§ Mr. Alan CampbellTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (1) what support her Department gives to the English Schools' Athletic Association; [185878]
(2) what representations her Department has received regarding the future of the English Schools' Athletic Association; [185879]
(3) what action her Department has taken to promote athletics in schools. [185880]
§ Mr. CabornThis Department provides no funding support to any schools sport association. It is Government policy that schools sport associations work closely with, and receive their core funding from, the governing bodies for their sports. DCMS officials and Ministers have held regular discussions with officers of the English Schools Athletic Association and UK Athletics over the past year about the future of competitive schools athletics. This is an issue that will be taken forward over the coming months by UK Sport and Sport England as part of the Foster Review implementation.
DCMS, the Department for Education and Skills and Sport England are supporting the secondment of a Development Manager to the National Council for School Sport. He is working with schools sport associations—including athletics—to embed competitive school sport in governing body one-stop/whole sport plans and to ensure that schools competition structures dovetail with the new infrastructure being established under the national strategy for PE, School Sport and Club Links.
The results of the 2003/04 PE, School Sport and Club Links Survey showed that athletics is the fourth most popular sport in school sport partnership schools (provided in 90 per cent. of schools) and the fourth most popular in terms of links between schools and clubs (32 per cent. of schools with links to clubs). Athletics is one of 22 sports receiving funding from the Club Links programme to increase the number of such links.