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Sport for Everyone

Subject: Sport for everyone – Calls for views To: Health and Sport Committee

Objective: To gather a Stirling wide view as part of Phase 2 of the Health and Sport Committee’s Sport for Everyone enquiry

3rd July 2017 Author: Active Stirling and Stirling Council

1. Can you provide examples where a community based approach has been successful in removing barriers to participation in sport and physical activity?

Twilight Basketball 1.1. Twilight Basketball in Stirling is delivered in partnership with Stirling Council Youth Team and Scottish Sports Futures (SSF). This provision is funded through Cashback for Communities and is primarily aimed at providing young people with opportunities which may reduce their likelihood of involvement in anti-social behaviour. This programme is well established and engages young people from across the Stirling Council area (and further afield) on a Friday evening within Raploch Community Campus. Young people have benefitted from the input from youth workers as well as sports coaches on a range of issues. Cowie School Holiday Activity Programme 1.2. Through engaging as a key partner in a local community multi-agency forum Active Stirling ensured they were fully up to date with community challenges, issues and opportunities allowing them to respond and contribute appropriately.

1.3. It was at the Cowie Leadership Forum where the need for affordable and accessible sport and physical activity holiday provision in Cowie was raised. It was challenged through the need to address a local community Priority – There should be more opportunities for children and young people in Cowie.

1.4. In response to community need Active Stirling fully utilised this forum to shape any offering, and options were presented for holiday activity programmes in relation to the structure, activities, timings, price etc. Working in partnership with the community in this way, their responses were used to inform the final decisions allowing them to feel part of the process and have a sense of ownership over the provision.

1.5. Creating a programme in this way removed the barriers to participation which included removing the transport challenges to get to activities by putting it on in the community and by putting it on at a reduced price addressed the need for a more affordable holiday programme which would hopefully allow those who do not normally access activity to take up the opportunity.

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1.6. Developing a programme with the community in this way resulted in Active Stirling hosting its most successful community based holiday provision to date in Cowie. There were 36 distinct participants across the full week, 18 of which had never participated in activity programmes with Active Stirling before and only three participants who had ever accessed other holiday provisions. Of those who attended 100% wanted this to opportunity to continue. Since then two further holiday programmes have been hosted with attendance increasing across all three holiday programmes, meeting with 95 distinct young people in the local community.

1.7. Evidence gathered through parent feedback suggests that the introduction of an affordable and accessible holiday option for children in the community has been of benefit, has been enjoyed and is something they hope will continue.

Legacy 2014 Physical Activity Fund – Active Communities Project 1.8. Through funding received from Scottish Government Legacy 2014 Physical Activity Fund Active Stirling were able to engage successfully with two local communities to work with groups most at risk of inactivity (women and adults 65+) to create and design active opportunities. The project allowed Active Stirling to upscale existing successful physical activities including buggy walks and strength and balance classes to encourage those from low participating communities to increase their physical activity, improving their sense of wellbeing and community connections.

1.9. With this funding, Active Stirling successfully set up two new buggy walks, one in Cowie and one in Raploch, both through consultations with the local community to determine how each walk would work for their community. Across 83 buggy walks (42 in raploch and 41 in Cowie), 297 attended, meeting with 44 distinct women and their babies. Both walks are now fully integrated into the main Stirling Buggy Walking Network ensuring they will be sustained beyond this initial investment and Active Stirling have been able to actively recruit and train 5 new volunteer walk leaders. The feedback from participants highlighted that the buggy walks helped overcome the barrier felt by many new parents of social isolation as they embark on their parenting journey.

1.10. The project also allowed Active Stirling to successfully establish four weekly falls prevention classes, two in each community. These classes took significantly longer to set up due to a few factors; not having the right staff in place; lack of enthusiasm or connection from potential participants and a change of leadership in community groups. However, making a change to staff resources helped address these barriers highlighting a more focused resource based in the community can make the difference in encouraging the inactive to get active.

