The Sport And Recreation Environment Physical Education Essay

This report as part of the ISRM Higher Professional Diploma in Sport and Recreational Management has been undertaken to both explore and look at the role sport plays in society, in particular how sport and leisure has developed in the last twenty years. It will also provide an explanation to the variations to the structure of the sport and recreational sector with an insight to the roles and functions of key organisations, organisations such as Clubmark, Inclusive Fitness Initiative and the English Federation of Disability Sport.

In addition it will review the leisure industry as one of the fastest growing industries in the world, fed by an expansion of people’s leisure time and spending. It will also provide awareness regarding the various schemes that have been put in place by local and central government to help accommodate people from all backgrounds, gender, race and ability.

2.0 Overview

In recent years the UK leisure industry has grown and become wide-ranging in terms of ownership, with a substantial input from commercial, charitable, public and voluntary sector providers. Leisure now accounts for almost 30% of total consumer spending, and has grown in significance to such an extent that a specialist government department has been established called the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) to oversee and drive forward sport sector programmes and projects.

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Projects include the 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games and support the bid to bring the 2018 World Cup to England. Their main objective is to improve the quality of life for all through cultural and sporting activities, to support the pursuit of excellence and to champion the tourism, creative and leisure industries. (DCMS 2011)

This is achieved by providing advice for Ministers to enable them to drive forward sport sector programmes and projects, and work with the sports delivery Non-Departmental Public Bodies (NDPBs). The bodies include, Sport England, UK Sport and UK Anti-Doping. In addition the DCMS also support initiatives to promote equality in sport and works closely with the HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) and the Central Council of Physical Recreation (CCPR) to promote the Community Armature Sports Club which offer tax relief to local amateur sports clubs.

The majority of sports that take place in society are structured and controlled by a number of contributing factors, these include

Your location and environment

Occupation

Disposable Income

Marital status

Age

Mobility

Time

Overview Continued

The above factors surround that of an individual but more often than not both the environment and society we occupy dictate what sport we become most interested in. The rational being affordability, some sports tend to be out of the reach for some people especially those living in less lucrative areas.

However Government strategies have changed over the last 10 years, they have now come to realise the health benefits to the nation in terms of both reduced costs to the National Health Service and lost time and its effects on the economy and production.

The realisation has meant that sport has become affordable and available to more people. The objective is to encourage service users to take part in as much physical activity as possible taking into account, gender, ethnicity, religion, disability, social inclusion and deprivation.

3.0 The Growth of the Leisure Sector

The leisure structure has changed radically over the last ten years, there has been an intense shift in leisure development, basic sports and leisure facilities are no longer always the first choice of entertainment activities.

Over the last decade the commercial leisure industry has been one of the fastest growing sectors of the UK property market. This growth has been underpinned by the dramatic growth in leisure spend and fuelled by a select number of leisure activities, particularly multiplex cinemas and the health and fitness industry.

New attractions have also emerged that combine a mix of leisure and retail uses and draw visitors from a much wider catchment area. Examples include the Trafford Centre Manchester and Liverpool One. The leisure market has been the subject of some profound changes over recent years. The mix of social and economic conditions which prevailed in the late 1990s has triggered the arrival of a much more mobile and astute customer seeking not just value for money, but also increased choice in terms of leisure environments and experiences i.e. Chill Factor and Crosby Boating Lake Arena.

3.1 Factors that have helped contribute to Growth

Improved standards of living.

Increased sponsorship deals from televised sport

Support from Advisory Sports Council and Independent Sports Council

Education surrounding academic qualifications in sport

Sport England, Clubmark and Inclusive Fitness to support people with disabilities

Private company buy in and investment

Local government realising the impact that sport and activity can have on a person’s health and wellbeing.

Local government investment in new facilities that they provide for local people.

3.2 Expected Market Changes.

Obesity is an on-going problem and as such is predicted to increase in the future, this is likely to provide be an increase in GP exercise referrals to face this problem. This will increase both the revenue and participation within the leisure environment. With no likelihood of an end to the obesity problem the leisure industry will continue to be provided with a convenient supply of customers long into the future. Initiatives such as Fit for the Future aim to reduce the number of overweight people in the future by encouraging them to join a health and fitness club.  In support of this the Fitness Industry Association (FIA) has lobbied for tax concessions for individuals’ spending on health clubs. The argument being that a healthier lifestyle will reduce obesity and overweight-related treatments for The National Health Service (NHS).

Over the last decade the mortality rate has increased, government statistics indicate the number of people aged over 55 by the end of 2010 will have increased. As the proportion and number of both ‘time-rich and cash-rich’ customers increase the leisure industry will seize the opportunity and take advantage on the opportunities this will provide.

The government, through Sport England and other regional bodies, are investing money into schools, community sports, elite sports, coaching provision and training for PE teachers. It is anticipated that job opportunities will increase in sport development and coaching.

Hosting the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games will have far-reaching effects on community regeneration, with a predicted 70,000 new jobs (including voluntary positions) and £17billion investment in sports and facilities.

4.0 Participation in Sport

A survey conducted by Sport England under Active People Survey, returned the following results. The fourth year of the survey, Active People Survey 4, started in October 2009 and ran continuously for 12 months until the middle of October 2010.

The full year results were published on 16 December 2010. 

Key highlights from Active People Survey 4:

During 2009/10, 6.938 million adults (aged 16 and over) participated in sport three times a week for 30 minutes at moderate intensity (16.5% of the adult population in England). This is 123,000 more adult participants than the 2007/08 baseline.

Compared with Active People Survey 2, sports participation among non-white adults has increased by 64,100, from 722,800 (16.1%) to 786,900 (17.3%).

