Young People & Physical Activity - Essay Example

?School Sports Competition Table of Contents Introduction 3 Role of Key Agencies in the Development of Youth Sports in the UK 4 Effectiveness of Current Youth Sport Organisation and Their Initiatives Offered For the Development of Youth Sports and Critical Factors Influencing the Provision of Sporting Opportunities for Young People 7 The Basis and Effectiveness of Different Youth Sport Initiatives Operating Locally and Nationally 9 Conclusion 12 References 13 17 Bibliography 18 Introduction Sports are highly regarded in building human character (Fullinwider, 2006). Kids love to participate in sports to have fun. Sports are always considered responsible for building up a child into healthy adults. Sports help in developing skills and competencies, attitude of fair play, action and sense of personal involvement among the kids which would contribute a lot in their future. Participation in sports has always been a common right of the children. Youth sports provide with a wonderful platform for kids to have fun, be active in nature and most of all develop skills in them which prove to be helpful in long run. Nevertheless, the youth sports provide the opportunity to be the best for all participants, not just the highly skilled ones, therefore it becomes very necessary for the adults to change their perspective and realign it to what the kids want. This paper helps to evaluate the importance of youth sports for the nation United Kingdom, the steps adopted by the nation and the role of various agencies working to help it in the UK. After winning the London 2012 Olympic bid, the nation has really been very active in encouraging young generation towards participation in sports. Role of Key Agencies in the Development of Youth Sports in the UK Sports by nature are competitive and help to develop the sense of competencies among the young people. The sporting scenario in the UK is frequently changing and very complex in nature. Agencies play a very crucial role in developing sports in the nation. It is important to understand the vision, the objectives and the strategic direction of these agencies working in the UK for the development of the youth sports. And, also try to analyse how these agencies work to create a pathway for the players from the playground to the stage. The Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) is responsible for preparing government policies on the arts, sport, broadcasting, press freedom and regulation, tourism, the National Lottery, museums and galleries, libraries, creative industries including the film and the music industry licensing, the gambling and the historic environment (Trimble & Et. Al., 2009). The responsibilities of the agency, DCMS also involves with operation of 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (DCMS, 2008). The role of DCMS is supported by the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) and the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (LOCOG). The responsibilities of these agencies involve with publication of ‘strategic policy documents’, ‘target setting’ and the ‘allocation of funding’. Government of UK plays a considerable role in development of sports and physical activities. Government of UK is very active in this field so as to build a healthy nation and sporting events play a crucial role in this respect (Trimble & Et. Al., 2009). ‘The first sustainable Olympic and Paralympics Games’ is the vision as promised by the London 2012 Games bid to the International Olympic Committee (IOC). London got a chance of hosting this fabulous event providing the country with an opportunity of representing excellence through the planning, the performance of the athletes and the legacy of benefits that can be obtained. This helps a lot in influencing and inspiring the people across the nation to accommodate changes in their behaviour such as highly energising the young people to participate in it. Being a host country, the UK welcomes the participant athletes from different nations showing the other nations that the UK is the good place to live in. And, the 2012 Games is considered as most prestigious event in the world which will also provide a chance to the host city and country, London and UK respectively, to show their best performance. This can be achieved in various ways like altering people’s point of view and behaviour through sponsorships, revolutionary new approaches and media can also be of huge help. Here, people have a brilliant chance of sharing and enhancing their knowledge through sharing and learning with other fellow participant nations. The vision of London 2012 is ‘to use the power of games to inspire change’ (London 2012, 2009). The youth sports help in establishing awareness about the importance of games among the youths and adults as well. The London 2012 Games are being operated by several key organisations operating in England namely London 2012 Organising Committee and the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) (Great Britain: Department for Culture, Media and Sport, 2007). The new strategies as proposed by these organisations are clearly focusing on the development and encouraging young people’s participation in sports. The strategies promise to help and to establish a clear view about the roles of the three key bodies operating in sports development departments. The Youth Sports Trust is the agency that has taken responsibility for school sports (Youth Sport Trust, 2010). Sport England is another agency which focuses on ensuring that quality opportunities exist outside the school gates and encouraging children and young people of schools to stand outside of the school playground to outer sports such as community sports. Youth Sport Trust also works with