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Fitness and Well Being through Individual and Community Initiatives
Presentation to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Arts, Sport, Tourism, Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs on Wednesday 24th March 2010
Introduction
I want to thank the Committee for inviting me today to make this presentation and for allowing me describe the work of the Irish Sports Council in relation to Fitness and Well Being through Individual and Community Initiatives. I will endeavor to be brief and I am happy to elaborate on any point during the "question and answer" session later.
Firstly, I want to reinforce the message of my colleagues that a physically active community is a healthy community. It is well established through international research that regular participation in sport and physical activity conveys specific positive health outcomes. These include higher life expectancy, improved mental health, protection from chronic disease, lower risk of cancer and reduced risk of heart disease.
Irish Sports Council research, with the ESRI, ("Sporting Lives") suggests that "regular participation in sport is equivalent, in health terms, to being 14 years younger" and that "the health difference between someone with low past participation and someone with high past participation is equivalent to being three years younger".
I have a particular interest in the impact of physical activity on the community especially young people. I was honoured to be Chairman of the National Taskforce on Obesity and understand the clear connection between physical activity and health. However I will not go over the same material as my colleagues from the health sector.
In addition it is important to highlight sport's social contribution. Sport is the single most important contributor to the creation of social capital in Ireland today. Sport is multi-dimensional and allows people to participate in different capacities and at different levels within the community.
Over 80% of children in Ireland participate in sport. 1.1 million adults actively participate in sport. 32% of adults are members of a sports club while 17% attend sporting events regularly. Over 280,000 adults volunteer for sport at least once a week .
Research undertaken on behalf of the Task Force on Active Citizenship showed that sports organizations were the main source of volunteering in Ireland with almost 25% of respondents surveyed reported that they volunteered for sports organizations.
Participation
The Irish Sports Council was established in 1999 under statute and with six areas of responsibility. Over the last decade the Council has helped transform the structures of Irish sport and, in doing so, had a major impact on the two key strategic areas; increasing the numbers of people participating in sport and improving the standards of elite sport.
For every euro invested by the Council in elite sport three euros are invested in increasing participation. This is to achieve a simple policy goal. The Council seeks to get more people more active more often. In the Council's participation strategy for 2009 - 2020 specific and ambitious targets have been set.
The Council has a multi-dimensional approach to increasing participation. The following is an overview of the important elements that comprise a complete strategy;
- The Code of Ethics and Code Practice for Children's Sport in Ireland, an all island approach to creating a safe environment for young people in sport and the essential ethical foundation for sport.
- The Council supports the PE curriculum by providing the Buntْs programme to every primary school in the country. 456,000 children have received Buntْs Generic and Buntْs Start. These schools and playgroups have a 48% female attendance, therefore approx 220,050 girls have received the programme.
- The 60 National Governing Bodies of sport are the essential infrastructure of Irish sport. While not every sport will make a major impact in terms of numbers, each has a valuable role to play within the Irish sports community. The Council invests in their development and supports them with advice and practical support across all operational areas.
- The Council works with the three major field sports (GAA, FAI & IRFU) to provide participation programmes in every community in Ireland with an emphasis on young people. At a public event in Croke Park in June 2009 gave details of their work in participation that is supported by the Council. The variety, quality and impact of these programmes are very impressive and, truly, the impact of the work of the three sports is felt in every parish in Ireland.
- The National Trails Office of the Council is developing the trails network and creating new opportunities for outdoor recreation. Recreational walking remains the single most popular form of physical activity in Ireland. The Irish Sport Monitor states that 57.5% of the adult population walks for recreational purposes at least once a week.
- Coaching is recognised as critical to the advancement of sport at every level and in every aspect. The Council has established Coaching Ireland, formerly NCTC, as an all- island body charged with improving the standards of coaches and coaching. Between October 2007 and October 2009 Coaching Ireland trained 526 coach tutors. The impact these tutors have on the ground in expanding coaching capacity and expertise can be seen through their work within sports. In 2009 1,077 courses across 60 sports saw 9,914 coaches approved in partnership by Coaching Ireland and a National Governing Body.
- The Council works in partnership with other statutory bodies such as the HSE, the Departments of Health and Children, of Transport, of Education, of Environment, and Local Authorities in delivering programmes that improve opportunities in sport for the entire population.
