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Education, Children and Young People Committee 18 March 2026 [Draft]

18 Mar 2026 · S6 · Education, Children and Young People Committee

Item of business

Community Sporting Initiatives for Children and Young People

Mark Williams Watch on SPTV

Your first question was about increased attendance. We wanted that to happen, which was why we introduced Denis Law’s academy. We wanted young people to feel better about being at school so that they would stay in school for longer and teachers have reported that participants have come back to school more motivated and more interested in what is happening there and they at least want to finish fourth year and perhaps want to go on into fifth year. It is early doors, but we are seeing that happening.I can break your second question into two parts by talking about what works well and also about the barriers.I will begin with what we feel works well. Collaboration is key and every charity needs to work in partnership, but that does not mean that it always works out nicely when partners come together and there are a few instances where we have to realign. Multi-agency collaboration is key, but, although I do not want to say that it is competitive, lots of charities are doing work in schools. If another one parachutes in, it is important not to replicate or duplicate but to do things differently and to look at where the gaps are or at what is not working currently.That is where we have done something different because we actually take the kids out of school. They do not want to be at school, so we take them out for an hour or two in the afternoon to work with them. That is where our programme is different to the work of other organisations that are currently delivering.You have to make sure that you work with the right young people, not those who just do not want to go to maths today but the ones who are potentially on the brink of expulsion and really do need care now—that is who we work with. It is very important that we work with the right kids. It is also important to have shared values: you should never work with a partner, a local authority or whoever, if they do not share your values.The barrier to working with local authorities comes from their short-term funding cycles. It can also be very competitive, because a number of other charities are looking to get into schools. They want to tap into those pots of money, but they are little pots and they cannot go everywhere. I am keen that we do not deliver a half-arsed programme. We will do it the way we want to do it because we know what works with young people and we will do it the way that we have said will work for them. We need to deliver. We cannot water it down, otherwise it will start to not work.That is one barrier and another is capacity pressures, not just for us but for schools. They are stretched, the local authority is stretched and the police are stretched, so we have to try to do what we can.Those are the barriers and that is what works well.

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Education, Children and Young People Committee 18 March 2026 [Draft]

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