Sport for the Disabled

HC Deb 21 March 1986 vol 94 cc579-84

2.2 pm

Mr. John Watts (Slough)

I beg to move,

That this House recognises the important role which sport can play in improving the quality of life for disabled people; notes with concern that the extent of the Sports Council's support for sport for the disabled was only £100,000 from a total budget of £30 million in 1985–86; and calls upon the Sports Council to make a reality of its slogan 'Sport for All' by giving proper financial support to disabled sportsmen. I am pleased to have this opportunity to draw attention to the provision of sports facilities for the disabled. My motion first recognises the important role which sports can play in improving the quality of life for disabled people. In support of that argument, perhaps I may refer to a letter from a constituent who is a member of an organisation known as SADSAD—the Slough and District Sports Association for the Disabled. She asks herself: What do I benefit as a member of SADSAD? I gain better confidence in myself as a person, a unique individual and take a much more positive and social attitude to the others. Sports associations give the disabled the opportunity to achieve and excell in another sphere of activity, and to gain confidence and, above all, self-respect through competitive activity and participation in sports.

For disabled sportsmen, competition is on two levels. Naturally, they compete against each other, as all sportsmen do. However, there is also the important element of competition against the individual disability. Beating the disability is the aim of many of these people—to live life to the full and to overcome the difficulties that they have found in their way.

However, without the provision of specialist facilities, or at the very least careful design of sporting facilities intended for general use to ensure that access for the physically disabled is relatively easy, there can be many obstacles to be overcome before the intending sportsman of sportswoman reaches first base—participating in a chosen sport. While facilities designed to be suitable and accessible for disabled people are equally accessible and suitable for use of the able bodied, the reverse, sadly, is not the case.

It has to be recognised that disabled people in our community form a minority, but it is a pretty sizeable one. It is estimated that about 8 per cent. of our total population suffers from disability in one form or another—more than 4 million people, and some estimates suggest that the figure is higher. It is important for those of us who enjoy the good fortune of being able bodied not be negligent of the needs of the disabled or to be complacent about our own good fortune and good health. Some people are born with disabilities, but many more acquire disability through accident or illness.

In my local sports association for the disabled, only one in 10 of its disabled members were born disabled, and the other 90 per cent. have suffered from disabling accidents or illnesses at a later stage in their lives. For those who in their able bodied life have been keen sportsmen the realisation that disablement does not have to mean the end of their active participation in sport can provide a very important psychological prop during that difficult and agonising period of adjusting to a different style of life.

Sport can bring benefits to all, and it should be available to all. As I understand it, this is the proud boast of the Sports Council slogan, "Sport for all". Sadly, this proud boast is found to be lacking in substance when one examines the support that the Sports Council gives to disabled sportsmen and sportswomen. I was shocked to learn from a written answer on 28 January this year from my hon. Friend the Minister responsible for sport that the Sports Council's grant aid to organisations directly concerned with sport for disabled people was approximately £100,000 in each of the past three years. That is only 0.3 per cent. of its budget, which in the current year is £32.9 million, which grows to about £40 million in the next financial year.

To place that minimal expenditure of £100,000 in context, I note from the public expenditure White Paper section on the Sports Council that it has spent 11 times as much as that on public affairs to promote the council's aims and policies, including, presumably, its slogan "Sport for all".

It spends 15 times as much on what is described as management, which I assume to be a euphemism for administration. If the provision for disabled sportsmen did no more than reflect the 8 per cent. of our population who suffer from a disability, the Sports Council's expenditure in support of sport for the disabled would be more than £2.5 million a year against its actual spend of only £100,000.

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Environment (Mr. Richard Tracey)

I shall deal with some of the points that my hon. Friend is making when I reply to the debate, but he says that the money to which he referred represents direct grants to specific organisations for the disabled. Will he bear in mind that the whole of the Sports Council's grant is aimed at all people? Is he able to say a few words about the integration of the disabled into the community? I should be interested in his comments about that aspect before I reply to his motion.

Mr. Watts

My hon. Friend has made a good point. I am not setting out to achieve some kind of sports apartheid in which the disabled have their section and the able-bodied have theirs. I said earlier that to the fullest possible extent sports facilities which are designed for general use should also cater for the needs of the disabled and bear in mind difficulty of access for the disabled so that there is the widest possible access for all. I acknowledge that some of the Sports Council's expenditure under other headings will indirectly be of benefit to the disabled, just as it benefits the whole of the community. None the less, if the Sports Council had been able to present its performance in meeting the needs of disabled people in a somewhat better light than that disturbingly low figure of £100,000 reveals, I believe that it would have taken that opportunity. I have seen no sign of that.

