Written evidence submitted by Youth Charter

i.        THE YOUTH CHARTER

The Youth Charter launched on 23rd March 1993, at Wembley Stadium, in response to the tragic murder of 14-year-old schoolboy Benji Stanley, who was shot dead in Moss Side on 2nd January 1993.

The Youth Charter is a 31 Year Games Legacy of Manchester’s bid for the 2000 Olympic Games and the hosting of the Manchester 2002 Commonwealth Games that has inspired a global Sport for Development and Peace movement/sector.

The Youth Charter has campaigned and promoted the role and value of sport, arts, culture and digital technology in the lives of disaffected young people from disadvantaged communities nationally and internationally.

The Youth Charter has a proven track record in the creation and delivery of social and human development legacy projects and programmes with the overall aim of providing young people with an opportunity through sport, art, cultural and digital activities to develop in life.

Through our work with youth and communities the Youth Charter has pioneered three core youth and community development programmes:

• Community Campus Model – Stakeholder Partners & Facilities, Collaboration & Partnership
• Social Coach Leadership Programme - training for Social Coaches working young people
• Youthwise – Sport, Art, Cultural and Digital Activities for young people and communities

These programmes aim to:

1. ENGAGE young people through sport, art, cultural and digital activity
2. EQUIP them with mental, physical and emotional life-skills and resilience
3. EMPOWER them with aspiration for college, university, employment and entrepreneurship

The Youth Charter submission of evidence supports of our National Call 2 Action:

Fig. 1. National Call2Action

Source: Youth Charter

ii.       SUBMISSION SUMMARY

The Youth Charter’s submission to the Game On: Community and School Sport call for written evidence provides the following key recommendations:

1. 2hrs per day of Sport and Physical Activity delivered through Community Campuses
2. National Youth Strategy to include the provision of sport, art, cultural and digital activities
3. Youthwise Citizenship Reward System using sport, art, cultural and digital activities
4. National Sport Facility Audit identifying gaps in provision and quality
5. Universal Physical Activity Pass for preventative Social Prescribing and direct investment

The Youth Charter has contributed to the design, development and delivery of the UK’s Sport and Physical Activity projects and programmes since 1993. However, a truly holistic and integrated approach is still lacking. The Youth Charter’s primary focus is children and young people, but includes intergenerational activity for all ages, as part of a community wide holistic and integrated approach.

State schools are currently aiming to provide a minimum of 2 hours per week of PE lessons, however, with growing class sizes and increasing rates of persistently absent pupils and exclusions, how many pupils are not participating in any PE lessons per week? Whilst pupils attending Independent Schools - with smaller class sizes and better access to sport facilities are participating in 2 hours per day of sport and physical activity, representing a stark inequality that is also represented in health inequalities, such as child obesity and premature death rates. The Youth Charter’s Community Campus Model provides the opportunity to bring stakeholder partners and facilities together to deliver 2 hours a day of sport and physical activity for children and young people in the classroom, playground and beyond the school gate.

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) is currently producing a new National Youth Strategy. The Youth Charter called for a National Youth Development Plan in its 2019 Youth Manifesto and National Call 2 Action (see section 3.0) and recommends that the National Youth Strategy includes the provision of sport, art, cultural and digital activities in the classroom, playground and beyond the school gate, please see section C for more detail for how this can be delivered. As part of the National Youth Strategy, the Youth Charter recommends a Youthwise Citizenship Reward System that uses sport, art, cultural and digital activities as incentives to improve school attendance, reduce exclusions and to promote active citizenship and positive community contributions by children and young people, as well as, improving health and wellbeing, please see section 5.3.

The first submission question asks, ‘what is the current quality and availability of facilities for grassroots sport?’. However, the data for this is not currently available, thus, the Youth Charter recommends a National Sport Facility Audit be carried out to identify gaps in provision and quality.

Finally, a Universal Physical Activity Pass linked to Social Prescribing for prevention - rather than just intervention and rehabilitation - would be a cost-effective way of directly supporting individuals and grass roots sport, with people free to choose what sport and physical activity opportunities they would like to participate in. This submission provides additional evidence of UK Sport and Sport England’s investment in Olympic and Paralympic Sports in relation to their potential for Social Impact, which should be a key feature of sport and physical activity funding models.

