Young People in Sport
The next item of business is a members' business debate on motion S1M-3840, in the name of Tom McCabe, on young people in sport.
Motion debated,
That the Parliament commends Hamilton International Sports Trust, which seeks to aid young amateur sports people in competition at the highest levels, for their support given to young people in South Lanarkshire; congratulates the young people supported by the trust on the success they have achieved; notes the work of sportScotland in this area, working to ensure that sport is more widely available to all with investment of £8.1 million per year; believes that such initiatives and investment promote confidence and community spirit among our young people; further believes that this type of community-based support from the local community would benefit other communities across Scotland, and believes that such initiatives, promoting access to sport and promotion of sporting excellence among young people, are worthy of suitable support from the Scottish Executive.
It would be a great honour to represent one's country in one's chosen sport and a great challenge to compete at the highest level. I am sure that many in the chamber have harboured dreams of scoring a goal or being the first at the finish line for Scotland or Britain. While, for most of us, that is only a dream, others have the aptitude, the ability and the determination to make their dreams a reality. They have managed to get near or even to the top of their chosen sport.
However, some sports do not have enough resources to fund all the costs of their athletes. In some sports in Scotland, it is even mandatory for international athletes to purchase squad tracksuits or other equipment from their own funds. That can be an expensive business, especially for those from low-income backgrounds.
That is one area in which the Hamilton International Sports Trust comes into its own. I pay tribute to the work that the trust has done and continues to do to promote sport and assist athletes to achieve the best that they can. I pay tribute also to the athletes from Hamilton and Blantyre—and indeed from a wider area—who have achieved recognition.
As members will realise, it is not all about recognition. I am sure that members will agree on the important broader benefits of sport—health and fitness, personal confidence and community spirit.
The Hamilton Advertiser is one of the best-known local papers in Scotland. It is currently campaigning against the anti-social behaviour that blights so many people's lives. Headlines such as
"Call halt to neighbours from hell"
appear all too often in that campaign. The Hamilton Advertiser would rather spend its time highlighting more of the successes that organisations such as the Hamilton International Sports Trust can inspire. I have no doubt that the same could be said in a great many communities throughout Scotland.
The Hamilton International Sports Trust was established in 1986 for local amateur athletes who are of, or are potentially of, international standard in their chosen sport. The trust provides up to 75 per cent of the expenses that are incurred in representing Scotland or Great Britain. It also provides a £250 grant towards general training costs which, in some sports, can be a considerable burden.
The trust has gone from strength to strength over the years since 1986 and has increased the aid that it provides by a factor of around 20. The trust's main fundraising efforts—an annual gala dinner and a professional-amateur golf tournament—are a big hit locally. Prominent local individuals, businesses and other groups contribute to the events' success. That a very high percentage of the businesses that supported the idea 16 years ago are still sponsors is a testament to the commitment of some of the long-standing trustees, such as Hugh Waters, Ronnie Smith, Jim Raeburn and Alastair Murning. The partnership between the local council, local business and trustees to give freely of their time is a model that could be repeated throughout Scotland.
I acknowledge sportscotland's work in encouraging and promoting athletic involvement. A recent award of £10,000 to the Blantyre and north Hamilton social inclusion partnership was most welcome. However, the Hamilton International Sports Trust received a start-up grant of just £1,000 16 years ago and has received nothing since. I believe that the template that it has established could be a model for the rest of Scotland, with adjustments to suit local circumstances. There is also a case for start-up grants that are meaningful in today's terms—for example, £10,000 per trust—and for some form of match funding to act as an incentive to any trust when it sets its targets for each year.
The Hamilton International Sports Trust's expenditure last year was around £30,000. That is not bad for a locally based group. However, that figure is meaningless until we know how that money is put to good use. The trust has given aid in the form of nearly 1,000 grants and scholarships. Aid has been given to many different sports, from aquatics to athletics, and in particular to minority sports.
There have been many success stories. The trust has supported Pamela Pretzwell, a young tennis star. She is now number 1 in Scotland and number 2 in Britain in her age group. The trust also builds long-term relationships. It has supported a young badminton player named Jamie Neil for seven years, starting when he was in the under-12 age group. He is now in the under-19 group, number 1 in Scotland and challenging hard for the top in the United Kingdom and beyond. Such examples demonstrate the opportunities that exist for young people whom the trust and the local public support.
