Pathways into Sport and Physical Activity

Speech by Ross Finnie on Wed 16th Sep 2009

Pathways into Sport and Physical Activity

The Presiding Officer (Alex Fergusson): The next item of business is a debate on motion S3M-4835, in the name of Christine Grahame, on pathways into sport and physical activity. We have little spare time in the debate, so I ask members to stick to the time allocations that are made to them.

Ross Finnie (West of Scotland) (LD): Thank you, Presiding Officer. I will not get into a debate about what a tight and what a wide eight minutes are, as that might waste more time.

The debate has generally been consensual. I will start from the beginning of the whole process. The committee was concerned about lower levels of participation in sport, therefore we took evidence from sporting organisations to get a better feel for why that was the case. I hope that Sandra White did not confuse the early evidence sessions with the substantive work that the committee subsequently undertook. Having found that there was considerable unanimity across the sporting organisations that their deep concern about the lower levels of participation had much to do with the physical abilities of pupils who presented to them, the committee extended the remit of its inquiry from being an inquiry into pathways into sport to being an inquiry into pathways into physical activity. I have much sympathy with Margo MacDonald, Elizabeth Smith and many other members in respect of the difficulty that we had with definitions.

We wanted to keep PE as part of what is required. We tried to set physical literacy as the minimum standard that we expect our school pupils to attain, although we obviously have not succeeded. If pupils attained physical literacy, sporting organisations would be able to attract and make use of a better cohort of people.

Of course, those were the broad aims of the committee. We were not in a position to solve the problems, but we entered into a very extensive inquiry-one of the longest that the committee has conducted-which produced substantive evidence to support the report.

Of course, the report presents a challenge to everyone in society. As Aileen Campbell pointed out, parents have a responsibility in this matter, and the report challenges them to address the physical state of their children. It challenges educationalists to tell us what they intend to do about the question of physical education. It challenges health providers, local authorities, sports clubs and, inevitably, the Government and the Parliament.

We must be careful in spelling out to ministers that by producing a report of this substance, the committee is seeking a positive response to its recommendations. I should perhaps illustrate what I mean with reference to a couple of recommendations. For example, in its response to the report, the Scottish Government said:

"Curriculum for Excellence includes within the experiences and outcomes for health and wellbeing, the expectation that schools will continue to work towards the provision of at least 2 hours of good quality physical education for every child every week."

The committee did not say that previous Governments succeeded in meeting that expectation; indeed, even Frank McAveety was gracious enough to accept that they had not succeeded. However, the evidence showed that the policy had simply not managed to get out of the Government documents in which it was embedded. Our point was that we should not rely on a policy being successful simply because it is embedded in a policy document.

The committee finds it disappointing that, in relation to its recommendation that

"the PE target"

should not be

"confused with other physical activity targets",

the Government responded:

"There is no question of the two hours of taught PE being confused with other aspects of ... Health and Wellbeing".

I am sorry, but I have to tell ministers that that is not the evidence that the committee received.

With regard to the remarks by the Minister for Schools and Skills on HMIE in his closing speech, we accept that ministers wrote to us to say that they were asking the inspectorate to change its approach. However, in its response, the Government said:

"The quality of children and young people's learning in physical education is evaluated and reported on in every school inspection."

I do not doubt that ministers are seeking to make changes with the inspectorate, but, again, I am sorry to say that that clear statement does not reflect the evidence that we received. There might be a grammatical point about the tense that was used, but we should not get into that now.

We are not trying to pin blame on anyone; we simply point out that a substantial report has been produced during the life of this Government and we hope that it will engage with us in trying to do something about the issues that have been raised. [Interruption.]

The Presiding Officer: Order. I apologise, Mr Finnie, but I must ask members who are entering the chamber to respect the fact that we are winding up a debate and that other members would like to listen to the speeches.

Ross Finnie: Notwithstanding the minister's caveat, I am encouraged-as, I am sure, is the rest of the committee-by the minister's statement that the experience of East Renfrewshire Council is to be commended. However, in its official response, the Government said that the kind of restructuring of the timetable that East Renfrewshire undertook to achieve the two-hour target would have an impact on classrooms and teachers. There was no note of encouragement in that response, although the Minister for Schools and Skills went further in his comments this afternoon. In any case, the committee has suggested that the timetable needs to be restructured, otherwise there will be no time in it for two hours of PE.

So, Madam Presiding Officer-[Laughter.] We will not refer to your sporting apparel, Presiding Officer. Many constructive comments have been made in the debate, and there has been unanimity on the committee's basic proposition that it is imperative to separate out physical activity and physical education-Margo MacDonald made that point very clear-and to ensure that our youngsters, whatever their socioeconomic background, can engage in physical activity and acquire a degree of physical expertise. As I said, by taking that approach we will ensure that there is a larger cohort of the population to whom sports clubs can make their pitch. In that respect, we acknowledge that the integration that sportscotland's sports advisers can achieve in schools and in making the crucial link between schools and sports clubs is critical to increasing participation.

The report has much to commend it. I hope that, even at this late stage, the Government will reflect on its immediate responses to the committee. From today's remarks by the Minister for Public Health and Sport and the Minister for Schools and Skills, I do not think that the Government's responses to the report accurately reflect what ministers intended. Some of the responses were overly dismissive. I hope that, just as the committee wants the recommendations to be taken forward, the Government will see its way to taking them forward, as that is crucial for educational attainment and the improvement of sport in Scotland. I commend the report and I hope that the Parliament will work to implement its recommendations.