Since 2007/08, participation in athletics (including running and jogging) has grown by 263,400 to 1.876 million adults (4.5%) in 2009/10.

Cycling has grown from 1.767 million adults (4.3%) in 2007/8 to 1.866 million adults (4.4%) in 2009/10, an increase of 99,200 participants.

The Wolfenden report

In October 1957, the Central Council of Physical Recreation (CCPR) appointed an independent Committee led by Chairman Sir John Wolfenden to examine general position of sport in England and to recommend what action should be taken by statutory and voluntary bodies if sports were to play their full part in promoting the general welfare of the community.

The decision to set up this Committee was made because of a general and growing feeling that some new initiative was required if sport was to be enabled to expand and develop to meet the present-day requirements.

The C.C.P.R. itself works only in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, however the Scottish Council of Physical Recreation were happy to co-operate which made it possible for the inquiry to cover the whole of the United Kingdom.

Sport Development

Sport Development plays and essential role in the development sport activities available to young people. More than a decade ago the opportunities within the school curriculum were extremely limited and usually only covered basic PE or football.

The culture has now changed within schools and they now encourage pupils to participate in a wide range of sporting activities, such as rugby, netball, hockey and swimming. The education systems has also embraced the changes offering academic opportunities to pupils within this subject.

Local Government Sports Development officers work closely with schools to provide them with the necessary skills to engage alternative sports, in most cases their skills are provided free of charge.

Sports Development are particularly involved with children at primary school age, at this stage the education system lacks resources in terms of PE staff to allow specialist sporting activities to take place.

The Sports Development team also assist Teachers to arrange special events, such as school galas etc. They also maintain a balance to ensure that the pupils who are less capable at achieving high sporting standards still have the same opportunities.

In addition Sports Development play an important role by both bringing groups of people together all ages and providing the necessary expertise to support funding applications via, Clubmark, Sport England and the National Lottery.

Clubmark

Clubmark is a multi-sport accreditation introduced in 2002 by Sport England to support amateur clubs with junior participants. Clubmark is designed to help sports clubs develop through proper planning and by making sure that proper procedures are in place to cover all eventualities. The aim is to empower parents when selecting a club for their children. When clubs achieve their own sports’ Award, they will also receive Clubmark which allows parents to easily recognise quality clubs, whatever the sport, because of the one cross-sport quality kite mark.

The Clubmark accreditation is only awarded to clubs that comply with the following four standards:

Duty of care and safety

Quality of coaching and competition

Fairness of opportunity (equity)

Club management

The benefits from achieving accreditation can include, increased membership benefiting from the raised profile on the Clubmark database and parent confidence. It will also provide the necessary support for developing coaches and volunteers within the qualifying clubs.

Social Exclusion

Social exclusion has been defined by the Department of International Development (DFID) as a process by which certain groups are systematically disadvantaged because they are discriminated against on the basis of their ethnicity, race, religion, sexual orientation, caste, descent, gender, age, disability, HIV status, migrant status or where they live.

To address the issues the Government formed a Task Force in 1997 to identify the people most at risk. In 2006 the Task for was closed down and transferred to the Social Exclusion Unit, It is smaller than its predecessor and sits within the Cabinet Office. It concentrates on preventative policies for hard to reach children and families deemed to have been immune from the government’s drives against social exclusion to date.

Policy Action Team 10 (PAT 10)

In 1997 the New Labour Government assembled the Social Exclusion Unit better known as the SEU. The unit was tasked with reporting on how to develop an integrated and workable method to deal with the problems of the worst housing estates and the report was also to include crime, drugs, unemployment, breakdowns in community and poor schools.

The report titles “Bringing Britain Together” produced findings that led to the setup of a number of policy action teams, the team was known as PAT 10.

The belief and outcome was that if youths were to take part in more sporting activities that youth crime figures would drop, this theory has now become the business focus for Sport Development.

Inclusive Fitness

The Inclusive Fitness Initiative (IFI) has been established to support the fitness industry to become more inclusive, serving the needs of both disabled and non-disabled people alike.

IFI has been working in collaboration with the fitness equipment manufacturers i.e. Lifefitness and Profitness for more than eight years to ensure that the equipment available on the market is as inclusive as possible.

The accredited equipment is intended for all users and is not specifically targeted at disabled people.  IFI has worked together with the industry to design a list of fitness equipment, the only list of its kind in the world.  

In order to ensure that as many disabled people as possible can benefit from both a cardiovascular and resistance based workout, the IFI recommends a minimum package of fitness equipment is installed (please note that wherever possible, this minimum should be exceeded). 

This minimum package includes the following key pieces to ensure a full body workout can be achieved by a wide range of users:

Treadmill

Upright and/or recumbent cycle

Upper body ergometer

Leg curl

Leg extension/leg press

Upper body resistance equipment including chest press, row, shoulder press and lat pull-down or equivalent upper body multi-station

Package of small equipment

Child Protection

In 2001, the Child Protection in Sport Unit was launched and jointly-funded by Sport England and the NSPCC. The unit’s responsibility is to help children play sport, stay safe, enjoy and achieve, It has set out Standards for Safeguarding and Protecting Children in Sport which national governing bodies and County Sports Partnerships (CSPs) are required to adopt in line with their statutory responsibilities, and best practice.

There are three levels of achievement:

Preliminary,

Intermediate

Advanced.

To qualify for the intermediate and advanced levels, organisations need to show commitment and action in keeping children and young people safe. The tiered standards give parents, staff and volunteers confidence that the overall sporting experience for young people is being actively monitored, and that safety and welfare issues are taken seriously.