End of business adjournment debate (7pm)
on Reopening of school sport facilities ()
Advance copy of 's speech (under
embargo).
Thank you Mr Speaker
It’s a pleasure to bring this issue to the floor of the House and
be able to discuss opportunities to open up school sports
facilities to the wider community. It’s an issue that is close to
my heart, as a self-confessed sports fanatic, a hockey coach,
occasional football referee, parent of kids involved in
grassroots football, and as someone whose original ambition was
to be a PE teacher... I cannot overstate how important I think
sport, and particularly grassroots and community sport, is to our
physical and mental health, to the development and growth of our
young people, to our social fabric and our general wellbeing.
This role sport plays, the value of it, in the education and
development of the next generation has always been undervalued by
governments of all stripes. While the health benefits of physical
activity are obvious, sport also plays a major role in academic
achievement and careers. Dundee University (Link) have shown an increase
in academic performance by students who participated in more
exercise than their peers. If I wanted to get technical I could
even talk about how other studies have shown regular exercise for
children leads to better levels of concentration, or memory
(Link). But the real
point is, sport adds value across the board when it comes to
developing young people.
We also know that sport doesn’t only help develop the academic
potential of a young person, sport, particularly team games, help
encourage the social development of our young people and often
provide that first instance of teamwork for many kids. All of us
who have played sport also know about the highs and lows it can
bring and the character building that comes from these
experiences. The determination, competitive spirit, overcoming
challenges… These experiences help to make our young people more
resilient, and better able to deal with the highs and lows of
life.
The most disadvantaged communities also tend to be the least
active, and also tend to have less access to great sports
facilities. It’s a levelling up mission too, Mr Speaker, and it’s
really important.
So that said, we need to help more people to access it. There’s
lots to this Mr Speaker, and I could bang on forever. We had a
debate on school and community sports in this place recently, and
I don’t intend to repeat it all, but I’d flag again with the
Minister that both the PE and School Sport Premium, and also the
DHSC funding for School Games Organisers, both need confirming as
soon as possible.
This evening though I want to focus on school facilities. One way
to increase access to sports facilities across the country would
be ensuring schools are able to open their sports facilities for
public use. We’re investing in new sports centres, I’ve seen lots
of Levelling Up Funds and other funds come forward for new
facilities, including Warsop Leisure and Health Centre with is
really positive, and means that thanks to this Government we will
finally replace the old, dilapidated Leisure Centre that the
Mansfield Independent-led Council closed around four years ago…
that’s great. But I look across the road from the leisure centre,
and I see a school sports field, I see a MUGA and basketball
court, I see tennis courts, countless football pitches. School
sports facilities. It’s fortunate in Warsop that
some of these are open to the wider community,
only some, not all… but when I first came here to Parliament five
years ago Mr Speaker, I was shocked to find that the general
public are not able to access 45% of the sports facilities in
state-funded schools – almost half - have no public access. I’d
be willing to bet big money that the proportion is even higher
than that now as I can think of multiple large secondary schools
even just near me that have removed that access as a result of
Covid, which reduced the commercial viability of some of these
leisure facilities and made them a drain on school budgets.
I’ll give you an example, at Manor Academy in Mansfield
Woodhouse, post-Covid, the school closed the Sports Centre for
community use. It’s understandable, I’m not going to point
fingers at the school or Trust, because I understand why they
would feel that they should direct their funds towards the
academics and the students and they shouldn’t be subsidising
community leisure provision. I sympathise with that… so I’m not
here to assign blame.
However, we’re 18 months on now, and still multiple football
pitches, a hockey pitch, indoor sports hall and other facilities
remain inaccessible. The hockey club, in particular, remain
effectively homeless as there are no other suitable hockey
pitches in the whole of Mansfield. Only this one, that is
currently left unused. I’ve been trying to broker a solution,
between Councils and the Academy Trust, North Notts Hockey Club,
but it’s been a long hard slog. I’m hopeful that when we meet
again in a few weeks time we’ll have a solution to take forward
and maybe get the hockey club back on the pitch next season,
which would be positive - but it shouldn’t be that difficult!