The impact of sport and physical activity on young people is enormously positive. Sport provides an opportunity for personal and social development, as well as a positive alternative to crime, drugs and alcohol abuse. Sport channels young people's energies constructively. With essential assistance from family members and a local community, it can be a means of bringing and area together.
There is nothing like people getting together and supporting their local school team or children's sports squad. Sport has so much to offer young people. It improves health and fitness and it can boost confidence and self-esteem. It teaches leadership, teamwork and social skills that can be used in all aspects of life. Sport also offers worthwhile lessons on the value of both winning and losing, and teaches the benefits of hard work and how to treat others with respect.
Television, video, computers and increasing concerns over children's safety have led to a decrease in the activity levels of children and young people. Although most children take part in some form of sport or physical activity in the course of an average week, there are worrying trends with regard to the level and frequency of that experience.
Local sports trusts can offer real benefit to communities such as mine in Hamilton. Too many communities are blighted with the results of poor diet and dangerous lifestyle choices, such as smoking and excessive alcohol consumption. If we start with people at a young age and provide positive role models, we can change behaviour and improve our communities. That is why initiatives such as the Hamilton International Sports Trust and investment in sport, particularly in disadvantaged areas, are important if we are to combat those trends.
The Hamilton International Sports Trust is unique. It assists excellence in sport and encourages others to strive towards it. It is an example to other communities, with the local community collectively backing its own people. I commend the Hamilton International Sports Trust for its work. I believe that it and local projects like it are worthy of suitable support from the Scottish Executive, and I look forward to the Executive's response today.
We now come to open debate. I will allow four minutes for the first three speeches and three minutes per speech thereafter.
I congratulate Tom McCabe on bringing forward the matter for debate. I was unfamiliar with Hamilton International Sports Trust, but I have enjoyed hearing about its work and achievements. I commend the trust for its efforts.
My comments on young people in sport will be more general. Most people have their first experience of sport at school. Despite widespread agreement that we need to improve the participation of young people in sport when they are at school because of the major role that sport plays in improving health, motivation and achievement among young people across the social spectrum, there are difficulties and concerns about, for example, the shortage of trained physical education teachers and there are difficulties in accessing swimming pools and playing fields. We cannot ignore such issues. A lack of facilities and infrastructure at an early stage in life will seriously impact on the potential of our young high achievers.
If we really want to nurture young people towards competing at the highest levels, we need to establish an unbroken chain of sporting opportunity from school to club. We must also develop links between schools and universities and colleges; up to 60 per cent of young people now go straight from school into further or higher education. We also need links from those establishments to clubs. We lose talented athletes at all those stages, so there should be better co-operation between local authorities, sports clubs, sports councils and sport's governing bodies. They all have pivotal roles to play, and have specific obligations to promote sport and excellence in young people.
Nutrition is an aspect of sporting performance that I think is grossly neglected. Everybody would acknowledge that sporting youngsters need a healthy and nutritious diet. Some major sporting agencies, including Sport England and the English national football team, are sponsored by multinational confectionery companies and their products, including Jaffa Cakes and Mars bars. Most recently, we have heard that McDonald's has become sponsor of the Scottish Football Association. Such a level of sponsorship certainly brings in much-needed revenue to sport—I do not decry that—but for youngsters without an adequate knowledge of the proper nutritional fuel that is needed for sporting excellence, that sponsorship perhaps sends out the wrong kind of message.
It is accepted that, to excel at any sport, athletes need strength. If athletes do not know how to fuel their bodies properly for training and sport, they will lack the strength to achieve their full potential. We in Scotland are notorious for our very poor diet. For athletes at the elite end of the spectrum it is imperative that they get adequate nutritional and dietary guidance and support. In reality, however, very few do. There seemed to be a shortage of such advice even for our athletes at last year's Commonwealth games in Manchester.
Many athletes receive tuition and supplement their training regime privately. However, they are required to seek out that tuition and to fund it at their own expense. The new regulations in the food supplements directive might make that more difficult. Some people are not madly enthusiastic about any pills, even vitamin and mineral pills, but elite athletes cannot get all that they need from food and so must rely on supplements for optimum performance.
