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• Andy Burnham speech at Lords: Playing to win - a new era for sport

Andy Burnham speech at Lords: Playing to win - a new era for sport

I know that people feel a sense of deja-vu and have gathered before to hear the conclusions of a Sport England review.

Why is this different?  Because it’s not about Government dropping yet another new agenda on the sports world or in Local Government. This strategy is about trusting the experts and enthusiasts that run sport to get on and do the job – but also to empower them with more resources. We will only succeed if it feels different working in sport in 2 years time. But this is not about structures and systems. It is about people. We want more young people to play organised sport for the love it – as we all know how that stands you in good stead throughout your life.

It doesn’t matter being the best. But what does matter, is being the best you can be, being part of the team – enjoying the friendship, dealing with the banter – it’s all good experience for life. My driving force here is to bring the joy and friendship of sport to more people through the best possible introduction to sport.

In sport, you always have to ask: what can we do better?  You don’t get anywhere without asking tough questions - tough questions we’ve not shied away from ourselves. 

You don’t change anything without asking these tough questions and then taking some tough decisions. But it’s been enormously positive and productive and I’d like to thank everyone right across our sport for the commitment and willingness everyone has shown to get us to this point this morning.

Particular thanks should go to Jennie Price who has spearheaded the review process, Mike Farrar, the interim chair, and all of the Challenge Team – Richard Lewis, Chief Executive of the Rugby Football League, Ged Roddy, Sport England’s Vice Chair and Steve Grainger, Chief Executive of the Youth Sport Trust.

Their review is a persuasive recruiting tool for anyone considering an application to be the new Sport England Chair – which some of you may have picked up in the Sunday Times and in the Times today.

My first speech as Secretary of State was made to the Sports Colleges Conference back in February, and I asked a number of specific questions that, for me, are indicative of the state of sports development in this country.

Are we doing enough to teach the basics of sport to school children – for instance, a good forward defensive, how to bowl offspin – so that they have the confidence to stick with it?

Do those children get a chance to try tennis?

Are we relying too much on football?

Can we breathe new life into competitive structures in school sports?

Do girls get the same chances as boys?

Are we doing anywhere near enough for young people with disabilities?

This review says, ‘no we’re not……but we can.’

I want to keep coming back to these questions in my time in this job because for me, they will define whether or not this strategy has made a difference.

Between us we’ve said we’re going to change the culture of sport in England and introduce a healthy playing to win culture – pursuing the highest standards in all that we do on and off the field.

I want to set out now what I see as the three key elements to that.

First, increasing the talent pool - getting more people taking up sport simply for the love of sport. Let me be clear – this is not an elitist agenda. In fact, it is the opposite. One million more playing sport. It is going to expand the pool of talented English sportsmen and women and give them the best chance of breaking records and winning medals and tournaments.

Second, competition. Sport is about winning and losing. When you play sport, you play to win. Sport’s full power is to thrill and captivate. So it’s not just about 1st teams, but 2nd, 3rd and 4th – giving everyone the chance to get on.

Third, is partnership.

If you look at successful sporting nations – Australia, the US– what are the common factors? Shared goals, clear responsibilities, everyone playing their part.

That’s what today’s reforms are all about – uniting people at all levels in sport. We are challenging the NGBs in particular to deliver, but in a new sense of partnership and common endeavour.

We’ve got a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make that happen.

As Olympic host nation, we have a moment in time. A chance to set a new level of ambition and give sport the prominence that all of us think it should have.

It’s not just the Olympics though. The 20Twenty World Cup is here next year and the World Gymnastics Championships. The World Badminton Championships in London in 2011. The Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014. We’re bidding to land the football and rugby union world cup finals in the next few years.

There’s a golden decade of sport in Britain in prospect.

Together we must use this unprecedented momentum to inspire everyone in the country.

The Youth Sport Trust has done a first class job at the centre of the transformation of school sport. I remember the state of school sport by the mid-80s. Cricket and football were what I went to school for– that’s what I lived for.  There was no qualified coaching, but lots of competitive opportunities. What fired my passion was seeing how it had all dried up when my younger brother came through school.

But that has been turned around over the last ten years, but with a lot still to do.

At the elite level, we’re seeing the rewards of the focus UK Sport has brought to working with the National Governing Bodies.

What today’s reforms do is bring a new focus to Sport England that knits together community sport, school sport and elite-level sport in a way that has never quite been managed up to now.

It’s going to make it much easier for children to play sport in school and after school, and to carry on playing sport after leaving school – with a much clearer link between school sports and clubs and sporting opportunities in the community.

And it’s going to make us much better at spotting talented youngsters and giving them the best coaching and support to turn them into winners at the top level.

To do this we must have a clearer separation between the development of sport, on the one hand, and the promotion of physical activity on the other – to the advantage of both. Not prioritising one above the other, but having more clarity, and crucially, raised ambitions for both.

Sport England has expanded into physical activity over time, at the expense of clarity over who does what, who funds what – and this review is really going to sharpen that up.