This is a prime example though, Mr Speaker, of how arguably the
best sports facilities in the Woodhouse area, that supported
countless grass roots clubs with facilities, are there, visible,
but not available. Meanwhile, we’re short of hockey pitches - we
don’t have any - short of rugby pitches, on football pitches all
the major venues are full and across the area – across the whole
County in fact – I get grassroots clubs coming to me all the time
seeking more capacity. It’s indicative of the fact that sport is
very rarely the top priority for any of these organisations –
schools, councils, Government – and therefore this never makes it
to the top of the to do list. That’s something I’m trying to
shift within my own organisation, and I’m asking the Minister to
try and shift it here.
This example at Manor represents a missed opportunity to
significantly boost our grassroots sports, to meet some of that
need, and obviously to access all the positive implications this
has for the community, such as improved physical and mental
health. In many cases, facilities already exist. Surely, common
sense would dictate, that it would be quicker and cheaper to
simply open up existing facilities than to build new ones in many
cases. A small amount of infrastructure in terms of admin support
for bookings would be enough at some sites, at others advice on
managing liability and insurance, wading through the bureaucracy,
would allow clubs to take on management of facilities on the
weekends. At some, you might need a small amount of capital
funding for a portacabin for some changing rooms that can be
available out of hours, or you might need to sort out the gates
and access arrangements. These things are not unachievable.
It’s also the case that where clubs can have some certainty for
the long term, they can attract in the funding for improvements
from existing routes, like Sport England, like the Football
Foundation, or the County Council’s Local Community Fund. Some of
this could be managed locally, I’d volunteer my own Council to
manage it or pilot that administration if we could access the
funds to ensure we’ve got the extra staff capacity. It doesn’t
need Government to do it, in that sense. However, where it does
need Government’s help, is to set this clear direction of travel.
To offer the capacity to get started – a bit of up front support
with the proviso that this needs to be self-sustaining in the
long term – and I’m convinced that over time, with an initial
outlay on making facilities fit for purpose and getting
organised, in many cases it would be
self-funding, with efficient District or Countywide management.
It needs support to get going. Given that it is a levelling up
outcome, as I’ve said, with disadvantaged communities often
having least access, perhaps where Levelling Up Funds are likely
to be returned, perhaps, in coming months, as rising costs make
projects unviable, perhaps some of that could be repurposed to
help with this.
Second, Government needs to be absolutely clear that they expect
everyone to facilitate this, and be permissive when it comes to
navigating the bureaucracy. The biggest barrier is ‘the system’ –
the perceived safeguarding implications for schools (even on a
weekend when nobody is there), legal teams stressing about
insurance and liability, local planners rejecting permissions to
use sites during different hours, and though some schools are
keen to help, others see this as just not their job, don’t have
capacity or just won’t help to get it going. It requires lots of
partners to pull together, and as a result, it can feel
impossible. It shouldn’t take two years to sort a solution for
Manor Sports Centre. Government needs to be absolutely clear, and
demand that taxpayer funded facilities will be available for
taxpayers to use, and demand that partners and stakeholders
should be facilitating that use, not putting barriers in the way
of that.
I have heard about an Opening School Facilities Programme,
however I cannot point to a practical example of where this has
happened, I wonder if the Minister can tell me? I’ve heard of
pilot schemes to try and facilitate the administration and
bookings as I’ve described, but again I’ve heard no outcome, no
next steps from this. If Ministers want to help my Council with
some initial capacity, I’ll happily work with Government to get
this up and running in Notts and prove the case. Officials will
no doubt say there needs to be some open process or whatever, but
I’m stood here volunteering. If someone needs to pick up a next
step and give it a go, tell me what it is, and I’ll work with the
Department to take it forward.
I hope the Minister can perhaps update me on these programmes and
what is happening, particularly in light of the new Sports
Strategy that’s coming forward, which I understand will include
plans on accessing facilities. What is the next step in making
this happen, and ensuring that the sports facilities in our
communities are not mothballed, seen but not available for use?
How can I take that forward and ensure that Mansfield residents
have full access to all the wonderful community spaces that
exist, instead of them being locked away?