Sport policies for young people: PESSCL and PESSYP

The PESSCL strategy was launched on 2 October 2002. The programme was designed to deliver a joint Department for Education and Skills (DfES) and Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) programme under a Public Service Agreement (PSA) target². This meant that the strategy adopted a new

2 Public Service Agreements (PSA) were national targets for public services set by the government to ensure policy priorities were being met. PSA targets detailed a government department‟s high-level aims, priority objectives and key outcome-based performance targets (Grix & Phillpots, 2011). DCMS plays a key role in the delivery of a range of government Public Service Agreement targets. DCMS PSA target was set in 2004, to enhance the take-up of sporting opportunities by five-to sixteen-year-olds so that the percentage of school children in England who spend a minimum of two hours each week on high-quality PE and school sport within and beyond the curriculum increases from 25 percent in 2002 to 75 percent by 2006 and to 85 percent by 2008, and to at least 75 percent in each School Sport Partnership by 2008 (Quick et al., 2008). In 2008, the PSA 22 target was to deliver a successful Olympic Games and Paralympic Games with a sustainable legacy and get more children and young people taking in part in high quality PE and

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delivery arrangement for youth sport in which key agencies worked in partnership to meet policy outcomes that were tightly managed and controlled by government (Phillpots, 2011). The PESSCL strategy initially included eight separate strands of work: Specialist Sports Colleges (SSC), School Sport Coordinators (later subsumed within the School Sport Partnerships), Gifted & Talented, QCA PE &

School Sport Investigation, Step into Sport, Professional Development, School/Club Links, and Swimming. PESSCL was delivered by a project board made up of representatives from schools, the Youth Sport Trust (YST), Sport England, government departments including DCMS and DfES, NGBs, the physical education professional associations, Ofsted and the QCA (DfES &

DCMS, 2003).

The overall objective of PESSCL (DfES & DCMS, 2004) was to create a Public Service Agreement Target (PSA) to:

Enhance the take-up of sporting opportunities by five- to 16-year-olds by increasing the percentage of school children who spend a minimum of two hours each week on high quality physical education and school sport³ within and beyond the curriculum from 25% in 2002 to 75% by 2006 (p.1).

This target was increased to 85% by 2008, with a further aim for children to have access to at least four hours of physical education and sport each week by 2010 (Ofsted, 2005b). In line with these targets, central government was later working to deliver PSA 22 through PESSYP which sets out an even more ambitious success measure of the „five hour offer‟ (YST & Sport England, 2009). Ultimately, PESSCL was designed to raise the achievement of young people through participation in physical education and sport in order to contribute to the delivery

Sport. To do this, it was ensure that all 5-16 year olds should have access to two hours of high quality curriculum PE and three hours beyond the curriculum per week. Also, 16-19 years olds should have access to three hours of sport outside of the curriculum (Sport England & YST, 2009).

3 High quality PE and school sport produces young people with the skills, understanding, desire and commitment to continue to improve and achieve in a range of PE, sport and health-enhancing physical activities in line with their ability (DfES & DCMS, 2003, p. 3). The basic principle of high quality is that which enables all young people, whatever their circumstances or ability, to take part in and enjoy PE and sport; promote young people‟s health, safety and well being; enable all young people to improve and achieve in line with their age and potential (DfES & DCMS, 2004, p.1).

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of the five Every Child Matters outcomes (YST, 2007). Considerable resources were allocated to support these policy developments, financed substantially by the Exchequer, with additional funding from the National Lottery‟s New Opportunities Fund (NOF).

At the heart of the PESSCL/PESSYP are SSCs and SSPs.

i) Specialist Sports Colleges (SSC)

SSCs were introduced in 1997 as part of the Specialist Schools Programme, with the sports college designations led by the Youth Sport Trust. Specialist School initiatives aimed to achieve educational innovation and whole-school improvements in terms of working with partner schools and local community groups including private sector sponsors and other local schools (Houlihan, 2000;

Penny & Houlihan, 2003; Phillpots, 2012). In a similar vein, government investment in SSCs reflected the changing context of resourcing and training within education (Phillpots, 2012). SSCs had targets for achievements in terms of four year school and community development plans (DfES, 2003):

 To develop the skills and understanding of teachers to raise the quality of teaching and learning in PE.

 To extend provision and facilities to benefit all students of all sporting abilities.

 To support the government‟s aspiration for all young people to have two hours high quality per week PE within and outside the curriculum.

 To work with other schools and the wider community in developing and sharing good practice, facilities, human and other resources.

 To be involved in national initiatives and competitions that enrich provision in physical education and sport for their own pupils and those in their partner schools.

