I am delighted to open the debate on behalf of the Scottish Conservatives.
It is a fantastic achievement for our small country to continue its history of hosting major international competitions from the hugely successful 2014 Commonwealth games to the Ryder cup, the open championship, the world badminton championships, the Champions League final, the 2012 Olympic football group matches and the world gymnastics championships, to name but a few.
I go back a little further than that, of course, having had the immense honour of competing in the 1986 Commonwealth games in Edinburgh and the European indoor championships in Glasgow in 1990. There is nothing like being a competitor in your home country. It is hard to describe the wall of noise that follows you and supports you around the track. Your heart could burst with pride. We Scots are a passionate lot and we love our sport, especially when it is one of our own in the arena.
Now, we have the European championships to whet our appetite in 2018, not to mention the Solheim cup and the world indoor athletics championships in 2019. That is a veritable smörgåsbord of international-class sport for our enjoyment and entertainment, and we can be guaranteed that every event will be full because, as I have said before, we Scots love our sport.
However, our support for and our passion for watching sporting excellence are not reflected in the state of the nation’s health. Our issues with preventable health conditions such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, musculoskeletal conditions, chest, heart and stroke conditions and many types of cancers, not to mention poor mental health, are well documented, and the incidence of many of those conditions continues to rise. It is our relationship with physical activity and food that will determine whether we are successful in turning that unwanted trend around. The truth of the matter is that, if someone is physically active as part of their routine, they are less likely to smoke and more likely to have a healthier weight and a better relationship with food and alcohol. That regular participation in physical activity will also have a positive effect on their mental health, as we have been told by the Scottish Association for Mental Health, Mental Health Scotland and even the Samaritans.
We, in this place, must address how we can leverage a positive legacy for the nation’s health from events such as the European championships. We need not just to look at activity levels, as was done in the Scottish health survey, but to ask the questions: “If you are not active, would you like to be?” “If you would like to be active, what are the barriers?”
One example of what the health survey did not show is the huge increase in the waiting lists at many sports clubs, such as those for athletics and gymnastics, even though their participation figures rocketed up. Figures from sportscotland show that many Scottish sports have registered encouraging membership increases during the four-year Glasgow cycle, including a 58 per cent rise at Netball Scotland—which is particularly important given its demographic—a 49 per cent growth at Scottish Triathlon and a 37 per cent increase at Scottish Gymnastics. In total, there has been an 11 per cent increase in the membership of the 17 Commonwealth games sports governing bodies over the past four years. However, the Scottish health survey does not reflect that, and nor did the investigation by the Health and Sport Committee, in my opinion. Its focus was too narrow and its conclusions gave us only part of the picture, which makes it difficult to deliver long-lasting, effective solutions.
It is not just about measuring the status quo; it is about understanding why current patterns exist, looking at socioeconomic participation patterns and addressing barriers to participation. It is about looking at what activities are available and accessible in all areas. The best line that I heard in the evidence that was given to the Health and Sport Committee came from the chief executive of Scottish Athletics, Mark Munro, when he said that we have to prepare for legacy. In other words, the legacy from hosting major events does not just happen; we must put in place the opportunities to participate and make access as easy as possible.
What about aligning the school curriculum with upcoming sporting championships? What about offering extracurricular activities that are linked to that school curriculum, and what about joining up that extracurricular activity programme with local clubs, using governing body input? What about actively encouraging volunteers and driving coach education? That is as much about participation as the sports participants. We need to link physical education to physical activity and to sport.
We are talking about obesity strategies and mental health strategies while, in the real world, access to participation is being ripped out of our local communities. We have a fantastic, world-class sporting facility at Ravenscraig that was opened in October 2010 and funded by public funds. In June 2011, First Minister Alex Salmond praised the facility and admitted that it would deliver a real and lasting legacy for Scotland and North Lanarkshire. Now, we hear that they are ripping up the 135m track without consultating Scottish Athletics, the users of the facility or, it seems, the Scottish Government.
South Ayrshire Council is looking to close sports hubs in Troon and Ayr, where, incidentally, clubs such as the powerchair football team known as the Ayrshire Tigers train and play. That is being repeated across the country, including in Ayrshire towns such as Maybole, Patna and Dalmellington.
We cannot keep ripping out access to opportunities by closing local facilities and centralising opportunities and then complain that activity levels are not rising. The inevitable consequence of those moves is that physical activity and sport will become the bastion of those who can afford and are able to travel, while those who cannot will be left behind, and that will drive health inequalities in Scotland. That is why the Scottish Conservatives will support the Labour amendment.
The answer is staring us in the face. Facilities need to be local, accessible and affordable. The school estate is all of those things, but it continues to be underutilised. The opportunity to participate in extracurricular activities can and should be expanded for a variety of reasons, improved participation and good physical and mental health being the main ones.
The European championships coming to Scotland is another great opportunity to showcase Scotland, to show how we welcome the world to our shores, to enthuse our people, to deliver that intangible feel-good factor—that national pride—and to celebrate the jobs that the event will create and the opportunities to get involved. For those reasons alone, it is worth continuing to bring such events to Scotland. However, so much more can be achieved, especially where national health is concerned. Legacy is a difficult concept to deliver when it comes to participation. Many countries have tried and have fallen short. That does not mean that it cannot be done, but we need to plan for it. Look at what Scottish Athletics did in the four years leading up to the Glasgow Commonwealth games and in the subsequent four years.
Through its club together programme, Scottish Athletics invested in the club system, recruiting coaches and administrators as well as athletes. The number of active participants across all the age groups in championships has rocketed. The huge successes of jogscotland numbers and the mums on the run and jogworks programmes should be noted. Do members think that it is a happy accident that Scottish athletes on the international stage are now more successful than they have been in decades? We need to learn from Scottish Athletics and other sports that have grasped the nettle and made it happen—not just in sport, but in accessible and affordable activity.
The European championships coming to Scotland is not the end game; it should be the start. I ask the Scottish Government to formulate a plan that actually delivers against healthy and active objectives, that gives opportunity to all irrespective of background and personal circumstance and that recognises how to link events with activity levels and strategies such as the obesity and mental health strategies. To do any less would be, once again, to let a fantastic opportunity drift by.
I move amendment S5M-09789.2, to leave out from “and build on the legacy” to “in 2014” and insert:
“; notes the Health and Sport Committee’s concerns that the 2014 Commonwealth Games did not have the legacy impact desired; believes that substantial efforts should be taken to ensure that hosting the championships has a positive effect on Scotland’s low levels of physical activity”.
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