I would like nutrition to be given priority. There should be a programme of awareness raising and there should be much more discussion, involving everyone from children through to the sporting agencies and governing bodies. Knowing how to build a healthy body correctly is everyone's responsibility. Only in that way can we meaningfully support sporting excellence.
I am very pleased to take part in the debate and I congratulate Tom McCabe on having his motion selected. I did not know about the debate until this morning, but I am delighted to participate, because I am particularly interested in sport for young people—as a parent, I am involved in it most weekends.
I did not know a great deal about the Hamilton International Sports Trust, but I made an effort to find out about it. Needless to say, all the details that I found have already been relayed to the Parliament by Tom McCabe. For that reason, I will not focus my remarks on the trust. However, the extent of the trust's involvement is admirable and highly impressive, given that it received only a small amount of seedcorn funding. The trust has succeeded in attracting and channelling funds, with the aim not just of involving people in sport but of encouraging sporting excellence. As Tom McCabe said, it is a tremendous template. We should promote that template and encourage other bodies to take on board what the trust has done. They should see what they can learn from it and follow its example.
In the time that is allotted to me, I would like to mention a similar organisation—Leith Athletic Football Club. Leith Athletic was set up in the mid-1990s, essentially by local parents in Leith, to encourage children to play football on Leith links and—as the parents put it—to get them off the streets. It was felt that not enough was being done for young people. Although they liked to kick a ball, nothing was being organised for them. Soccer sevens were organised, and teams were set up and entered in the local juvenile leagues. The idea was to play not so much to win as for the fun of the game and for the coaching, which enabled people to pass on skills and help others to learn, and which took children away from the boredom of standing on street corners.
The club started to grow. It is now not just one of the biggest in Edinburgh, but in recent years the most successful. Last year Leith Athletic won the Scottish cup for under-12s. Its under-13 team, which the previous year had won the same trophy, took part in the tournament for its age group, where it lost to a team from Fife. The club now attracts players not just from Leith, but from Portobello and other neighbouring areas of Edinburgh. Leith Athletic has also established a successful girls football team. The club recognised that football is not just for boys and that there is a wider audience for it—many girls want to become involved.
However, Leith Athletic has to put up with fairly poor facilities. I have accompanied the club to tournaments in other countries, where the facilities were considerably better. Leith Athletic is not sitting back—it wants to improve its facilities and to work with other organisations such as sportscotland and the local authority. For some time, Leith Athletic has been waiting to develop the local tennis courts.
Just this week, we found that the local authority, which is planning to plant some trees on Leith links, had decided to plant one on the goal line, next to the corner flag, thereby obstructing play. The tree had to be relocated. The relationship with clubs and organising bodies is not good enough and more work has to be done on that. We have to take the template that Tom McCabe outlined, make it work throughout Scotland, learn from clubs such as Leith Athletic and show that with the voluntary spirit, in partnership with the authorities, we can raise funds and improve excellence.
It is helpful that Tom McCabe lodged the motion. He has certainly explained about the Hamilton International Sports Trust, which I did not know about and which could be copied elsewhere. I am the honorary president of a couple of athletics clubs and the people who run those clubs have to waste a huge amount of their time trying to get low-grade sponsorship for their activities. If we got local business communities to co-ordinate and set up a fund that would help clubs and individuals, that would avoid there being a huge amount of wasted time.
I will talk about clubs, which other members have covered aspects of well. Local clubs are the basis of most of our sport, but we do not give them enough attention or financial support. In Denmark, instead of having one organisation, like our sportscotland, there are two separate organisations. One supports higher-level, professional or international sport and the other supports amateur and local sport. We could copy that structure. Too much effort goes into projects such as building Hampden park rather than supporting local sports clubs.
We could support clubs more—very small sums can help. Even £1,000 for a small athletic club to help pay for the buses to go to away tournaments in different parts of the country would be a huge benefit. We are not talking about big money, because well-directed small amounts would do a great deal of good.
We could do more to encourage people to qualify as coaches, because quite often there is considerable expense involved in attending residential courses. Coaches and officials are the key to many activities, but football officials get so much flak that it is becoming increasingly difficult to find referees and linesmen. We want to encourage people and ease the path for them to become coaches, club organisers or officials.