1.0   SUBMISSION QUESTIONS

Please see the following sections for the responses to the submission’s questions.

1.1   COMMUNITY SPORT

1. What is the current quality and availability of facilities for grassroots sport?

• What interventions are needed to improve this provision?

Over the past number of years youth club facilities have been closing down[1] and many public buildings, such schools, hospitals and leisure facilities have become unsafe having fallen into disrepair[2]. However, publicly available data and information on the quality and availability of facilities for grassroots sport is currently not available at local or national levels.

There is Sport England’s ‘Sport Facility Calculator’ (SFC)[3], that uses information from the part of the Active Lives Survey, but this survey only asks a selected number of people about what facilities they have been using and does not provide real time facility usage data, or an actual survey of what facilities are available in local authority areas. Local authorities have been outsourcing the management of Sport and Leisure Facilities with contract commitments to provide access to local communities, but are they complying with these commitments?

The Youth Charter recommends the following interventions to improve the provision of facilities:

• Community Campuses bring together Stakeholder Partners and Facilities
• National Sport Facility Audit identifying gaps in provision and quality
• Universal Physical Activity Pass to provide real time data on the usage of sport facilities

A Community Campus is made up of hub facilities, such as schools, community centres, youth clubs, sports centres, further and higher education institutions or any facility delivering a youth cultural engagement provision. Each facility is quality assured in the delivery of the Social Coach Leadership Programme and the Youthwise offer.

A National Sports Facility Audit could be carried out on an annual basis, with a scoring matrix for the quality of facilities available in local authority areas and applying the principle of a 15-Minute City[4], whereby people can access Sports Facilities within a 15-minute walk or cycle, or 30-minutes in more rural and less densely populated areas. A National Sports Facility Audit would be able to identify gaps in the provision and quality of facilities and support the development of interventions and priorities at a local and national levels.

In addition to this, a Universal Physical Activity Pass for people of all ages to access Sport and Physical Activity opportunities would help to provide real time data on the usage of sport facilities.

2. What sources of funding are available for grassroots sport and are they sufficient?

• How can funds be distributed more effectively and application processes be improved?

The main source of funding for grassroots sport clubs are membership fees and subs paid by players and parents, and clubs will often host fundraising events. In addition, there are small grants, match funding and crowd funding opportunities from local and national sources. The main national funding sources for grassroot sport clubs are Sport England, Sport Scotland, Sport Wales and Sport Northern Ireland with the funding coming from the National Lottery and the Treasury, and the Football Foundation in the England and Wales which also has funding from the Premier League, Football League, as well as the National Lottery and the Treasury.

The Youth Charter has completed an analysis of Sport England England’s Investment in Olympic Sports at Paris 2024 from 2009 to 2024[5], in the following three areas:

As part of ‘accessibility and potential social impact of sports’ (see section 1.1.1), the Youth Charter applied the following levels of accessibility to the Olympic Sports at Paris 2024:

This is by no means definitive. School Sport budgets for PE Lessons would add to this greatly, and some of the NGB funding could be invested School, Club and Community sport, as well as Disability Sport, and this this analysis does not include the Football Foundation investment in grassroot football since 2000.

A more effective way of investing directly in grassroots sport would be a Universal Physical Activity Pass, which could help to increase sport and physical activity participation and help to generate income for local grassroot sport clubs and facilities. A Universal Physical Activity Pass would see the funding going directly to the individual who would then be free to choose what sport and physical activity opportunities they would like to spend this funding on. A Universal Physical Activity Pass could be funded through the National Health budget as part of preventative Social Prescribing[6], with cost savings for health intervention and rehabilitation.

The income generated by a Universal Physical Activity Pass for local grassroot sports clubs/facilities could then be match funded with local and national funding sources, with additional funding directed at gaps in provision and quality of facilities identified in a National Sports Facility Audit.

3. How can volunteers be better supported and what is needed to attract and retain more volunteers to grassroots sport?

Community volunteers are a major contributor to the UK economy, but it can often be difficult to account for. However, Timebanking[7] schemes provide the opportunity to do this, and also provide the opportunity to offer incentives and recognition for this work.

For children and young people, the Youth Charter recommends a ‘Youthwise Citizenship Reward System’, which includes ‘Volunteering in Citizenship Activities’ and could also be applied to adults of all ages to increase volunteering in sport and other community activities.