1.11. Changing the name of the classes to falls prevention in direct response to the older people in the communities made a difference as they all related better to this than a class that used words like strength and balance. One other aspect that helped successfully overcome the barrier to participation was building the weekly classes into existing groups where there was space for them to have social connection with others beyond the activity. Adapting our approach and design of the class has resulted in now having older people in the community

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committing weekly to come half an hour earlier to their lunch/social club to participate in a falls prevention class – a big success.

Raploch Primary School 1.12. Raploch Primary School has used Scottish attainment challenge funding to help achieve equity and address the priority to close the attainment gap between children living in our most and least deprived communities. In partnership with Active Stirling, Raploch Primary School have used funding to appoint a PEPAS Co-ordinator to improve Health & Wellbeing opportunities for young people. This focused on the following areas of growing talent, maximising potential, increasing extra-curricular opportunities & sporting pathways, building resilience and encouraging determination. Active Stirling host the position, but the 15hr PEPAS Co-ordinator is based within the school to develop physical activity and school sport opportunities.

2. What are the key ingredients to that success?

Twilight Basketball in Stirling 2.1. The success of Twilight Basketball in Stirling is due to positive partnership working; shared aims and objectives, clear roles and responsibilities; regular communication and monitoring; local youth work knowledge; committed participants and staff, positive relationships; good promotion and publicity, shared values and principles and opportunities relevant to the needs of participants.

Active Stirling 2.2. Where Active Stirling has had success in building programmes through a community based approached, there are certain things that must be in place:

Workforce 2.2.1. Better understanding the importance of having the correct staff and staffing structure in place to form the strong relationships required with key partners, community groups and individuals to encourage participation. 2.2.2. Appointing staff who have sole focus on a community rather than building community focus into existing roles means progress and momentum can be achieved earlier and allow programmes to evolve from community up leading to better up-take of opportunities. 2.2.3. More flexible job remits will allow the inactive to be met in ways that are supportive in making the first step towards contemplating physical activity. 2.2.4. Be less prescriptive to staff working in communities, giving them time and encouraging creativity when setting up programmes to better reflect the needs of the individuals and communities. 2.2.5. Ensure staff recruited for community roles have the skills and qualities to build positive relationships with individuals and communities, displaying empathy and resilience.

Timelines

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2.2.6. Appreciating that community based approaches can mean activities can take longer to get going, and on occasions can slow or stop. Consideration must always be given to timelines to reflect the following:

2.2.6.1. Build sufficient time at the start of any community programme to meet with all local community forums, organisations and groups. 2.2.6.2. Change of staff impacts on timelines as relationship building is key. Therefore, time needs adjusted for any new member of staff to form these relationships. 2.2.6.3. Uptake in community based programmes can be slow and stop- start. Commitment to the activity regardless of numbers needs to be built into timelines to allow success to be seen and for programmes not to be stopped unnecessarily. 2.2.6.4. Create social space options before or after activities encourages participation but increases the time staff are in the community which needs reflected in job remit. Partnerships 2.2.7. It is essential for continued success to continue the commitment to work in partnership with key agencies, local organisations and groups to ensure a greater understanding of the people and the community to build activities that meet their need and work towards removing barriers to participation.

Raploch Primary School 2.3. The key to success was the partnership work between staff at Raploch Primary School, Active Stirling staff and the Primary PE Specialist covering Raploch Primary School. This working relationship and the PEPAS Co-ordinator being appointed has led to a huge amount of successes within the school and community. This partnership and willingness to increase activities has also led to members of the community working to create 'Raploch Hearts', a new community football club for adults and juniors based at the campus led by Active Stirling's Football Development Officer.

3. Were there any approaches that were particularly successful in increasing participation among certain social groups, like women, ethnic minorities, certain age-groups?

Twilight Basketball in Stirling 3.1. Combining the skills, knowledge and experience of youth workers and sports coaches has enabled a young person friendly and appropriate environment to be established at Twilight Basketball in Stirling. Youth work values are evident throughout the programme in terms of young people choosing to participate, and the work builds from where the young people are at and there is equity between the staff and young people in terms of the learning process.