I acknowledge that the Sports Council has a wide responsibility, that one of its responsibilities is to promote centres of excellence, and that this has an inevitable effect upon the way in which it allocates its resources. However, it is important to recognise that it is not only the able bodied who can excel in sport. To my mind, the thalidomide victim who swims competitively, propelled only by stumps where arms and legs should be, also has a desire to excel and strives to excel and to achieve. That excellence and that achievement should also be recognised. Therefore, the Sports Council should accept the responsibility also to support centres of excellence for disabled sportsmen.

I am neither disabled nor, as my somewhat over-ample frame probably indicates, an active participant in sport or, indeed, a spectator. But that does not prevent me from understanding the immense pleasure which participation in sport brings to so many people, both the able bodied and the disabled. But my particular interest in sport for the disabled stems from my involvement with SADSAD, the organisation in my constituency, and my role as a patron of its Everest building appeal.

That appeal is so named because its organisers have set themselves what they see as the mountainous task of raising £300,000 to fund the building of a purpose-built sports centre for the disabled at Stoke park in Slough. The plans for this centre include, obviously, a level single-storey building so that there is easy access throughout, with a major sports hall marked out for a wide variety of sports, including badminton, basketball, handball and volleyball. Other activities which are planned include archery, athletics, bowls, darts, judo, movement, dance and table tennis.

That part of the project represents only the foothills. There are further plans for phases 2, 3 and onwards which would provide facilities for track events, swimming and bowling. It is no exaggeration to liken the task SADSAD has set itself to the scaling of Everest.

I am not one of those who argue that voluntary organisations should look primarily to the public purse for all their funding. Since the appeal was launched in 1983, voluntary funding of £27,000 has been raised. That has been sufficient to pay the professional fees charged to complete all the design work and to obtain planning permission so that construction can begin as soon as the balance of the funds becomes available.

Berkshire county council has given the site for the sports centre at a peppercorn rent of £10 a year. Discussions are taking place with Slough borough council and the South Buckinghamshire district council about financial contributions from those authorities. Voluntary fund raising continues relentlessly. The mayor of Slough has approached the European Commission through the good offices of Baroness Elles, who is our MEP, but an application for support to the Sports Council has been deferred until the end of this year. That is disappointing. I hope that the Sports Council's consideration will be favourable and that it will recognise that the facility not only will serve the people of Slough but will have the potential to form a regional centre of excellence for sports for the disabled—a facility of "wider than local significance", as the public expenditure White Paper stated.

Each year, SADSAD hosts a weekend of sporting activities to which disabled sportsment from all over the country come. The programme of events at last September's meeting shows a wide range of activities, starting at 9 am on Saturday and continuing until 8 pm on Sunday, encompassing all sorts of field events and going down to draughts and dominoes. Most of them are active participatory sports. I have had the pleasure of attending those sporting events and seeing the pleasure felt by the sportsmen in their ability to participate and seeing their great courage, bravery and determination to overcome their disabilities so that they can achieve in sport.

What more could be done if only this purpose-built centre were available to the disabled people of my constituency, the surrounding areas and the rest of the southern region? I hope that some of the Budget proposals, including those that extend tax relief to charitable donations, will provide a further welcome boost to our voluntary fund raising efforts. I hope that local companies will seize the opportunity to put some of the profits they have earned in the community back in the community for the benefit of disabled people, most of whom are their employees. I hope that employees of local companies will take the opportunity to contribute to this project through the payroll deduction scheme with the benefit of tax relief.

We shall exploit all the oportunities to the hilt, but there is still room for an element of public funding. Each year millions of pounds are spent on the provision of sports facilities at public expense through the Sports Council and local authorities. In the past 10 years, the Slough corporation has spent £15 million on the provison of sports facilities locally—facilities, it must be said, which are used predominantly by the able bodied.

No one asks able bodied sportsmen to raise cash before any of the facilities are provided and before the local authority makes a contribution. No one asks able bodied sportsmen to carry on fund raising after the facility has been provided in order to defray the running cost. Why is it that such a demand should be made, almost uniquely on disabled sportsmen, who have extra disabilities and obstacles to overcome before they even reach the starting point of participating in sport? Why should they be required to meet such stringent requirements before the public purse strings can be loosened just a little?

I am in favour of voluntary effort, and I intend no pun when I say that people should stand on their own feet, because that is precisely what the members of SADSAD and other disabled sports associations do to the best of their physical ability. However, they need some support, the support that is readily available to the able bodied. The Sports Council has a responsibility to take a lead, and I call upon it to face its responsibilities for disabled sportsmen and to make a reality of what is at present no more than an empty slogan, "Sport for all".