Brian Monteith referred to the relationship with local authorities. In my view some local authorities charge far too much for their facilities, which is a drain on clubs' resources. Councils are obviously under pressure to make as much money as possible, but we could do more to help the clubs by meeting those charges.
I urge the Executive to talk to sportscotland and local authorities to find ways of channelling money directly to clubs in order to add to whatever the local authority is doing and to offer recognition of the importance of clubs to the community. I am sure that a little bit of money could be taken from social inclusion budgets or other budgets of that sort.
Without the clubs, many of which are really struggling, we will not progress. We need to have a really strong foundation that will produce excellent athletes and sportsmen at the highest level. It is better that 1,000 people play sport than that one person plays it well.
I congratulate Tom McCabe on securing the debate and on the role that he played when he was leader of South Lanarkshire Council in developing the Hamilton International Sports Trust. I have a particular interest in the debate because the trust covers part of my constituency. Talented sportspeople from Larkhall, Stonehouse, Ashgill and Netherburn are able to access, and have accessed, support from the trust. They have certainly benefited from that support and have welcomed it. Traditionally, incomes in those communities have not been high and parents are not able to provide some of the finances that are required to perform at the elite level. The trust has been able to step in and help.
As Tom McCabe said, many of us dream of being a superstar. Scots up and down the country will dream of scoring the winning goal at Hampden tonight, or of running the length of the pitch and scoring between the posts at Murrayfield on Saturday. Although it is a dream, history has shown us that some will make it.
It is important to get right the balance between elite and grass-roots sports development. I fully buy into the idea that we must invest in the grass roots because, if we do not, we will never have elite performers. We must encourage far more physical activity in our schools. That is why I support the idea of prescribing minimum weekly levels of physical activity in primary schools and of physical education in secondary schools. I welcome the Executive's commitment to considering how it can make it easier for PE teachers to move into primary schools to engage in such activity.
Sport is our most undersold resource. It can increase educational achievement and can promote self-esteem and motivation. That is why I welcome North Lanarkshire Council's development of sports comprehensives. I want sport in Scotland to be used much more effectively and positively.
As I have said, dreams are important, too, but without the inspiration of elite athletes and role models, for many young people sport will be nothing but a dream. Many young people who live in our most deprived communities aspire to become like those role models. Following in their footsteps offers a way out—it represents a vehicle to a different world. Some young people will make it, but some will do so only with the support of organisations such as the Hamilton International Sports Trust. That is why my local sports council is considering the development of a sports trust. I hope that the Executive will look positively at how it can support the development of such sports trusts and at how it can encourage greater grass roots and elite sport in Scotland.
I will take Irene McGugan's reference to infrastructure as my main point. During the rush to local government reform in 1995, there was a rush to spend and to put up facilities in many parts of Scotland. That was true of Ross and Cromarty District Council and of Inverness District Council. A series of fine sports centres were built in much of Ross-shire and Inverness. A stop was put to that in 1995.
Although we still have those centres, at present there are virtually no facilities for the bigger towns north of my home town of Tain. In the most remote areas, village halls are quite well catered for, as there has been a good building programme, but Wick, Thurso, Tain and the villages of east Sutherland are very short of sports facilities.
Highland Council's capital allocation means that it will never be realistic to build such centres, which typically cost between £2 million and £2.5 million. The days of the old district councils, when we could do things in the far north, have gone. My young constituents, who are the seedcorn of the future, do not have the facilities that are necessary to get people into sport at that key early age. I have made that point before.
In rolling out its schemes, the Scottish Executive should remember that some areas of Scotland are behind in their facilities. Therefore, my concluding point is to urge the minister, when she undertakes her good work in the future, to remember that the far north—Wick, Thurso, Tain and east Sutherland—are badly provided for. I make no apologies for saying so. There will be ways of establishing the necessary centres.
I compliment Tom McCabe for securing the debate and for offering us a methodology that could be developed. I will ask bodies in my area to consider what Tom McCabe has outlined to identify whether it represents a suitable model. I ask the minister to remember some of the poorer areas such as those that I represent.
