increase activity in the run-up to next year's Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The early signs are already deeply worrying. Last week's Sport England Active People survey showed a dramatic fall in the number of 16-19 year-olds participating in sport. My real concern is that the cuts to school sport, coupled with the cut to free swimming for under-16s, cuts to the Educational Maintenance Allowance and the worsening economic climate, will see a wholesale reduction in the number of young people participating in sport.

Just as worrying is the threat to school playing fields from the Localism Act. Relaxing the restrictions on decommissioning school playing fields could see us turn the clock back. Between 1979 and 1997 the Tory government allowed 10,000 playing fields to be sold. In 1998 Labour introduced the toughest protections for school playing fields. Between 1998 and 2010 just 230 were sold, and proceeds from those sales re-invested in existing sports facilities.

This isn't just about sport for sport's sake. Research shows that participation in sports not only makes children healthier, but can also improve educational attainment, help with self-discipline and socialisation.

Playing sport was a major part of my childhood and early adulthood. I maintain friendships with people I met through sport. For me, and millions like me, sport was a series of life lessons. I want to ensure that the next generation are not denied those same opportunities.

Gerry Sutcliffe has been the Labour Member of Parliament for Bradford South since 1994. He was the Minister for Sport 2007-10.