Islamic Female Swim and Gym Sessions 3.2. Working alongside the Islamic Centre and in particular the Pakistan Welfare Association Active Stirling were able to design and develop a female only activity night. This was a significant step forward in overcoming inequality;

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removing barriers to participation and encouraging more girls and women to actively get involved in physical activity.

3.3. Following the successful pilot Active Stirling were in a position to establish the Islamic Ladies Friday Night Swim Sessions at Stirling High School as a permanent offering. Feedback from the pilot programme stated 86% of the women and 77% of the girls had not participated in swimming before this opportunity with 100% stating they wish to continue swimming.

3.4. Uptake remains positive and since the start Active Stirling has had 51 distinct participants from the Islamic Community participating in this opportunity. Participant ages range from 3 years to 55 years.

3.5. Building on the feedback gathered to date, Active Stirling are continuing to progress additional opportunities through female only exercise classes and female only access to the gym both now fully integrated into the wider ALL IN Communities programme.

3.6. This programme was built in consultation with the Islamic Ladies and started with zero participation and is now a permanent offering for Islamic women in Stirling.

Raploch Primary School 3.7. Part of the PEPAS role is to deliver activities at lunchtime and after school, and this delivery side has led to more school staff assisting within extra-curricular activities and school opportunities have dramatically risen by 203% in activity sessions and by 180% of participant sessions from 2014 to 2016. Other key reporting has also seen increases in attendance, levels of exclusion have reduced and instances of challenging behaviour being reduced.

4. To what extent are these approaches unique to a particular area and set of circumstances, or replicable in other parts of the country?

Twilight Basketball in Stirling 4.1. The approach taken by Twilight Basketball in Stirling is completely replicable if basic founding principles are in place. The partners need to agree on shared aims and objectives with clear roles and responsibilities; need to be confident in terms of providing professional challenge to each other; and approach the engagement of young people or participants jointly.

Raploch Primary School 4.2. Stirling data shows 80% of the school population are in SIMD 1 with the remaining 20% in SIMD2. The approach to use Sport & Physical Activity as an intervention was fairly unique to the school by using attainment challenge funding to set the process up. Using school PEF or additional funding, similar programmes could be setup in order to increase the participation opportunities within schools.

5. What are the barriers facing volunteers, (either those wanting to volunteer for the first time or sustaining ongoing volunteering)?

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Twilight Basketball in Stirling 5.1. With regards to Twilight Basketball Stirling, barriers can include confidence to get involved, access to volunteering opportunities and training. Active Stirling 5.2. For many new volunteers, a barrier that currently exists is the initial cost to them if their role requires them to be PVG checked. This fee can be off putting for younger volunteers where disposable income is not as readily available.

5.3. Many can site lack of skill or ability to fulfil a volunteer role or simply lack initial confidence.

6. How might these barriers be overcome?

Twilight Basketball in Stirling 6.1. Having a co-ordinated volunteer recruitment and training.

Active Stirling – Recruiting volunteers 6.2. Active Stirling can demonstrate through an initial payment to join the PVG scheme that there are many opportunities that they can then access for free to train and develop them in the role. Likewise, look at ways where they can access the PVG for free through volunteering with a local sports club.

6.3. Providing tangible courses that supports them in the role provides them with the confidence to deliver, providing them the opportunity to take the skills into other environments.

6.4. While training can support ongoing confidence to deliver this can also be supported by providing an effective support system through fellow volunteers and wider staff. Providing feedback and sharing with them the feedback received from participants and partners can ensure confidence remains high as they give their time to volunteer.

7. What are the challenges in retaining volunteers beyond the short term?

Twilight Basketball in Stirling 7.1. Ensuring that the opportunity is meeting the volunteer needs as well as participants. Offering variety and ensuring the opportunity is appropriate to skills, knowledge and experience.

