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Enterprise and Culture Committee, 13 Mar 2007

13 Mar 2007 · S2 · Enterprise and Culture Committee

Item of business

Sport 21 and Sports Policy

Deacon, Susan Lab Edinburgh East and Musselburgh Watch on SPTV

This is an interesting discussion but, to be slightly provocative for a moment, it feels as if we are perhaps not being as challenging, either with ourselves or with one another, as we could or should be. I will throw a few thoughts into the melting pot for others to shoot down as they see fit. I have heard a lot today about what a good document "Reaching Higher" is, but that is what it is—a document. Like Karen Gillon, I want to hear more about what has changed, what has worked and what has improved, and not just over the past four years. Eight years ago, when I was a campaigns spokesperson for the Labour Party during the first elections to the Scottish Parliament, I was involved in discussions about sport 21, for example, and our aspirations post-devolution. I am sorry, but the rhetoric has not changed much. That is not necessarily a bad thing—in a sense, it is a good thing that people are united around a set of aspirations, but we have to do more to get behind what stands in the way of our reaching them. That is neither an explicit nor an implied criticism of Government per se; it is just that we need to drill deeper into why we sometimes all sign up to the same direction of travel but nothing happens. I raise two specific issues in that regard. I hope that no one is offended by what I am about to say, but I want to prompt debate and hold up a mirror to today's discussion. People who are not involved in policy making or in the kind of conversations that we are all used to having could be forgiven for not hearing an awful lot about the human reality faced by them, their communities, schools, families, parents and so on. All of us—I am no better or worse than anyone else in this respect—lapse into discussions about the sports agenda, the health agenda, the physical activity agenda and the education agenda. It strikes me that there is some basic, commonsense stuff here about what constitutes happy, healthy kids and communities—well-being, in the broadest sense. We need to give youngsters in particular a whole host of different opportunities, not just in sport—there is a parallel here with activities such as drama, as well as mainstream academic activities and so on. We may be reinforcing the problems by thinking about the issues in silos or under agendas, rather than thinking about the human dimension. I wonder whether, rather than reinventing strategies and continually finessing the analysis, we would be better having a hard-edged but practical conversation about what can be done to free up local activity, participation and involvement. Some of that can be driven from the top down, but an awful lot of it is about coming in behind what happens locally. All of us have seen absolutely transformational activities taking place around us, and I worry that we do not often enough ask the people who are leading those activities, "What could or should be done—or not be done—to enable you to do more and better?"My final point is on the issue of top performance, which Dougie Donnelly mentioned. I like the way in which the Scottish Institute of Sport, unlike many other organisations in Scottish life, uses the word "elite" without choking on it. Perhaps the roots of this issue are to be found in the Scottish psyche, but I feel that we too often pose a false dichotomy between excellence and participation. That happens not just in sport but in other areas of life. I wonder whether we perhaps need to lighten up about that. All of us know, both analytically and from practical experience, that both things are needed. Youngsters who will struggle to run from one end of the playing field to the other need to be enabled at least to have a go, but it is every bit as important that we ensure that we have the next Liz McColgan or Yvonne Murray coming along. We need to create role models, too. Do others share my sense that we are struggling conceptually with that issue in posing a false dichotomy between excellence and participation?

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Enterprise and Culture Committee, 13 Mar 2007

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