The free swimming announcement we made last week is a sign of the ambitions we’ve got for physical activity. Forward looking local authorities like Wigan – the authority for my constituency in Leigh – introduced free swimming for the over 60s and under 16s some time ago. They can see the benefits – to the health and well being of their community and to their bottom line. I am delighted with the response to our announcement, which is gathering momentum. Some local authorities are already looking seriously at going universally free next year.

I want to support and encourage innovative thinking like that and it’s our aspiration that by 2012 everyone who wants to will be able to swim for free. We’ve started with a cross-government commitment of £140 million of revenue and capital to provide free swimming for the over 60s, and then prioritising under 16s. Five government departments – the Department for Work and Pensions, the Department of Health, The Department for Children, Schools and Families, the Department for Communities and Local Government and my department – five departments coming together to make an iconic commitment to promoting physical activity. I hope you will continue to see cross-departmental engagement on shared agendas. 

That scale of ambition for physical activity frees us to make a similarly ambitious and focussed commitment to sport. 

That commitment starts with a new way of working for a leaner, fitter Sport England.

Sport England is going to act more strategically as a commissioner of sports development – with a much bigger role for governing bodies, but also through the community sports clubs and networks and as a partner with other public bodies.

It will work with the Youth Sport Trust to provide high-quality coaching and competitive opportunities to all young people in school - five hours every week - and help them move on to the club system. It will also work in partnership with UK Sport to create support systems and clear pathways to success for our most promising and talented performers.

What I see as the most important change though is for Sport England to strike a new partnership with each of the National Governing Bodies. In return for greater freedom and control over public funds, governing bodies will be challenged to expand participation and provide more quality coaching for more people.

I want to be clear what I think this means. I’m expecting governing bodies to reach young people from all walks of life – not just the ones in schools with the space and resources to play cricket, or the ones with parents who can afford extra coaching and membership fees and do all the driving that’s sometimes needed.

I’m expecting the experts to give everyone who wants it a grounding in the basics – how to control a backhand pass, how to play a pull shot, how to take two seconds off your 100m personal best.

I’m expecting NGBs to develop competitive structures for young people in all parts of the country and to build a modern club structure anyone and everyone finds welcoming and accessible. We want clubs that think carefully about the experiences of young members, indeed put young members at the centre of all they do. That may mean culture change for many – but it is time to make those sacrifices. We need to be ready to think innovatively about engaging young people in sport – hear their voice very clearly. Indeed, I would expect the most forward thinking to have young people on main councils of committees.

Don’t think I’m anti-technology. Innovative thinking means using new technology to engage young people in new ways.

My plans for that include a National School Sports website that showcases competitive sport in schools. This would essentially be the first ever school leagues results service. One where children can track and compare team and individual performances and results. I want a site that says, we’ve seen what’s possible with YouTube and MySpace and so on. One that hosts video clips of the best goals and saves or throws. One that gives kids the chance to post their own match reports, make films and commentaries. One that combines that best of school sport and the best of the net.

I also want to see us making much cleverer use of social networking sites to sell sport – and opportunities to get involved – to children and young adults.

We should build a culture and community of interest in school and community sport such as exists in America. For those sports that don’t get media coverage, this new system could be the way to capture young minds.

The NGBs and everyone involved in community sport could start by asking themselves two basic questions.

First, how can we make the link between schools and sports clubs clearer and stronger? How can we make the transition easier and more attractive for young people?

Second, how welcoming are we? If a young woman walked into our club or training ground for the first time? How welcome would she feel? How comfortable?

This all ties in with what we’re expecting from the professional game. I expect the wealthier sports to pool some of their own resources together with public funds to make sure their development plans really take off.

Sport is ultimately about people, and people performing to the best of their ability. We are trusting you – the people who dedicate their lives to sport with the power to change sport. We want to liberate sport’s experts and elite performers to inspire more people to get off the couch and back into sport, to sustain that enthusiasm and provide a quality experience which will allow individuals to excel.

In return for public money and the new freedom comes responsibility.  Governing bodies will be expected to operate to high standards of internal organisation and democracy, ensuring that the voice of all levels and participant groups can be heard. This should be the standard of good governance for the modern governing bodies. School and youth sports centre stage, women and girls’ games, and disability sport, not an optional extra, but a vital part of what governing bodies will be required to do. And if any sport does not wish to accept the challenge, funding will be switched to those that do.

Sport's power to captivate is unlocked in the thrill and drama of competition. I want people of all backgrounds and ability levels to experience the joy and friendship that competitive sport brings.

I’m confident that we have now got the right vision for 2012 and beyond and everyone here, across all the levels of sport, we all have a role to play.

There’s been a lot of change in recent years, indeed that’s a legitimate criticism in some respect, but I can’t stress enough that this is not a top down Government agenda. It’s not elitist. It’s about putting the experts and enthusiasts in charge to create opportunities for all and the healthy 'playing to win' culture in English sport that we all believe in.

You come forward with new ideas and ambitious goals and I’ll back you with support and resources. The ball is in your court.

Thank you.

[Ends]
 

 

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