In addition to this, the Sports Coaching/Volunteering training courses should be provided for FREE as much as possible to reduce the cost barrier, this funding can come from National Governing Bodies of Sport (NGBs) and/or other public funding sources such as Sport England.

The Youth Charter’s National Call 2 Action[8] is aiming to recruit, select and deploy 10,000 Social Coach volunteers across 10 Community Campuses to engage, equip and empower 1 million Young People. However, these targets can be surpassed with the support of the national, regional and local stakeholder partners if this call 2 action is adopted by the UK Government as part of the New National Youth Strategy[9], which was part of the 2019 National Call 2 Action.

4. How can grassroots sport be made more engaging and accessible to under-represented groups?

People from under-represented groups often face a number of barriers in accessing grass roots sport and physical activity opportunities, with cost and availability being the most significant. However, other challenges, such as housing insecurity, are also barriers to participation. In Birmingham, there are a record 25,000 people on the social housing waiting list[10], this insecurity impacts on health inequalities[11].

A Universal Physical Activity Pass would help to reduce the cost barriers to participation and increase participation by under-represented groups. A Universal Physical Activity Pass would allow people to access sport and physical activity opportunities in their local areas with social services, such as education / health / housing / employment, able to direct people to these opportunities to promote health and wellbeing. 

1.1.1         ACCESSIBILITY & SOCIAL IMPACT POTENTIAL: PARIS 2024 OLYMPIC & PARALYMPIC SPORTS/DICIPLINES

It is important to define by the accessibility and social impact potential of different sport and physical activities in order to ascertain priority areas for investment models.

Please Table 3 below for the Accessibility and Social Impact Potential of Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Sports/Disciplines.

1.2   SCHOOL SPORT

5. How can schools better enable children to develop positive and life-long relationships with sport and physical education?

• What can be done to engage groups with lower participation rates - such as girls, those with disabilities or from lower socio-economic backgrounds?

Sport and Physical Activity should be part of the school day, with sports clothing becoming the school uniform and 2 hours a day of sport and physical activity in the classroom, playground and beyond the school gate. Pupils should also be encouraged to commute to school using Active Travel – walking, cycling and public transport.

The Youth Charter’s Community Campus Model provides the opportunity to bring stakeholder partners and facilities together to deliver 2 hours a day of sport and physical activity for children and young people in the classroom, playground and beyond the school gate.

Over the past 25 years, there has been a large increase in the number of sport coaches going into primary schools to deliver sport and physical activity lessons, some schools employ sport coaches directly or hire sport coaching companies. Furthermore, professional sports clubs, particularly Premier League and Football League clubs, are also delivering high quality lessons for primary schools.

The drop out in sport and physical activity participation, particularly for girls, those with disabilities or from lower socio-economic backgrounds, is in secondary schools. However, for schools to encourage pupils to take part in sport and physical activity, we first have to ensure pupils are attending school, are not being excluded and are in appropriately sized classes for quality education. Please see section 1.2.1 for summary of increases in secondary school class sizes, absences and exclusions.

The Youth Charter’s proposed Youthwise Citizenship Reward System includes school attendance and behaviour as a pre-requisite for ‘Learn as You Earn’ rewards, which would be sport, art, cultural and digital activities, please see section 1.2.2. This includes children and young people aged 8 to 21, however, there would be a particular focus on pupils aged 11 to 18 (Years 7 to 13) to reduce drop-out rates. Young people could be offered a range of sport and physical activities to choose from and which would be delivered by specialist sport coaches in school and outside of school. For example, Martial Art sessions for girls, as part of self-defence and confidence building, as well as general fitness training. On completion of term-based 6-week or 12-week projects, the young people would be rewarded with a learning experience such as a trip to a Martial Arts competition or similar.

6. How should schools and sports organisations work together to deliver better sporting opportunities for children in and outside of school hours?

The Youth Charter’s Community Campus Model[12] provides the opportunity for stakeholder partners and facility providers (including schools and sport organisations) to work together to deliver sport and physical activity opportunities in the classroom, playground and beyond the school gate. As part of this specialist sport coaches from local sport clubs and organisations could be employed by schools to deliver sport and physical activity sessions and projects with pupils, as discussed above.