In congratulating Tom McCabe on securing this evening's debate, I recognise the important work that is being done both in his area and in my constituency. Across Glasgow, there are excellent examples of efforts to encourage young people to be active and involved in sports. One important example is the free swimming and free swimming lessons that Glasgow now offers to all its young people. We now need to consider who is taking up that opportunity to see whether more needs to be done.
Two voices can be heard when we talk about a sports strategy. One discussion concerns how we promote excellence and how we get our young athletes to represent Scotland and the UK on the international stage. In that regard, I am sure that many members would share my regret that some young sportspeople, who would have done Scotland proud on the international stage, have been denied the right to participate in the paralympics because of the bizarre decision to exclude people with learning disabilities. That is a matter of regret.
Achieving excellence and representing one's country is important, but I will concentrate my remarks on the importance of sport in encouraging the involvement in and take up of activities. Our health statistics clearly underpin the importance of exercise and of being involved in sport. We know that tackling ill health is not just about buildings, no matter how important they may be, but about addressing lifestyle issues.
As the motion says, sport can also offer an important lesson about community spirit and involvement. I have a friend whose son is a young footballer, whose talents are, I am happy to say, currently being used in the east end of Glasgow. In discussing that with his parents, I made the point that they must be very proud of him. His mother, as wise as ever, said, "Yes, I am proud of him and, if he doesn't make it, I will at least know that, for the next five or six years, he will be doing something positive with his life rather than perhaps taking some of the dead-end options that might be open to him in the city of Glasgow." If for no other reason, I am sure that that is why many people welcome the importance of sport.
We need to consider how we support activity locally, particularly in disadvantaged communities. We need to consider the groups that are more reluctant to be involved in sport. We also need to consider how people get access to sporting facilities. Not every young person has a mum and dad who can run around in a car to take them from one place to another. We need to consider that issue imaginatively.
Before mentioning Euro 2008, let me say that we perhaps need to recognise that, sometimes, when we talk about sport, we talk too much about sports that encourage only the passive spectator in us all. In my view, football can be particularly troubling, given the fact that the closest that people get to activity is not even to go to the game but to sit and watch it in the pub. Here I make a plug for participation in sports such as running, in which the elites run with the poorest and lamest, such as myself. That is perhaps an important egalitarian principle that we should consider.
I want to ask the minister where the moneys that have been released from the Euro 2008 bid are going. A number of local initiatives in my constituency would benefit from that money. For example, Hillwood boys club and Mosspark boys club—which run teams for boys and girls—serve an important community need, but their only resources are the people who run them, so their means are extremely limited.
It is important that we consider initiatives to support young girls in sport. Again, we should consider the models that have been developed in Glasgow through initiatives such as the women's 10K and the Glasgow women's jogging network, which recognise that girls are less likely to take up sport than boys.
Finally, I ask the minister to address the lack of access to funding for organisations such as local sports clubs. Sometimes, as in the case of Mosspark boys club in my constituency, such organisations are encircled by social inclusion partnership areas but still cannot get access to funds, despite the fact that they are meeting the same needs as are being met by other groups in the SIPs.
I welcome the debate. I urge the Executive to examine the anomalies in funding and to address not only the delivery of sports initiatives but the factors that will improve access to those sports initiatives for youngsters in my constituency and elsewhere.
I, too, congratulate Tom McCabe on securing tonight's debate. It was only yesterday afternoon that I learned that the debate was to take place, so I was only slightly in advance of Brian Monteith on that. I congratulate all the members who have managed to contribute so well to the debate at such short notice. My only regret is that, in order to get my notes together last night, I had to forgo the first night of "Rigoletto".
Aw.
I am glad that someone is sorry for me.
The minister missed herself.
I know that I did. I was most disappointed, but it was perhaps worth it to hear about and celebrate the good work of Hamilton International Sports Trust. It is also important to have the opportunity to talk about the importance of youth sports.
I believe that seven competitors from the Hamilton area competed at the Commonwealth games in Manchester, including the judo bronze medal winner, Fiona Robertson, who I had the pleasure of meeting when I was in Manchester. That demonstrates the success that the trust has had in bringing on young athletes. The trust is an excellent example of a number of agencies working together.
I find it refreshing to hear about an organisation that received £1,000 16 years ago and has not come back for more since then. That bears testament to the organisation's tremendous fundraising record.