2.22 pm

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Environment (Mr. Richard Tracey)

I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Slough (Mr. Watts) for raising this matter. I attach considerable importance to this subject, and so do my colleagues in Government. I am sure that hon. Members on both sides of the House agree on the importance of consideration for the disabled. If my hon. Friend's motion had been the first and not the third one on the Order Paper, we would have had a sizeable attendance, because he and I remember that for Friday debates about the disabled in the past there was always a queue of hon. Members outside the door, waiting to get in to talk about the subject. It is a matter that touches deeply our lives and the lives of a number of our constituents.

My contact with the disabled over the years has been fairly considerable. They desperately wish to be integrated in the community and not to have too much attention focused upon them. They do not want a spotlight placed upon them or for there to be too much probing discussion. I should like to develop that point in my remarks about the integration of disabled people into sport, a subject I mentioned to my hon. Friend in my intervention The Sports Council's policy is enthusiastic on this point.

We fully recognise the value to disabled people of all ages of participation in sport and recreational activities. That is not only because of the important health benefits which are also enjoyed by the able-bodied, but because of the sheer enjoyment and the contact that they enjoy with their fellows. In my responsibility for sport and recreation I am keen to promote community participation in all sports at grass roots level. I have talked about that many times both in the House and outside, and I view as a priority that we should have full-scale community participation in sport for all our people. Disabled people should have the same opportunity as able-bodied people to participate in sport.

My hon. Friend has mentioned his experiences in his constituency, and they are obviously good ones. We have all had such experiences. My constituency is fortunate to have the Kingston Association for the Disabled and SADSAD sounds similar. The Kingston association has a lively and active secretary and a full programme of events. Indeed, in Surrey, around my constituency, the disabled have a considerable involvement in sport. It shows how well-organised things are because I have already been asked to a special football tournament for the disabled in Surrey in May 1987. No doubt that will be an excellent day and, as with other sporting contests, it will be followed in the evening by, I am told, a good dinner at which I am asked to speak. That is the sort of enthusiasm that I find.

I have had contact with sports for the disabled for a number of years. When I was at school one of the best days in our rowing calendar was rowing against the Worcester college for the blind on the River Avon and the River Severn. We had some real needle matches. Latterly, I have been involved in the triathlon competition at the royal showground at Stoneleigh where co-ordinated teams of the able-bodied and disabled join in shooting and fishing. The able-bodied ride horses and the disabled compete in a slalom event. That is the sort of thing that leads me to believe that provision is being made, some of it voluntary, some of it provided from public funds. The provision is there and the keenness is there.

My hon. Friend has drawn attention in his motion to the Sports Council's policies towards, and funding of, sports for the disabled. He will no doubt be aware that all Government money specifically allocated for the development of sport, particularly the unique services, is channelled through the Sports Council. It is for the council to decide how much of its funds are specifically allocated to various sports or to a specific area such as sport for the disabled. Mr. Ken Roberts is an active member of the Sports Council. He is disabled and he specifically represents the views of the disabled and takes part in the general discussions of the council. The council distributes its funds in the light of its policies and priorities with fair consideration of all those matters.

Apart from the Sports Council, I am glad that my hon. Friend has not forgotten, that the major contribution to sport from public funds in Britain is the £700 million going through the local authorities, of which a large part is from the rate support grant.

My hon. Friend is right to draw attention to matters of planning and design of sports facilities. I am glad to say that the Sports Council takes a great interest in those premises that are particularly within its direct responsibility—the national centres. In the annual report for the last year, mention is made of Worcester college for the blind participating in mountaineering and rock-climbing exercises at the Plas-y-Brenin national centre in Wales and also the special courses for deaf squash players at the Bisham abbey premises near Marlow, close to my hon. Friend's constituency.

I can assure my hon. Friend that disabled people have certainly not been forgotten by the Sports Council in the exercise of the "Sport for all" ideal. The European "Sport for all" charter was, of course, aimed at all sectors of the community and the council is concerned to encourage disabled sportsmen and women to integrate—that is an important word—with the more able-bodied, wherever appropriate.

The principle of integration with the able-bodied is an important one to grasp in understanding the Sports Council's funding of the facilities for the disabled. There is no direct reference to it in my hon. Friend's motion. Nor should we overlook the fact that there are a number of sports in which the disabled compete on equal terms with the able-bodied. I have spoken already of rowing and canoeing, and I can also mention archery, shooting, bowls, and sailing.

I should give more details of the Council's grant-aid policy. The motion refers to sports Council support of £100,000 for sport for the desabled, and while that figure is correct, it represents only the value of direct grant aid to specific disabled sport organisations such as the British sports association for the disabled—

It being half-past Two o'clock, the debate stood adjourned.