POLICY
T
he UK government has published its new strategy for Sport and Physical Activity – Get Active – and quite rightly sector bodies are publicly rowing behind it – why wouldn’t they? – but at least the CEO of London Sport has been brave enough to suggest the ‘emperor has no clothes’ by pointing out that without additional resources the government’s ambitious targets will be difficult to achieve. I’ve lost count how many government sport strategies I’ve seen but they’ve all been pretty similar with the exception of the last one – published in 2015 – which was more radical, on the back of the post-Olympic failure to increase participation. It proposed a shift in policy to sport and physical activity, aligning this with health improvement as a cross-government priority
and really focusing Sport England and the sector on finally addressing ingrained inequalities. This triggered the huge shift in Sport England policy ultimately set out in Uniting the Movement, a strategy pretty much welcomed across the board by the sector. There was for many of us a real sense that things were going to change for the better, despite the decade of austerity driven by this very same government, but the anticipated change has not yet happened, partly – but not entirely – due to a pandemic, an energy crisis and a cost of living crisis. Recent critiques In response to mounting concerns in December 2021 the House of Lords select committee published its report calling for a National Plan for Sport, Health and Wellbeing and setting out a wide-
The strategy offers no inspiring new vision and is certainly not a radical national plan for sport, health and wellbeing
PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK/DRAZEN ZIGIC
GET ACTIVE Martyn Allison dissects the UK government’s new physical activity and sport strategy
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