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04 THE BROADER CONTEXT
Policy for sport is devolved to the Scottish Parliament and administered by the Scottish Executive. This affords us autonomy in developing our own policies and initiatives and allows us to build on the nation's strong sporting tradition.
As the home of golf, shinty and curling, Scotland has much to offer the world and the recent expansion of outdoor adventure sports has further promoted the country as an exciting and challenging location for sport tourism. The nation, however, tends to measure its sporting achievements largely in terms of the success of our football and rugby teams. While we celebrate excellence in other sports the feel good factor is transient and is not embedded in the nation's psyche. For a small nation we regularly perform above expectations but this is not consistently recognised. We need to extend the enthusiasm afforded to football and rugby across other sports.
It is widely acknowledged that it is easier to secure a lifetime commitment to sport if children are stimulated in a range of sporting activities at an early stage. Our education system has a world-wide reputation but sport is too often not an integral part of young people's development and this must be addressed. This was raised as an important issue at the First Minister's Sport Summit in September 2006 particularly in relation to secondary schools and identified as a challenge which will need to be addressed at national and local levels. A Curriculum for Excellence embraces a broader delivery agenda for all of our children and this provides significant opportunities for sport. Sport can be used as a delivery method for a range of educational outcomes and experiences to develop the four capacities of successful learners, confident individuals, responsible citizens and effective contributors. This increased profile for sport can be used to embed participation in physical activities as a core ingredient of a child's healthy lifestyle. Local authorities, sports governing bodies and others involved in sports provision must demonstrate exciting approaches to working with school aged children in school, family and community contexts and reflect in those approaches a responsiveness to the diversity of needs.
While our rugby and football teams have the opportunity to compete internationally under the flag of St Andrew, the majority of our sportsmen and women's experience of representing their country is at the Commonwealth Games allowing us to showcase, every four years, our talent in a range of sports. The Games are a focus of Scotland's elite athletes programme. However, we need to recognise and take account of the wider UK context. Our elite sportsmen and women also compete as part of the British team in the Olympic and Paralympic Games and at a wide range of other major championships, supported by UK Sport. We must respond sensitively to the challenges facing those sportsmen and women who qualify for Scotland and UK teams. While Reaching Higher does not address the detail of these relationships, key sporting agencies can only benefit from working together and sharing expertise with our UK partners. Scotland and the rest of the UK also have goals and aspirations most particularly to build on the opportunities of a London Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2012. Government, sport councils and sports governing bodies must work togetherif we are to deliver a successful London Olympic and Paralympic Games which provide a sporting legacy for the whole of the UK.
There are synergies between sport and a number of other services such as culture, health improvement, youth work, community learning and children's services. While this strategy is about the development of sport, it is important that links are made with other relevant strategies. There are many parallels between the frameworks for developing sport and culture. Increasing participation, sustaining commitment and supporting excellence are shared challenges and there are analogies between the development of the player pathway in sport and culture's escalator model. The Scottish Executive has recognised these links and commissioned work to gather data on participation across sport and culture. We are also sharing expertise in developing procedures to monitor and evaluate progress towards the achievement of our respective strategies.
With an ever changing world, sport must also adapt to the advances and advantages that modern technology provides. The increased use of IT provides a range of opportunities to modernise and streamline many of the services that support the development and delivery of sport. Co-ordinated databases, shared resources and the effect of the world wide web can improve the delivery of member services, marketing and promotion to all sectors of the sporting community. Many sports governing bodies and local authorities are currently using this to great effect with on-line membership, web-based advice, good practice guidance for clubs and their volunteers, and the sharing of information through interactive forums. There are further developments with greater use of mobile phone technologies that will provide further innovative and cost effective methods of communication. This technology must be embraced and its potential maximised.
Public sector reform provides opportunities to break down barriers across organisations, sectors, geographical boundaries and sports to take account of sporting needs, aspirations and provision. This means organising sport provision around citizens' needs and aspirations, driving up quality and encouraging innovation, reducing bureaucracy, joining up services and strengthening accountability.
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