7. What measures are needed to make the pathway from school to community sport easier?

The Youth Charter’s Model of Youth Development Pathways through Sport provides the opportunity establish pathways from school to community sport and vice versa, and from classroom/coaching sessions to informal and formal competitive sport in schools and the community, please see section 1.2.3.

1.2.1         EDUCATION GRAPHS – CLASS SIZE, EXCLUSIONS AND ABSENCES

In secondary schools, where teenagers most often drop out of sport and physical activity, average Class Sizes have increased 10.2% from:

Additionally, the number of secondary school classes with 31 to 35 pupils has increased by 77.8% from:

Please see Graphs 3 and 4.

Increasing class sizes will impact on classroom management and the quality of education being provided and this will include Sport and Physical Activity (PE) lessons. With regard to classroom management, the number of Permanent and Fixed Period Exclusions have also been increasing. For example, nationally the rate of Fixed Period Exclusions has increased 180% from:

For the North East Region, there was an increase of 482% from:

Please see Graph 5.

Furthermore, post-COVID school absence rates have increased significantly, with an 88% increase in the rate of Persistently Absent Pupils missing more than 10% of lessons from:

For the North East Region, there was also an increase of 88% from:

Please see Graph 6.

1.2.2         YOUTHWISE CITIZENSHIP REWARD SYSTEM

The Youth Charter applies the following principles of ‘Prevention’, ‘Intervention’ and ‘Rehabilitation’ for Youth Development in general, and Youth Justice/Violence in particular, with the underlying belief that Prevention is always better, and more cost effective, than cure:

• Prevention - engaging young people in positive life experiences long before they become at risk of becoming involved in the Youth Justice System, or other negative lifestyle choices that will impact on their mental, physical and emotional life-skills and resilience
• Intervention - providing young people who are at risk of becoming involved in the Youth Justice System, or other negative lifestyle choices, with positive life experiences that reward their positive change in behaviour
• Rehabilitation - supporting young people who have become involved in the Youth Justice System, or other negative lifestyle choices, to turn their lives around by rewarding their positive change in behaviour with positive life experiences

The Youth Charter proposes the establishment of a Youthwise ‘Learn as You Earn’ Citizenship Reward System that supports the delivery of Citizenship learning of Rights and Responsibility to support and incentivise Prevention, Intervention and Rehabilitation Youth Development projects and programmes, to reduce youth crime, gang violence and conflict, and to engage, equip and empower young people and their communities.

Please see Table 4 below for how the proposed Youthwise ‘Learn as You Earn’ Citizenship Reward

System could be delivered. Every young person would be assigned a Social Coach to guide and support them through the system, with personalised achievement targets agreed between the young person, parent/guardians, social coaches and other relevant agencies.

1.2.3         MODEL OF YOUTH DEVELOPMENT PATHWAYS THROUGH SPORT

The Youth Charter’s Model of Youth Development Pathways through Sport can be applied to all levels of sport from grassroots participation to elite performance.

The Youth Charter’s Model for Youth Development Pathways through Sport applies the Long Term Development (LTD) Framework (formerly the Long Term Athlete Development Model)[13], which can be adapted to Youth Development in general and includes the following stages:

• Active Start - From 0-6 years, boys and girls need to be engaged in daily active play
• FUNdamentals - Participants develop fundamental movement skills in structured and unstructured environments for play
• Learn to Train - Understanding basic rules, tactics, and strategy in games and refinement of sport specific skills
• Train to Train - Rapid physical growth, the development of sporting capability, and commitment occurs in this stage
• Train to Compete - Athletes are training nearly full-time and competing at the national level while being introduced to international competition
• Train to Win - These athletes have highly personalized training and competition plans and have an Integrated Support Team of physical therapists, athletic therapists, and sport psychologists providing ongoing support

The vast majority of young people will never become elite athletes, but the key stages can be adapted to Youth Development in general as part of formal and informal education opportunities.

1.3   GOVERNANCE

8. How effective are national and local government and sport governing body initiatives in delivering school and grassroots sport, and how might they be improved?

The Schools Games[14] and Active Partnerships[15] represent well established networks through which national and local government and sport governing bodies are working together to deliver school and grassroots sport projects, programmes and initiatives. However, there are still persistent education and health inequalities which can only be addressed through a truly holistic and integrated approach.

