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Sport in the Community

My Lords, I am delighted that my noble friend Lord Pendry secured this debate. Once again, he calls upon us to consider the importance of sport in benefiting communities, and I fully agree with his arguments. It is a great pleasure to be in a group of speakers with such a wide variety of interests in sport: participating, administrating, watching and supporting. But I express my concern that sport is not just about competitive sport—a point that has been made by other speakers. Competitive sport is important, and I, too, like winning, but sport is also about health-related fitness, which is a vital concept to which I shall return in a moment. As the only woman participating in this debate—although there are a few sisters on the Benches and maybe one or two honorary women—noble Lords may be expecting me to focus on women and sport. But I shall not do that today, as I have done it before. I shall focus my remarks on young people in sport and, as an example, I shall draw on the Cricket Foundation’s Chance to Shine initiative. I am glad that my noble friend Lord Grantchester referred to the importance of cricket and to the importance of women. I should declare an interest as a Lady Taverner. Lady Taverners raise money—close on £1 million last year—to enable young people with disabilities to play sport. I am proud to be associated with that aim. Young people with disabilities also belong to communities and want to be active. Sport in the community affects a whole range of factors related to well being, including health, fostering community spirit, and, thereby, combating negative issues such as drug and alcohol use and crime. Many communities recognise that and are sharing facilities such as school swimming pools, sports grounds and indoor sports areas. The extended school day and the implications of the Children Act, with its focus on integrating services, should develop that further. We shall see what happens. In the many consultations that have taken place recently with young people, they identify being healthy as a key outcome; for example, in the report Every Child Matters. Young people have asked for community facilities where they can participate in sport and otherwise entertain themselves. The Green Paper, Youth Matters, points out that:"““Teenagers, their parents and communities all want more positive things to do ... when young people are involved in activities and are busy they are less likely to drift into trouble””." My noble friend Lord Pendry has spoken about the Positive Futures initiative in which young people are helped to take part in sport. This morning, I heard on the radio an item about antisocial behaviour orders. The Social Exclusion Unit on which the report was based—and which I now have to hand—relates to young adults with complex needs. Briefly, it says that it is not enough to punish young people but they must also be given support. Did we not all know that already? I welcome that and I believe that in all communities, including prisons and rehabilitation centres, sport can help to foster good self-image and self-confidence. I am glad to see a cross-government approach to this, including the Department for Culture, Media and Sport which has an aim of increasing the take-up of cultural and sporting opportunities by people aged 16 and over by 2008. I return to my earlier statement that support should be at least partly about health-related fitness. Not everyone enjoys competitive sport. My noble friend Lord Giddens emphasised that—and I wish he would go to get his sandwich. Girls and young women give up sport in great numbers as they grow up and leave school. Yet they could be and are attracted to dance, yoga, pilates, to some gym activities and to many outdoor activities. I believe that we should expand on that type of activity in communities to provide young people, especially young women, with a positive option. I now turn to the Cricket Foundation’s Chance to Shine initiative as an example of how sport can be fostered in communities, involving schools and local facilities such as clubs. The aim of the programme is to regenerate competitive cricket in state schools. It was launched in May this year and has an appeal to raise £25 million over five years. At this point, it is appropriate to ask the Minister whether the Government will match that sum pound for pound, as I hope they will. Appeal money will be spent over a 10-year period to provide high-quality cricket in state schools through coaching and competitions delivered through focus clubs, coach and teacher training, resources, equipment, facilities and school holiday activities. In 2005, 12 pilot projects were undertaken in urban and rural environments. Given a continuing build-up, the plan is to have planted cricket firmly in 5,200 primary schools and in 1,500 secondary schools—almost a third of all schools—over 10 years. That is good news. The playing of cricket has been reduced over the past 20 years or so with disastrous results on the involvement of people in local club cricket. Why an initiative for cricket? Why do I believe it is so important? Given the success of England’s men’s and women’s teams against Australia this summer, many youngsters have been fired up to play cricket, as the noble Lord, Lord St John of Bletso, has said. I see them on commons, in yards and in the street trying out their bowling and batting skills. It is a great national game. I am glad that we have moved away from the concept of gentlemen and players, decried by my noble friend Lord Giddens, thanks partly to our late and much missed colleague, that great cricketer, Lord Sheppard of Liverpool. The appeal document from the Cricket Foundation maintains that cricket enables young people to live healthy, purposeful and balanced lives. It is the ultimate team game. It encourages a wide range of social skills as well as physical and motor skills. It has high standards of conduct and provides good role models. My fellow Lancastrian, Andrew Flintoff, is a good example. His performances in the summer and his bowling recently in Pakistan have been inspirational. He remains modest, good-humoured and supportive of young people. Cricket crosses the gender divide. I believe that cricket for girls is the fastest-growing sport. It provides for those with disabilities, such as those in wheelchairs or with visual or hearing impairments. It draws together people from many different cultures and backgrounds. It also develops patience, concentration and imagination. What better attributes could one encourage in communities? Local clubs and schools can work together to develop young cricketers and clubs will be encouraged to support young cricketers from local schools. That is already happening. Involvement from schools in the independent sector is anticipated. They, of course, have the potential to share facilities and traditional experience with state schools. I want to give an example from one of the 12 Chance to Shine pilots which was carried out in Darwen, in Lancashire, where I was born and brought up, and where I watched my first cricket from the age of about three, when I was taken to the local ground by my father. No doubt thanks to that early inspiration, I went on to play first-class cricket and I developed a lifelong passion for it. In the pilot, coaches from Darwen Cricket Club worked with four primary schools and two secondary schools. Both secondary schools had been through difficult times; one of them was in special measures, was closed down and then reopened. The schools played their first cricket for many years as a result of Chance to Shine. One head teacher felt that cricket could play a part within his school in improving strategies and, as he said, ““building responsibility and discipline””. I have described how one initiative can impact on communities. I am aware that there are many other sporting activities that are also dynamic and exciting. I return to what I said at the beginning of this contribution, that young people themselves are asking for facilities and activities that foster health and well being and sometimes that means sporting facilities. I do not think we cannot ignore their appeal.