Meeting of the Parliament 04 October 2018
Thank you, Presiding Officer and fellow athlete. [Laughter.] In expressing my delight in taking part in this debate, I declare an interest as a lifelong sports fan and a father of a daughter whom I regard as my sporting star.
I was pleased to see the Scottish Government hold the first-ever women and girls in sport week 12 months ago. Here we are again, celebrating it across the country. Back then, we saw the creation of a women and girls in sport advisory board, which has the aim of encouraging more women into sport. That is absolutely a step in the right direction, but a year on, as we take part in the debate, a lot of hard work remains to be done to ensure that there is equity and equality of provision, not just with regard to addressing the disparity between boys and girls, but with regard to the link between deprivation and low participation and between rural and urban areas.
Many barriers remain, and they are particularly prevalent in rural Galloway and West Dumfries, where our budding female athletes often find that their opportunities are limited, or they face barriers in the form of transport costs and poor access to suitable facilities. Galloway athletes such as Jo Muir, who is an international modern pentathlete, or Kirsty Yates, who competes in the shot put, have had amazing success despite the barriers that rurality brings—barriers that are still there for young athletes in our region. Jo Muir’s, Kirsty Yates’s and my daughter’s sporting careers require them to travel in some instances more than three times a week from Galloway to Glasgow, Edinburgh or Sheffield for coaching, and to travel hundreds of miles to take part in various competitions.
The Government motion refers to the “positive work” being done by active schools to increase the participation of girls in sport. That is not the case when we look at what is happening in Dumfries and Galloway. Only this year, the Labour-SNP Administration saw fit to restructure and cut its active schools budget by £81,000, which in turn affected the matched funding from sportscotland. Sadly, that trend is set to continue in the coming years, with a potential further £120,000 set to be cut over the next two years, on the current projections.
That hardly sends out a positive message when we want to increase participation. Last week, a teacher contacted me bemoaning the lack of sports in school. The inter-school games, such as netball and basketball, have been cancelled because of transport costs. That is wholly detrimental to sporting development in school, at a vital age when our youngsters may be deciding whether to pursue a sporting career or simply whether to keep active. Rural communities already suffer social isolation and this debate offers a perfect opportunity to raise those concerns and make the Government aware of the reality in many rural schools.