Active Stirling 7.2. Relying on a young volunteer workforce can be a challenge as young people move frequently to support ongoing college, university or work commitments. Many use volunteering as a positive vehicle to allow progression in their chosen career pathway. While this is essential for the wider development of sport as they take many new skills with them it can leave gaps in the programmes which can mean programmes lose momentum etc.

7.3. Looking at all ages for volunteering would support this and develop more local resource to support the transient nature of young people.

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8. What examples are there of good practice to encourage and maintain volunteers in community sport and are there lessons to learn from other sectors around attracting and retaining volunteers in sport? Twilight Basketball in Stirling 8.1. The Community Sports Leaders Initiatives with both young people and adults, would further benefit from links back into the wider community – i.e., Community Sports Leaders facilitating sports and physical activities in youth group setting and not just around the after schools context.

Active Stirling 8.2. Within Stirling, Stirling Walking Network is a great example of a programme that has successfully retained volunteers over several years.

8.3. Stirling Walking Network has been in place for over ten years and many of their strong team of 78 volunteers have been with the programme since the start. This programme delivers 24 volunteer lead walks across Stirling each week involving Health Walks, Community Walks, Buggy Walks and Nordic Walks.

8.4. Key to the success of the programme is that through their active participation in the programme many of the volunteers themselves gain the physical activity benefits and report an improved feeling of wellbeing. Likewise, this programme supports many people impacted by poor health or social isolation and being part of supporting those most in need and seeing a difference through attending weekly walks helps motivate them in their role. The most effective recruitment strategy adopted by the programme is recruiting within the walking network where walkers want to give back to a programme that has made a difference to them and they can then also share that testimony with new walkers and keep that positive cycle going.

8.5. Keeping this team engaged for such a long period is managed effectively through providing a platform to share their successes as a volunteer and volunteer teams. As a volunteer team, they have won several national volunteer awards as well as local volunteer awards. This feeling that their work is being recognised and awarded is a free and effective way to encourage them to keep going.

8.6. Providing space within the programme for volunteers to take ownership has also ensured their longevity.

8.7. Placing volunteers in their communities have also benefitted this walk programme as the location works for them and their local knowledge of the community and its local history is something they can then share on their walks.

8.8. Keeping the team well equipped through ongoing training and development has also been a success to the programme. Most recently 30 of the team went through Dementia Friendly Training to then offer health walks that are suitable for those living well with dementia to access and again this work was recognised nationally. This is one example of many training and development opportunities they have been given as a team which they are grateful for.

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8.9. Building in space to connect as a volunteer team to share best practice and experiences proves valuable in forging relationships across the volunteer workforce.

9. Can you provide examples of innovative joint working between clubs and public bodies that are utilising available sources of funding?

9.1. Cashback for Communities – Twilight Basketball in Raploch and Street Football in St Ninians (new project).

10. To what extent is the school estate currently being used effectively to increase opportunities for sport and physical activity participation?

Active Stirling 10.1. The school estate is busy but there is uncertainty as to how effectively busy it is. The majority of school facilities are programmed with weekly bookings, many of which are sports clubs and ad hoc groups utilising facilities for sports. That said other bookings in sports facilities in the school estate include non- sporting groups as well. Sports clubs find it particularly hard to find space to grow due to the pressures around facility space as do other sport and physical activity providers like Active Stirling.

10.2. It is helping to increase participation as schools are being used as venues to deliver Group Fitness classes throughout the Stirling area. Active Stirling are currently delivering 2 classes per week in Bannockburn and Wallace High Schools and in Stirling High School each day of the week apart from Sunday. In Stirling High there is also a gym facility which is open on all of these days which members of the public can use as part of the All In Communities membership. Active Stirling deliver a variety of classes and the gym is manned which means users of all of experience are able to confidently attend the sites.

