sportscotland provides policy advice and strategic guidance to Scottish sport.
We are involved in several areas of policy development:
- We work closely with the Scottish Executive, advising Scottish ministers and implementing Executive policies for sport and physical recreation.
- We co-ordinate the implementation process for Sport 21 2003 – 2007: The National Strategy for Sport. This involves working with partners across Scottish sport to prepare strategies for the delivery of the eleven targets, and to move these target strategies forward.
- We are closely involved in developing and conducting research for Sport 21 and the programmes and initiatives related to it.
- We work with key partners, including the Scottish Executive, local authorities and Scottish governing bodies for sport to develop sports policy and enable it to be implemented at a local level, ensuring issues such as child protection, inclusion, and ethics are addressed.
- Working with our key partners we research, develop and prepare policies addressing specific and topical policy areas.
- We respond to the consultation documents issued by our partners, to ensure that the contribution of sport and sportscotland to the development of policy in Scotland and the UK is recognised and understood.
- We ensure that the development and delivery of our work links in with the appropriate national strategies and Scottish Executive policy.
The development of sportscotland policy incorporates a focus on a number of key areas, including:
Social inclusion
We strongly advocate the role that sport can play in contributing to social inclusion and improved health of individuals of all ages.
One challenge for Scottish sport is to consider how much sport reflects and reinforces society’s inequalities and the extent to which these can be confronted and tackled.
A second challenge is to increase sports participation in disadvantaged areas so that these areas can enjoy the potential of improved health, fitness and self-esteem along with increased employment opportunities and a potential diversion from some forms of opportunistic anti-social behaviour.
At the same time, increased sports participation in deprived areas provides significant benefits for sport itself, including greater potential to develop each sport and a wider pool of volunteers, coaches, sports leaders and administrative staff.
We have been consulting widely and conducting research with the Scottish Executive to ascertain how sport can develop its role to most effectively contribute to the promotion of social inclusion. We will continue to develop policies in this area and promote good practice to all our partners in Scottish sport.
Community planning
Given the contribution it makes to the well-being of communities, it is vital that sport is at the heart of both local and local authority decision making.
Community planning is thus an essential precursor for sport to be effectively resourced, delivered and integrated in every local area.
Community planning places a duty on local authorities to initiate, facilitate and maintain the process, while at the same time placing a duty to participate upon key public bodies such as the police and health boards.
The success of the community planning process will depend on the commitment and participation of a wide range of public, voluntary, community and private sector bodies.
Community planning underpins all the targets of Sport 21 2003-2007, and target eleven specifically focuses on ensuring that Community Planning contributes to the delivery of Sport 21.