I am also pleased that the Hamilton International Sports Trust is promoting minority sports. Promotion of excellence and community involvement are important and we cannot have one without the other. As other members have said, we need grass-roots involvement and youth involvement to produce the elite athletes of the future. At the same time, elite athletes should be able to inspire the young people who are coming on.
As many members have said, sport is central to the promotion of social justice. It is also essential to the delivery of national priorities in education and health improvement. The Executive's physical activities strategy will be published tomorrow.
There is a desperate need to address the low level of physical activity in our population. We must foster habits of physical activity in young people. That will enable them not only to live longer—medical intervention can enable people to live longer—but to live healthier.
As we have heard, sport has the potential to regenerate communities. It empowers citizens and contributes to crime prevention by providing alternatives to anti-social behaviour. I agree with Tom McCabe that, unfortunately, the local and national media tend to prefer to concentrate on the bad things that young people do rather than the great successes that many young people achieve. It is a pity that we do not see better reporting of young people's successes in the field of sport.
Donald Gorrie is quite correct to say that the clubs are the cornerstone of sport in Scotland. We acknowledge that and are in discussions with sportscotland. One of sport 21's original aims was to foster more coaches and to provide better training for them. Unfortunately, we have not been able to deliver on that as well as we wanted to and we will return to that issue in the review of sport 21.
Johann Lamont made an important point about girls and young women. Unfortunately, girls' level of physical activity declines much faster than that of boys. By the age of 14, the majority of young girls are not taking sufficient physical exercise and we must address that in a number of ways. The same is true of older women, and I say that as someone who does not take enough exercise.
We have a number of programmes aimed at young people. I will not use up all my time by going through them, but examples include the New Opportunities Fund, the quality of life funding and end-year flexibility money. School sports development officers have been around for almost four years but that programme will be extended and we hope that it will be taken up in all schools, so that we can introduce young people to as many different sports as possible and give them choices, so that they can find a sport that they like and which they will continue to do in later life.
A scheme that is being worked up at the moment is the sports ambassador scheme. In that, we are aiming to use top sportspeople, such as the Commonwealth games medal winners, to work with young people and to provide good role models for them, and to promote healthy lifestyles and activities. I hope that we will be making an announcement on that soon.
A number of members mentioned sports facilities. The 2002 spending review includes a commitment to a national indoor facility. Certainly, part of the Euro 2008 bid legacy will focus on community and youth sports. Unfortunately, I cannot yet give Johann Lamont details, but I am sure that someone will be making an announcement in the future. We have been engaged in recent discussions with sportscotland and others about future requirements for indoor training facilities. We have also had discussions with the Scottish Football Association about its review of youth football and about the sort of training facilities that are required to improve our football chances.
Jamie Stone mentioned the problems of rural and remote areas. I recognise those problems because I come from a rural area. I know that access can be more difficult in more geographically remote areas. Access will be part of the review strategy.
While I am on that subject, members might be aware of the sportscotland consultation document "Time to Speak Up". The final review document will be launched at the end of March, and I hope that members of all parties will come to the launch. The document is not party political; it is about Scotland's sports strategy, and I hope that we will all be able to sign up to it.
On support for young athletes and their kit, which Tom McCabe has raised with me, the governing bodies are responsible for sending out representative teams that are properly prepared. The talented athletes programme includes some contributions towards kit. The junior groups funding can also provide some funding towards kit, but that would go through the governing bodies.
On start-up grants for trusts, I am happy to discuss that with sportscotland. Off the top of my head, I wonder whether some of them might qualify for awards from the Community Fund. I am taking a stab in saying that, but I am happy to look into the matter.
Irene McGugan made the point that people do not know about diets and supplements. The Scottish Institute of Sport at elite level provides a sports medicine department and advice on diet and appropriate exercise. That advice is also available through the six area institutes, so mechanisms and structures are in place to provide that sort of advice to young people.
There is not much more for me to say, because my seven minutes are up. I think that we are all agreed, irrespective of political difference, on the importance of physical activity and sport to the health of our nation and to the health and well-being of our upcoming generations. I am pleased that Tom McCabe secured the debate, and that we have had an opportunity to hear contributions from different sides of the chamber on how the issue can be furthered in future years.
Meeting closed at 16:26.