A new government strategy for sport has been met with scepticism by some stakeholders, questioning the ability of the Conservatives to deliver on their “unapologetically ambitious” scheme to transform activity levels by 2030.
“Get Active” is the first sports strategy to be published by the government since 2015 and has been long awaited. Its scope is broad and includes ambitions to make elite sport more sustainable and improve integrity and safety for athletes. Its central focus, however, is on increasing physical activity among regular Britons with targets of 2.5 million more adults and 1 million more children hitting the recommended amount of activity by 2030.
The strategy has been welcomed publicly by some key stakeholders, with Sport England’s chief executive, Tim Hollingsworth, calling it “a highly ambitious document that clearly understands the role activity can play in the health and wellbeing of our nation”. Ali Oliver, the Youth Sport Trust chief executive, said it was “an important staging post towards a future where fun, engaging opportunities to be physically active are embedded into every child’s daily life”.
The National Sector Partners Group, meanwhile, which comprises a number of sporting bodies, said: “The inclusion in the new strategy of participation targets provides clarity around the government’s ambitions for a more physically active population and to reduce existing inequalities. We look forward to seeing how these ambitions translate into clear, sustainable delivery plans that focus on the growth and development of the sector.”
Behind closed doors, however, and there is frustration that the strategy does not deliver concrete proposals for effecting change that will enable such ambitious targets to be reached in just seven years.
Instead the government has determined to launch a National Physical Activity Task Force, a cross-departmental body chaired by the secretary of state for culture, media and sport, Lucy Frazer, and the former England rugby union international Ugo Monye that will “provide clarity on what good looks like from a government perspective, and a framework for investment and co-investment”.
One senior sports industry executive told the Guardian: “The intent is right and the language is right and targets are great but you’ve got to hit the ground running if you want to make the change,” citing an absence of delivery plans within the strategy.
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Another questioned the ability to hit targets without a systematised approach and compared the current way of operating to “working with your hands tied behind your back.” The chief executive of London Sport, Emily Robinson, meanwhile, noted simply that the strategy “ultimately fails to provide any new funding to support inactive people to get moving”.
Underpinning the scepticism is not only frustration at an absence of granular proposals, but a recognition that there remains little over a year until the government has to call a general election. “Let’s see how the taskforce goes,” one executive said, “but what we’re also really keen on is making sure we have the conversations with both the government and the opposition on what they’re going to be doing for the next five years from 2024 onwards.”
Labour’s shadow sports minister, Jeff Smith, said: “This long delayed report continues the tradition of words but no substance from this government on sports. Instead of another taskforce, the government should come forward with a substantive plan to get our country more active. Labour would include a greater emphasis on sports in schools to set young people up for active lives.”
