sportscotland prioritises youth in it's future vision for sport

Wednesday 13 December 2000

Investing in ways to get Scotland's youngsters more active will be the major focus of sportscotland's investment of the £6m of additional funding recently announced from the Scottish Executive. 

Top of the priority list will be almost £3m towards introducing an Active Primary School programme aimed at increasing the range, frequency and quality of opportunity for children to participate in safe and enjoyable physical activity and sport.

£1m of the extra funds will be directed over the next three years towards creating a network of support to ensure Scotland has more quality coaches and leaders from national level right down to school and community clubs, and that these coaches are linking together in an integrated way.

In addition to the £6m from the Comprehensive Spending Review, sportscotland will be directing new lottery funding of £1m per annum towards introducing a sports component in each of the 48 Social Inclusion Partnerships over the next three years and to expanding the successful School Sport Co-ordinators programme from one to two days a week to develop closer links between schools and local clubs.

The details of how all the new funding will be used, and how this links to the other areas of sportscotland investment, were outlined at an Open Meeting at Murrayfield Stadium today when sportscotland Chairman, Alastair Dempster, reviewed the organisation's performance over the previous financial year 1999/2000, and launched its new annual report.

Speaking at the meeting he said, "At sportscotland we have a vision to make Scotland a great sporting nation in which sport is more widely available to all, where sporting talent is recognised and nurtured and where world class performances in sport are achieved and sustained.

"1999-2000 has been a significant year towards achieving these aims.  Our work has seen the development of a climate of increasing political support for sport, coupled with a heightened awareness of the hugely significant contribution it makes to the fabric of Scottish society.

"This has led to a welcome increase in investment which will enable us to accelerate the pace and implementation of our national strategy, Sport 21."

Chief Executive, Ian Robson, added, "We need to work towards a situation where sports participation is habitual for five and six year olds.  We need to inspire people to participate in sport and we need to ensure that there are no barriers to prevent participation.

"Progress is being made but there is still a long way to go in realising all the targets set out in Sport 21 and achieve the aim of getting more people, more active, more often."

In addition to the Active Primary Schools programme and a national to local coaching network, over the next three years £250,000 of the new money will be directed towards ensuring sport in Scotland is underpinned by a proper ethical and equality framework. 

This framework of new policies and programmes will be developed to ensure increases in participation from traditionally under-represented sections of society such as women, ethnic minorities and people with a disability and the introduction of ethical standards throughout sport will be advanced including child protection measures, fair play and anti-doping.

Around £150,000 will also be set aside annually for investment in youth development in Scottish football.

With many of our existing sports facilities showing increasing signs of age, £300,000 will be invested over the next two years to conduct a comprehensive audit of the state of Scotland's sports facilities to identify the full extent of the maintenance and refurbishment problems facing our local authorities.  This is to help develop a co-ordinated national plan to meet the country's future needs.

And to create more sporting role models, around £400,000 of support will also be directed over the next three years towards helping prepare Scottish teams for both the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester and Commonwealth Youth Games in Australia in 2004.