10.3. For Active Schools activities, the usage within the school estate continues to grow on an annual basis. At the end of the 2016/17 academic year, there will be approximately 8,000 extra-curricular sessions delivered within school buildings, this is a 26% increase on the level of activities offered within the 2013/14 academic year. Each year, the programme continues to grow, with additional opportunities being offered before school in addition to lunchtime and after school to increase pupil opportunities. The increase in activities is also down to a large increase in volunteers in the system, which has increased from 439 to approximately 600 in a three year period.

11. In what ways has access to the school estate for communities improved in recent years?

Active Stirling 11.1. Access to the school estate has more or less remained the same over recent years, with the exception being to astro-turf football pitches where part of a Pitches Strategy was implemented to help prioritise programming of these facilities.

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11.2. Access has improved in recent years due to the launch of the Active Stirling ‘All In Communities’ membership which allows members to access all of the community sites as part of their membership rather than individual memberships for each site. This has allowed Active Stirling to have classes in more sites and also increase the number of participants in each of these and direction of funds from Active Stirling towards this has allowed for an increase to the number of classes and quality of Instructor. Good communication with FES has also made access easier and fewer difficulties are being experienced.

11.3. Access to the school estate has remained similar for Active Schools programmes as access to facilities has remained constant. Schools have made agreements with local clubs in order for certain clubs to deliver specific programmes as breakfast clubs or as extra-curricular activities that form part of extra-curricular timetables which has increased opportunities. Stirling Council 11.4. All new builds and extensions within the school estate include for community use out of hours. This ensures that facilities are made available for sporting and other uses when not required for Education. The new build and refurbished secondary school estate (completed circa 8 years ago) is open for bookings from 6pm to 10pm every evening in term time and can also be opened from 9-5 on weekends and during school holiday periods. Primary schools can also be made available for community use where the secondary estate does not have sufficient capacity. As an example of how Active Stirling are moving forward with community use of the school estate, the recently completed new build school in Cowie (St Margaret’s PS), provides out of hours access to internal hall/gym spaces and a changing facility that supports local football teams in their use of adjoining community pitches. It also has a community hall with kitchenette that can be used during the school day e.g. by local community groups such as the Over 50s and Toddlers.

12. What are the remaining barriers to use of the school estate? Please also note any particular issues around term-time compared with school holiday time.

Active Stirling 12.1. The remaining barriers are prioritisation of user groups throughout term time and how meeting all community users can be facilitated across all of the local facilities, not just the sports groups but others. PPP contracts during holiday time will remain a barrier with only 4 weeks from a possible 12 available through the contracts.

12.2. One of the main barriers is when equipment needs to be maintained, a lot of companies can only come out through the day which is not always possible during school hours. There are no real differences between term time and holiday time for access apart from during exam time when games halls/dance studios can be out of use which in turn means active opportunities have to be cancelled. In addition some of the equipment is used by school staff during the day and is sometimes missing or damaged when staff or instructors need to use it to deliver programmes.

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12.3. No specific issues during the school week. There are opportunities to use rural schools, mainly primary schools for evening / weekend / holiday use but barriers exist around building access and staff costs to open up facilities.

Stirling Council 12.4. The requirement to deliver the PE curriculum means that limited facilities within schools (e.g. large halls) tend to be fully utilised during the school day and cannot be offered up for community use. Even if facilities are available, most schools would not be able to accommodate community use during the school day on the grounds of security and inability to segregate pupils from members of the public (note that in new schools, the design can address this but in the existing estate this becomes problematic). Community use of the school estate during school holidays can present challenges for the Authority too. This is the only time that works can be done in the school estate e.g. maintenance, construction, deep cleaning etc. and the Authority does not widely employ FM staff during holiday periods making community access difficult. Within the secondary estate and in a number of the larger primary schools, arrangements have been made to ensure these are open for bookings during the school holiday periods and are well used by community/Active Stirling.

13. How might these barriers be overcome?

Active Stirling 13.1. These barriers could be overcome through an effective Facilities Strategy which engages all significant facility managers to establish priority use of sports facilities and collaborative working in programming across facility managers.