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SSCs had a key role to play in raising standards of teaching and learning in physical education and school sport and to achieve sporting excellence in terms of widening the base of participation of sport activity and providing good coaches, working with the NGBs (DCMS, 2000; Houlihan, 2000). The Youth Sport Trust was responsible for supporting and developing the programme and DfES supported schools and local authorities to encourage the expansion of the network of SSCs (DfES & DCMS, 2003; Flintoff, 2008a). A total of 450 schools were designated as the SSCs by 2006. The goal of the SSCs also was:

At the forefront of developments in school physical education and sport. All of them work with other schools to share their expertise, resources and good practice, so that locally there is a „family of schools‟ working together to provide training and support for teachers (DCMS, 2000, p.30)

Above all, at the heart of the success of the SSCs was the ability to work in partnership with other schools and local clubs. Furthermore, the specialist schools were intended to help school sport partnership leaders to recognize the difference being made to young people and decide the most effective way to direct support, advice and resources in terms of providing vital information to support the national strategy for PESSCL (DfES, 2005).

ii) School Sport Partnerships

Under PESSCL and PESSYP, the School Sport Partnerships programme (previously the School Sport Coordinator Programme) was the key driver to offer young people high quality sport opportunities within and beyond the curriculum.

SSPs „rolled out‟ from 2000 to provide an infrastructure of support to schools to help them „deliver‟ on the PSA target. Six strategic objectives were set (DfES &

DCMS, 2003, p.7):

 Strategic planning - develop and implement a PE/sport strategy

 Primary liaison - develop links, particularly between Key Stages 2 and 3

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 Out of school hours - provide enhanced opportunities for all pupils

 School to community - increase participation in community sport

 Coaching and leadership - provide opportunities in leadership, coaching and officiating for senior pupils, teachers and other adults

 Raising standards - raise standards of pupils‟ achievement

As can be seen in Figure 1, the typical model of SSPs is a family of schools, a cluster of secondary and primary schools centred on the SSCs. The preferred model consisted of: a full time Partnership Development Manager (PDM) located at the local Specialist Sports College or Local Education Authority (LEA), who was responsible for the strategic development of Partnership; the release of one teacher from each secondary school two days a week to allow them to take on the role of School Sport Coordinator (SSCo); the release of one teacher from each primary or special school 12 days a year to allow them to be the Primary Link Teacher (PLT); and Specialist Link Teachers who fill the gaps created by teacher release (DfES & DCMS, 2003). The average number of schools within a Partnership was 37 in 2003/04, but this number had increased to 47 in 2007/08 due to the increase in the mean number of primary schools within Partnerships (LP, 2008a).

Figure 1 The preferred model of the School Sport Partnership (DfES & DCMS, 2003)

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By the end of 2007 all state-maintained schools (21,727) in England were in School Sport Partnerships, arranged into 450 different partnerships (Quick et al., 2008). SSPs amounted to „families of schools‟ that received £270,000 funding per year and were required to work together to develop sustainable physical education and sporting opportunities for young people and to boost sports opportunities in the locality.

Within the SSPs programmes, the Gifted and Talented strands aimed to identify and develop young people‟s talent potential through the strengthened school-club links and multi-agency initiatives such as Multi-Skills Academies. In a similar vein, in December 2004, Competition Managers were appointed to manage and co-ordinate the delivery of the new framework through a programme of inter or intra-school competitions (Phillpots, 2011). Competition managers were an integral part of the SSPs, working closely with NGBs to ensure the alignment of the network in order for young people have high-quality competitive opportunities⁴ (YST & Sport England, 2008).

Step into Sport’s aim was to increase the quantity, quality and diversity of young people involved in volunteering and leadership, which enabled schools to grow young people as leaders and deploy them as active volunteers both within the school and community settings (Kay & Bradbury, 2009; YST & Sport England, 2008). Accordingly, government expected Step into Sport to be a pathway of leadership and volunteering experiences from KS3 to KS5 (aged 11-19) through several initiatives including Sport Education, Level One Sports Leadership, Top Link, Level Two Community Sports Leadership and Community Volunteering (Kay & Bradbury, 2009; YST & Sport England, 2008). In this regard, DfES &

DCMS (2003, p.11) clearly demonstrate that the programme had clear potential to enhance youth citizenship.

4 With respect to competition opportunities for young people, the National Competition Framework was introduced in September 2005. The goal of the framework is to provide competitive opportunities for young people. Competitive Managers were to head up the initiative throughout their County (Edwards, 2011).

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2.3.2 Physical Education and Sport Strategy for Young People (PESSYP)