the Sport England on the basis of offer termed ‘the Five Hour Offer’ (Youth Sport Trust, 2010). In this offer, they focus on increasing the number of teenage participants who are at the age of sixteen. It also focuses on its ambitions to develop a network of modern sports club for young people in societies in partnership with national governing bodies of the UK, which would be one of the key components of this evolution. A trial for these evolutions will be encouraging participations from the young people between the ages 5 years to 16 years old in the attributed clubs of the in national governing body (Trimble & Et. Al., 2009). The two government departments i.e. Department for Children Schools and Families (DCSF) and Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) are responsible for the development and operation of physical education and school sport strategies in schools of the UK. There are a number of key stakeholders, for instance, Youth Sport Trust, Association for Physical Education, Sport England and Sports Coach UK, which help and support the delivery of the Physical Education and Sport Strategy for Young People (PESSYP) strategy (Youth Sport Trust, 2008). Since their establishment in the year 1994, the Youth Sport Trust has intended to build a better future for kids and young people by improving the standard of the Physical Education (PE) and sporting opportunities provided to them (Youth Sport Trust, 2010). Effectiveness of Current Youth Sport Organisation and Their Initiatives Offered For the Development of Youth Sports and Critical Factors Influencing the Provision of Sporting Opportunities for Young People The various development agencies operating in the UK works in order to provide benefit to the youths as their target beneficiaries. As shown in the Figure 1 below, this approach is known as assets approach to encourage youth participation in development of the nation, which also realises and organises talents and strengths of individual or group. Rather than focusing only on scarcity of talent, this approach also analyses problems or threats which is also referred as ‘the three-lens approach’ to youth participation (Restless Development, 2011). Figure below depicting the process of agencies targeting the youth sports for the purpose of development with assets approach: Figure 1: Source: (The World Bank, 2006). Facilities provided as sports have proved to be very important and can make an important contribution in improving the physical infrastructure of communities. This also helps in improving and changing perception of people neighbourhood and encourages building a healthy social community for their kids. ‘Ask the expert’ is the service provided by the UK sport development organisations to provide the opportunity to use the sports facilities for the development purpose in the nation by the means of monitoring and evaluating manually with support from the young people and guidance from these available experts (Sport and Dev, 2011). UK Sport Agency is operating together with the agency named Comic Relief to analyse the role sports can play in the society for the development of youth and community as well. The initiatives taken by these organisations towards encouraging youth to participate in youth oriented games are quite effective in nature. It has been observed that the numbers of participants have comparatively increased since their execution. According to the initiatives adopted by these organisations dealing locally and nationally has huge influence on the perception of young people toward sports. Schools in the UK have taken necessary steps in encouraging their kids to participate in sports with the help of Physical Education and Youth Sport Trust. The successful London 2012 Olympic bid had certain effect on the range of sports opportunities available to young people in the UK. The publication of the DCMS 2012 Legacy Action Plan (LAP) focuses on making most of the London 2012 Games highlighting the government’s inherited objectives for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games (Sports Development, 2011). The plan which has been prepared by these key agencies focuses upon using the power of games to increase participation of young people in youth sports which will further help to address underachievement of young people and their disaffection and to encourage young people in making healthy choices of lifestyle. With an intention to inspire the young people to participate in youth games, three government-funded London 2012 programmes were launched. They are the UK School Games, the Young Ambassadors Programme and an Annual National Talent oriented camp, and their objectives are to identify and focus on bringing together the best young athletes between the ages of 14 to 17 years (Houlihan & Green, 2011). The Basis and Effectiveness of Different Youth Sport Initiatives Operating Locally and Nationally With the budding and increasingly complex infrastructure for youth sports in England, the launch of programme titled ‘Playing to Win: a new era for sport’ was an attempt by DCMS to restructure and rationalise sports environment for the young people (DCMS, 2008). The Youth Sport Trust is responsible for Physical Education (PE) and school sports in the UK. Sport England is in charge for the management and smooth operation of community sport and UK Sport is the agency which is concerned about the development of elite sports in UK. These key agencies are responsible for different areas of delivering improved facilities of sports for the betterment of the young people. These new structural arrangements are considered to be the key pillars for smooth functioning of sports and high profile events by which England fulfils its sporting potential (DCMS, 2008). These agencies’ objectives