Thursday 22 January 2004
Measures to tackle childhood obesity through the appointment of Active Schools Co-ordinators across Scotland were the focus of a recent announcement by the First Minister Jack McConnell. sportscotland is working closely with a range of agencies to contribute to the development and implementation of the Active Schools Programme and is the driving force behind the appointment of the 630 Active Schools Co-ordinators in partnership with Scotland’s 32 local authorities.
The Active Schools Programme is building on the early successes of the original School Sport Co-ordinator and Active Primary School Co-ordinator Programmes introduced by sportscotland nearly four years ago.
Since 1999/2000 sportscotland has been responsible for:
- The introduction of the Active Primary School Pilot Programme across 21 local authorities and involving 290 primary schools
- Establishing a School Sport Co-ordinator Programme in 350 secondary schools
- Establishing a Programme Manager in 11 local authorities
- The introduction of the Youth Sport Trust’s Top Play and Top Sport programmes across 32 local authorities
These programmes along with the Out of School Hours Learning and Sporting Champions programmes have been realigned in conjunction with other statutory and voluntary bodies initiatives (Class Moves developed by NHS Health Scotland, and Safe Routes to School developed by Sustrans), to integrate them into a comprehensive whole school approach to physical activity. This will allow the newly titled Active School Co-ordinators to deliver more effectively to a wider group of children and young people.
Over the next four years sportscotland will be investing in excess of £24m to help increase pupils’ level of physical activity through Active Schools.
As a result of the successes achieved in increasing levels of activity, both generally and specifically amongst girls, sportscotland was allocated £24m over the three year period of the Scottish Budget announced by the Scottish Executive in 2002 to further contribute to the development of a network of Active Schools by increasing the capacity to deliver extended activity opportunities for children and young people.
From its current status in 2003/04 the network will be extended by 2006/07 to:
- Active Schools Clusters 44 to 260
- Active Schools Managers 11 to 32
- Active Schools Co-ordinators (Primary) 62 to 260
- Active Schools Co-ordinators (Secondary/SEN) 350 to 370
These 660 plus energetic professionals will adopt a co-ordinated, planned approach working within 260 clusters of schools to:
- Increase levels of activity including sports participation among school-aged children
- Increase levels of activity including sports participation by girls and young women, young people from ethnic-minority communities, young people with physical and learning disabilities and young people in areas of socio-economic disadvantage
- Improve motivation and attitude amongst children and young people resulting in an increase in their achievements in all aspects of school and community life
- Increase levels of activity including sports participation in formal and informal community settings
- Increase numbers of young people acting as leaders/coaches in both the school and community settings
It will be vital for the expanding Active School Staffing Network to work towards developing opportunities within local communities that are local and accessible and in many case this will focus on the schools as centres of their communities. This will involve Active Schools staff working with sports development officer, youth leaders, physical activity specialists, coaches and parents to develop greater access to community activity. In many cases the local infrastructure can be enhanced but in many communities across Scotland we will have to build from scratch. This will take time and commitment to working in partnership over the longer term and will be dependent on integrated planning and making the best use of joint resources.
Commenting on the programme Alastair Dempster, Chairman of sportscotland said: “sportscotland is fully committed to playing its part in the battle to improve health in Scotland through increasing physical activity levels amongst the young. However the obesity problem didn’t occur overnight and it will take a concerted long-term effort by government agencies, parents, schools and community organisations to tackle this important issue.
“ I am delighted that the additional resources will enable us to appoint further Active Schools Co-ordinators. There is no doubt that the people infrastructure provided by enthusiastic professionals is a vital core element of future provision. Evidence from the original programmes highlights the progress made in partnership working and planning which allows a far greater range of activity opportunities for our children and young people. The focus of activity is now much more diverse than what would previously be recognised as a more traditional programme and this has encouraged a significant number of girls and young people previously not engaged in sport and physical activity to become involved. We must build on this.”
Over the next four years sportscotland will be investing in excess of £24m to help increase pupils’ level of physical activity through Active Schools. In order to measure the impact of its work in this area, sportscotland intends to undertake an extensive programme of monitoring and evaluation, along with other partners.