- The Council's research programme has a particular emphasis on investigating sports participation in Ireland. It provides the evidence base for the development of sports policy through the research programme, notably in collaboration with the ESRI and CSO. One element of our research is worth highlighting. The Irish Sports Monitor is produced written by the Economic and Social Research institute on behalf of the Council. To date reports have been produced for 2007 and 2008 and directly compares adult participation in sport and physical activity with 2007 baseline information. As the Monitor project progresses it will build up a wealth of new data on Irish sport and become an important resource for policy makers and practitioners in the area of sport. The 2008 report reveals a significant drop of 2% in active participation in sport among adults, from 32.9% to 30.8%, equivalent to 1 in 16 participants in 2007 no longer participating in 2008. This drop in sports participation was somewhat offset by increases in physical activity associated with walking and cycling for transport. The evidence very strongly suggests that the recession was behind the drop in active participation. The decline was concentrated among lower income households. The sharpest fall also coincided with the steep drop in consumer spending that occurred in early 2008. And the hardest hit activities were individual sports such as golf and exercise activities (e.g. using the gym), which tend to be more expensive. The Monitor picked up a rise in participation among the unemployed and self employed towards the end of 2008. This suggests that these groups used additional free time to play sport. That said, the fall in participation fell disproportionately on young men of lower income with the consequent loss of associated health benefits. The Monitor also showed that headline rates of volunteering (7.8%) and club membership (32.4%) held up in 2008.
- The Council is involved in the direct delivery of participation programmes with partner agencies. These programmes are aimed at increasing the numbers participating in sport among specific target groups namely; women, older people, disadvantaged communities and people with a disability. Under this heading I want to highlight three points for the Committee, issues which I know are of particular concern to them. In 2005, the Women in Sport initiative was established to address the clear gender gap in sports participation with only 34% woman participating regularly compared to 52% of men. Sports are incentivized to increase participation and attract new women members to their sport. €10 million was invested under this programme from 2005 to 2009 and a further €1.5 million will be invested in governing bodies and sports partnerships in 2010. The Irish Sports Council allocates funding to 5 governing bodies responsible for sport for people with a disability towards their core activities such as administration, coaching, and strategic planning. In addition, funded by the Dormant Accounts, Sports Inclusion Development Officers have been employed by Local Sports Partnerships. Their specific remit is to engage with people with a disability and bring them into the community of sport. The SIDO programmed was under threat due to the ending of the Dormant Accounts funding. Happily the Council has agreed a funding mechanism to ensure the continuation of 16 SIDOs in 2010. The SIDO programme commenced in late 2007 and within a year it was reported that 4,424 new participants had engaged in sport and physical activity through the programme. The 2008 Irish Sports Monitor reveals that the recession has led to an increase in the impact of socioeconomic status on participation in sport; those in the lower income categories became even less likely to play sport than those in higher categories and, similarly, even less likely to be members of sports clubs. The Sports Partnerships are commencing the roll out of a programme, entitled Linked2B Active, to begin addressing this growing issue.
- Finally I would like to speak about our key initiative in the area of participation in sport. The Local Sports Partnership initiative lies at the heart of the Irish Sports Council's participation strategy. Key tasks that the partnerships are involved in include:
* The creation and implementation of plans for long term local sports development
* The establishment of a sustainable structure to assist all those involved in local sports development to face the associated challenges -e.g. recruiting and managing volunteers, providing quality training supports.
* Delivery of projects and programmes aimed at increasing participation in sport, recreation and physical activity particularly amongst key target groups of older adults, people with disability, disadvantaged communities and women/girls
* Establishing networks at local level and liaising with existing initiatives
Local Sports Partnerships although a relatively new concept in Irish Sport are now firmly embedded in the local infrastructure of clubs and communities, establishing, providing and supporting increased opportunities for everyone to participate in a wider range of activities thus creating a more active lifestyle.
The Partnerships report their activities annually, in the SPEAK Report. Some highlights from 2008 include;
* 69,843 people participating in 433 locally delivered participation programmes
* An additional 7,896 female participants taking part in 102 local Women in Sport programmes
* 9,614 people participated on a range of locally planned and delivered training courses
* 2,851 primary school teachers in 289 schools received Buntus Generic training
* 3,542 participants completed 250 Code of Ethics courses
The Partnerships are involved in delivering programmes for people of all ages. A good example is the An Post Cycling Challenge delivered by five Partnerships in collaboration with Cycling Ireland. In 2009 5,500 people took part in the An Post cycling challenge.
These figures provide a flavour of the activities that are the daily work of the Partnerships. I try to visit every partnership each year and to see them in action in their local setting. It is a source of pride to hear endorsements of the Partnerships from local councillors, county and city managers, educationalists, community groups and individuals. There is a very high standard of professionals working in the Partnerships and the value of their contribution becomes more apparent over time.
Conclusion
The "Sporting Lives" research report highlights that the current generation of younger Irish adults "are playing much more sport than the current older adults did, and they are, therefore, likely to play much more sport as older adults".
The Council is ambitious with regard to increasing participation in sport. It wants to see an Ireland that ranks with the best countries in the world. It is a long term project but we are confident, based on the elements set out above, that real progress in being made.
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