National and local government and sport governing body initiatives in delivering school and grass rooms sport could be improved by applying the Youth Charter’s Community Campus Model for a Placed Based Approach[16] supported by a Legacy Cultural Framework[17] that provides a Whole System Approach[18], thereby ensuring a truly holistic and integrated approach. The Community Campus has three main elements:

• Engage young people through sport, art, cultural and digital activity
• Equip them with mental, physical and emotional life-skills and resilience
• Empower them with the aspiration of further and higher education, employment and entrepreneurship.

And the Community Campus is delivered through three key themes:

This includes the following projects and programmes:

• Community Campus Model[19] – Stakeholder Partners & Facilities, Collaboration & Partnership
• Social Coach Leadership Programme[20] - training for Social Coaches working young people
• Youthwise[21] – Sport, Art, Cultural and Digital Activities for young people and communities

The outputs and outcomes of the Youth Charter Community Campus and Legacy Cultural Framework are measured against the following Impact Themes:

1. EDUCATION - attendance, attainment and performance
2. HEALTH - physical activity, wellbeing and active lifestyle
3. CITIZENSHIP - civic rights, responsibilities and youth justice
4. ENVIRONMENT - community cohesion, quality of life and access to facilities
5. FURTHER AND HIGHER EDUCATION, EMPLOYMENT AND ENTERPRENEURSHIP - skills training, internships and apprenticeships

The Youth Charter Impact Themes are underpinned by:

• COLLABORATION & PARTNERSHIP
• EQUALITY, DIVERSITY, INCLUSION AND PARTICIPATION (EDIP)

The Youth Charter’s Legacy Cultural Framework and Impact Themes provide added value to the delivery of the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the UN 2030 Youth Strategy, and the Commonwealth Youth Index.

9. How can the Government facilitate better coordination across the sport ecosystem to deliver grassroots and school sport?

The Government can facilitate better coordination across the sport ecosystem to deliver grassroots and school sport by applying the Youth Charter’s Community Campus Model / Placed Based Approach[22] and Legacy Cultural Framework[23] Whole System Approach, and the following elements of the Youth Charter’s Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and Participation Framework:

• Model of Youth Development Pathways through Sport (see section 1.2.3)
• Accessibility and Potential Social Impact Potential of Sports (see section 1.1.1)
• Youthwise Citizenship Reward System (see section 1.2.2)

The Model of Youth Development Pathways through Sport includes school, club and community sport at a local level from PE lessons or coaching sessions to informal and formal competitions and into performance development squads from local to national/international levels. This model provides the opportunity for the government better coordinate the delivery sport and physical activity opportunities at all levels.

The Accessibility and Potential Social Impact Potential of Sports provides the opportunity for government to better coordinate funding priorities for sport and physical activity, with the main focus on grassroots and school sport, to reduce education and health inequalities.

The Youthwise Citizenship Reward System provides the opportunity for government to better coordinate the promotion of sport and physical activity as rewards for active citizenship and positive community contributions, as well as improving health and wellbeing.

The new National Youth Strategy[24] should have a strong focus on sport and physical activity opportunities for young people, which could also help to improve the governments coordination across the sporting ecosystem for the delivery of grassroots and school sports.

• Is the Department for Culture, Media and Sport successfully leveraging the economic and community benefits of sport and physical activity across Government?

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is not successfully leveraging the economic and community benefits of sport and physical activity across Government because investment is predominantly focused on elite sport and Olympic and Paralympic success, as opposed to addressing education and health inequalities.

In order, to ensure that investment goes directly into increasing sport and physical activity participation, the Youth Charter recommends a Universal Physical Activity Pass. As previously mentioned, a Universal Physical Activity Pass would help to increase sport and physical activity participation and help to generate income for local grassroot sport clubs and facilities.

A Universal Physical Activity Pass could be funded through the National Health budget, as part of preventative Social Prescribing[25], with costs savings for health intervention and rehabilitation, and DCMS should aim to secure additional funding from interdepartmental funding to provide a more policy holistic and integrated approach. For example, the Department for Education is responsible for the state school curriculum and can refocus attention on sport, art and cultural in the classroom, playground and beyond the gate to improve attendance, behaviour and the health and well-being of pupils. This can all be linked to a Youthwise Citizenship Reward System as part of the new National Youth Strategy.

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