Disadvantaged Young People: Sports Facilities (Hansard, 28 April 1999)

§ Lord McIntosh of Haringey
My Lords, the Government demonstrate their commitment to young people's support through lottery funding and funding from the New Opportunities Fund, Sport England's Active Schools programme and the Sportsmatch sponsorship incentive scheme among many other initiatives. Recommendations on sport's role in promoting social inclusion will appear in a forthcoming report by the Policy Action Team on Arts and Sport. A new strategy for sport, which will be published later this year, will set the framework for the expansion of sporting opportunities for both boys and girls.

§ Lord Northbourne
My Lords, I am most grateful to the Minister for that immensely encouraging reply. Indeed, I should confirm my commitment to young women having comparable rights to young men, but I dare say that the noble Lord would agree that young men have certain special problems. However, is the Minister aware that the recent report of a survey published by Young Voice and Oxford University, which inquired into the views of 1,400 young men, found that boys with low self-esteem were much more likely to develop depression, to be involved in truanting from school and to be in trouble with the police? Is he further aware that the report found that sport was an important contributor towards the building of self-esteem? Can the Minister give an assurance that schools are not now free to sell off their playing fields as has happened in the past?

§ Lord McIntosh of Haringey
My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord for drawing my attention to this most interesting report, entitled Leading Lads. He is right in saying that boys and young men with low self-esteem—about 12 per cent, I believe—would be particularly helped by an expansion of opportunities in sport, in drama and in clubs. Without doing more than give a trailer for the report of the policy action team, I can say that it comes to very much the same conclusion.
As to selling off playing fields, I believe the noble Lord will know that we have put a stop to a practice which became far too prevalent under the previous government. Indeed, any application to sell off playing fields, other than for sporting purposes, has to be referred directly to the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions.

§ Lord Hylton
My Lords, will the noble Lord the Deputy Chief Whip keep on reminding his right 305 honourable and honourable friends about the importance of out-of-hours use of school playing fields? Indeed, is there not scope for reintegrating pupils who are at risk of suspension or expulsion from school by using some of the very valuable extra funds recently provided by the Government for their continued education?

§ Lord McIntosh of Haringey
My Lords, I agree strongly with the noble Lord, Lord Hylton. I happen to live opposite a school playing field and my road is never so busy as it is on Saturdays and Sundays. There is much more out-of-school use than there is in-school use. That is very welcome. We certainly encourage schools to make their playing fields available for community use as well as for school use during out-of-school hours.

§ Lord Pilkington of Oxenford
My Lords, does the Minister feel, as I do, that for some of us—a minority—deliverance from sport was the saviour of our school careers?

§ Lord McIntosh of Haringey
My Lords, the noble Lord knows that he tempts me. I used to go to the cinema on sports afternoons. However, I have already made that confession in the House.

§ Lord Janner of Braunstone
My Lords, are the Government aware of the immense possibilities that sports present to promote good relations and understanding between young people of different races, backgrounds and faiths, such as the extraordinary new scheme in which the Arsenal Football Club and the Maimonides Foundation have joined together to bring Moslem and Jewish youngsters together to coach them and enable them to compete against each other in mixed teams?

§ Lord McIntosh of Haringey
My Lords, I was not aware of the scheme to which my noble friend refers but I am glad to hear about it. If he cares to visit the sports field that is opposite my house on Saturdays and Sundays he will see that the teams are racially mixed.

§ Baroness Platt of Writtle
My Lords, is the Minister aware of the importance of sail training for both boys and girls whether from disadvantaged or public school backgrounds? In a force 8 gale, when the sails have to come down from the yards, the one thing they all know is that they are all in the same boat.

§ Lord McIntosh of Haringey
My Lords, I take the noble Baroness's question seriously despite her joke on the subject. Of course she is right that sail training is character forming.

§ Viscount Brookeborough
My Lords, does the Minister agree that some of the most disadvantaged young people are those who are in trouble with the police and who may even be on probation? Is he aware that in Northern Ireland the Duke of Edinburgh Award and the Outward Bound Scheme have extremely close links with the police who run a rambling scheme especially for these disadvantaged people? Will the 306 Minister give an assurance that as well as considering playing fields he will consider the needs of those people who are already partially under supervision?

§ Lord McIntosh of Haringey
My Lords, that sounds like a sensible suggestion which could usefully be extended beyond Northern Ireland.