I thank my hon. Friend for that very good point. I am about to come on to that issue, so I shall just pause my response, but I will cover it.
To return to the school sports partnership, there was the worry that after the £150 million had been spent year on year for a number of years, still only two out of five young people were involved in competitive sport. The reality is that if someone is good at sport, that is probably because their parents have encouraged them, and they have probably already signed them up to competitive teams. What the figures did not show was what was happening with the other three out of five children; it was probably the only opportunity that they had to be active. Therefore, the figures were not telling the full story and it was absolutely right for the Government to continue that provision.
Leading on from that was the desire to reinstate the school games, which was competitive sport. I speak from the experience of invariably being on the losing team—that set me up well for being involved in politics later in life. But I think that it is important for children not always to win. My hon. and learned Friend the Member for South Swindon (Mr Buckland) and I visit the Swindon school games every year, and they are a
fantastic success. Huge numbers of sports clubs are engaged, as are volunteers; and schoolchildren of all abilities are getting involved.
I also welcome the moves to encourage more troops to become teachers. There is a chronic lack of PE-confident teachers in primary schools. That is a real challenge. I have visited a number of primary schools, and they have said that it is one of the biggest challenges that they face.
I am very proud that when I was a councillor, I set up the Swindon sports forum, which brings together about 60 different sports clubs. They are not necessarily competitive sports clubs. They could be walking clubs or clubs aimed at those aged 60 and above. However, the forum brings clubs together to share best practice and to talk about how they can secure funding from external bodies and how they can sometimes share facilities. There have been a number of major successes in that respect.
We face another big challenge. We talk about the Olympic legacy, and straight after the Olympics or any major sporting event on the television, young people are inspired and want to go and replicate the success that they have seen on the television. Sports clubs are then overwhelmed, in the short term, by huge numbers of new participants. The problem is that the number of children who can benefit is capped by the number of volunteers who are available. Sports clubs are no different from charities, political parties or other organisations when it comes to the real challenge of finding sufficient numbers of volunteers. I am a big fan of the Government’s National Citizen Service programme, because it is training young people to be good, constructive citizens. I think that we should look to channel more of those volunteers, in the summer, to go on to become sporting volunteers to help sporting clubs.
There also needs to be a lot more work among youth services, leisure centres and traditional sports clubs. I remember that when I was a councillor, the three would never talk to one another, but I also remember pointing out that on a Friday night there was the ice skating disco. That was not technically sport, but it had 650 teenagers going round very quickly in a circle chasing after people they found attractive, so I argued that it was probably the most beneficial way of getting young people active.
Finally, there is the big plea that I have made as an MP. We have amazing facilities in this country. Whether it is the schools, sports centres or community facilities, they are fantastic facilities. However, we charge an absolute fortune for voluntary groups to come and provide constructive activities, whether for older people or for younger people. It is very hard to get volunteers, and I think it is unacceptable to charge them for the privilege of helping people to be active. In my utopian world, between the hours of 4 o’clock and 6 o’clock, all school buildings would be available free of charge to groups that provide constructive activities for young people. That would help busy parents. It would help to tackle the obesity crisis. It would provide constructive engagement, which stopped me going down a very different path. I make that plea for all parties. There is good cross-party support on the wider principle, and I think that that is the most tangible way in which we could make a big difference.
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