13.2. Communication with members of the school staff and locked storage within the school for certain equipment.

13.3. Partnership work with Stirling Council to see what opportunities are led by community demand. Stirling Council 13.4. Ensuring that all new builds and refurbishments, where feasible, take into account the community aspirations for shared use of spaces (Community/Education), appropriate zoning/access control of spaces, review of FM arrangements for other schools – where demand exists.

13.5. Stirling Council are committed to the single public estate and wherever possible, co-locating facilities within the school estate to maximise efficiency but also to provide a range of suitable facilities for use by the wider community.

14. How would you assess the active legacy of the Commonwealth Games for:

Community benefits – Active Stirling 14.1. Active Stirling received funding from the Scottish Government Legacy 2014 Physical Activity Fund through Spirit 2012 Trust to engage with two local

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communities, Raploch and Cowie, to work with groups most at risk of inactivity (women and adults 65+) to create and design active opportunities.

14.2. The Active Communities project aim was to build sustainable community based physical activity programmes that encourages those from low participating communities (Raploch and Cowie) facing health inequalities to increase their physical activity, improving their overall sense of wellbeing and community connections. The project would upscale existing successful physical activities including buggy walks, strength and balance classes and jogging groups and through these activities encourage the inactive to become and remain active in their community.

14.3. Delivering this funded project has allowed Active Stirling to work in a different way. It provided the capacity to be more intentional with the approach in engaging with two of the low participating communities, identified locally in line with the Scottish Index of Multi Deprivation (SIMD) as showing high incidence of health inequalities.

14.4. Taking existing programmes and working in a more focused and targeted way for communities and individuals has resulted in significant pieces of learning. This learning has already informed and shaped current working practice and has generated essential learning on how to continue to work in this way to ensure outcomes are achieved for those who need it most.

14.5. This Legacy Fund has supported the creation of 6 new activities (3 in each community) to be set up and sustained in looking to increase access to free physical activity. Through these activities 45% of the target beneficiaries were met with, with this rising as the activities are now part of the mainstream programme. It is know from feedback that these new activities have been well received and enjoyed by those attending.

14.6. This Legacy Fund has allowed significant steps to be taken in each community which have not been seen before and helped establish a way of working with the community which is now in place for future opportunities. Likewise, the lessons learned from this programme are continuing to inform how other communities are approached in relation to developing physical activity and sport programmes and develop staff and programmes accordingly.

Participation rates – Active Stirling 14.7. A major legacy of the Games can be seen in the overall Active Schools figures, with a 26% rise in three years for the level of activity sessions offered alongside a similar rise of 27% for participant sessions, with approximately 150,000 sessions recorded in the 2016/17 academic year. From an events perspective, one of the main developments has been the developments in the calendar of event. For the Commonwealth Games, a calendar of events was put in place for primary schools to take part in commonwealth sports. This has since developed to an annual calendar of events offered to both primary & secondary schools. Within the Active Schools team in Stirling, there is now a member of the team with a remit across Stirling to develop competition which has led from

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the initial legacy calendar put in place. For the 2016/17 academic year, primary schools had access to 26 events, with secondary schools having 30.

15. To what extent are the new facilities being used to maximum capacity?

Twilight Basketball in Stirling 15.1. Twilight Basketball Stirling currently have access to games halls in terms of the youth groups facilitated. These would be better utilised by the provision of sports coaches to work with young people and not just youth workers (who do their best may I add). Costs seem to be a real barrier but maybe the deployment of volunteers who participate in Community Sports Leadership courses locally would be a way of solving this particular problem, thus enhancing young peoples’ experience and maximising use of such facilities.

16. Are there any examples of innovative uses of the new facilities benefitting the community? 16.1. No response

17. Is the physical infrastructure built for the Commonwealth Games being used effectively to increase opportunities for sport and physical activity; and increasing rates of sport and physical activity participation? 17.1. No response

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