are effective enough to create high quality environments for the sports that encourage participation of children and young people in the UK. Talent development incorporates the principles of the Long Term Athlete Development model which is the main initiative taken by these agencies helping in encouraging the youth participation and their interest in youth sports (Brian Mac, 2011). Their adoption of initiatives also include recruiting and developing coaches and volunteers to provide the best possible activity programmes for the betterment of the youth sports. These agencies play a vital role in creating sports club opportunities for young people which are high quality, safe in nature and children friendly, making it easier for small kids (Brian Mac, 2011). A changed step in the process of coaching can have high effect on quantity and quality offered to young people in sport (Rawmarsh School Sport Partnership, 2008). The initiatives taken by these key agencies have been proved to be helpful enough to increase standards of youth sports for school children. These agencies focus on building local relationship between the school sports and coaching programmes (Right to Play, 2010). These agencies help in building national network of competition supervisors to operate with school sport partnerships on inter school sports. Their main objectives focus on increasing the number of young participants who are engaged in regular competitive prospects. They help in organising National School Sport Week which is one of their objectives (British Heart Foundation, 2011). They have taken initiatives in training and developing physical education teachers of the schools in the UK and other professionals who are engaged in sports and tend to deliver high quality facilities in sports (HM Inspectorate of Education, 2011). They have also adopted initiatives regarding establishing network of 450 Multi-Sport Disability Clubs across the nation which not only help adults with disabilities but also the kids with disabilities, encourages them to be the part of the youth sports. Sport organised by these clubs involve all young disabled members who do not want to or are not capable of accessing comprehensive condition due to their physical disabilities. They also help in providing the requirements in areas of scarcity in any case related to sports (HM Inspectorate of Education, 2011). These agencies help in establishing sustainable opportunities in sporting activities for young people belonging to the semi sporty segment of population and encouraging them to take part in youth sports during term time. These initiatives adopted by these agencies prove to be effective enough to support schools in identifying and supporting talented children in physical education and sport. These agencies help them to realise their full potential both in sport and education, especially to those children who are high achievers. These agencies also consider those children who are at risk of underachieving and belong to disadvantaged areas. School Sport Partnerships is one of the key components of encouraging and influencing the young people towards the youth sports which will remain as the key driver for young people’s high quality sports opportunities (North Hertfordshire District Council, 2011). Conclusion All social or national events of sports play a very significant role in establishing awareness towards the importance of sports for the nation. Local authorities should significantly evaluate current programmes and the content in which they are dealing with such as issues of social inclusion with regards to sports. All those involved in the stipulation of sporting opportunities for young people like Youth Sports should ensure that resources are targeted to areas of greatest need. Agencies dealing in this field should be aware of how they can encourage young people to participate in sports which would be an initiative towards developing healthy nation. The UK has been operating many agencies in this field to facilitate the young people with every possible help so that they can get motivated towards sports. Sport is a healthy step towards building the nation strong physically. Kids and youths are considered as the future of every nation. And, for the effective implementation of the strategy of growing the nation strong the main focus is on youth (Great Britain: Department for Culture, Media and Sport, 2007). Agencies such as DCMS, London 2012 Organising Committee, Comic Relief, UK Sport and Youth Sport Trust are the few named agencies dealing effectively in this sector. There initiatives are effective enough to draw youth’s interests towards sports. The UK is very particular about increasing the youth participations and has adopted required remedies. Agencies dealing with the school sports such as, Youth Sports Trust are operating effectively for encouraging the importance of schools sports among school authorities as well as students. Whereas, agency named Sport England encourages the young people towards the sports related activities outside the schools. 2012 Olympic bid has provided with a lot of opportunities for the UK with regard to the sports (Department for Education, 2007). References Brian Mac, 2011. Long Term Athlete Development. Athletic Model Indicators. [Online] Available at: http://www.brianmac.co.uk/ltad.htm [Accessed October 28, 2011]. British Heart Foundation, 2011. Initiatives and Programmes. Active School. [Online] Available at: http://www.bhf.org.uk/plugins/PublicationsSearchResults/DownloadFile.aspx?docid=a2ca5584-c482-4c8a-afbc-a5f575bc3335&version=-1&title=Active+school+pack+section+8&resource=AS8 [Accessed October 28, 2011]. DCMS, 2008. Playing To Win: A New Era for Sport. London: DCMS. 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