Alliance welcomes long term school sport funding pledge

David Cameron has today pledged that the Government will extend its provision of £150 million per year for primary school sport until 2020 should the Conservative Party be re-elected.

The Government initially promised two years of school sport funding and, in December 2013, promised to extend the funding for a further year.

The current Government school sport funding policy includes:

• £150 million per year ring-fenced funding per year allocated directly to school heads
• funding allocation based on a pupil premium model
• a pilot teacher training programme providing national governing body qualifications to primary teachers so that they become specialists
• investment in County Sports Partnerships to link national governing bodies effectively with schools
• continued funding of the School Games
• continued funding of the Young Ambassador programme with 2,500 new Ambassadors to be trained.

Andy Reed, Chair of the Sport and Recreation Alliance said:

“Today’s announcement is a big step forward for school sport and we applaud the Government for extending this funding commitment into 2020.

“The Alliance has been calling for a long term and sustainable strategy for school sport for some time. The announcement will give schools and sport providers a clearer focus, a sense of stability and an incentive to really get the pupil premium fund embedded and working.

“This new, longer term focus is really welcome. In the run-up to the 2015 General Election, we’d urge all parties to look at the wider long term issues and considerations for sport and recreation.

“Everybody knows that sport and physical activity make society happier and healthier and could save the NHS billions, but there is still a glaring need for government and policymakers to harness these benefits more effectively through policy.

“We’re working with our members at the moment to provide a cross-party manifesto for sport and it’s something we’d like all the major parties to sign up to.”

Find out more about the Sport and Recreation Alliance’s policy work.

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