The Scottish Government is committed to helping people to sustain and improve their health, especially in disadvantaged communities, ensuring better, local and faster access to health care.
The Games in Glasgow 2014 and London 2012 have the potential to inspire a whole new generation to take up sport, to be physically active and to live healthier lifestyles.
Over the next few pages you will see examples of how we can use the Games to contribute towards achieving this objective and related National Outcomes.
WHAT COULD WE DO? | HOW COULD WE DO IT? | WHAT COULD BE THE RESULT? |
Make Scotland a healthier place to live | Where possible, use athletes as positive health role models.
Develop the concept of healthy living communities along the lines of French model EPODE, highlighted in the Foresight UK report Tackling Obesities - Future Choices 2007, and explore potential linkages to sustainable transport demonstration towns.
Hightlight self-esteem associated with being a volunteer to help promote positive mental health. | The Games will have helped contribute: - to the speed with which we reach the physical activity targets: 50% of adults and 80% of children will meet the current recommended levels of physical activity by 2022. (Recommended levels: Adults = 30 minutes a day 5 times per week; Children = 1 hour a day 5 times per week.);
- to meeting the NHSHEAT target to achieve agreed completion rates for child healthy weight intervention programme by 2010/11;
- to achieving the national target to reduce the rate of increase in the proportion of children with their Body Mass Index outwith a healthy range by 2018;
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Make Scotland a healthier place to live | Work with the Games Organising Company to explore the possibility of training the 15,000 volunteers in Cardio-Pulmonary Resusitation.
Use the Games as a focus to strengthen non alcohol-related night-time economy by encouraging coffee shops and other non-licensed premises to stay open longer and provide an alternative to consuming alcohol. | The Games will have helped contribute: - to achieving healthy eating targets in the Food and Health Plan (due to be published in 2008);
- to reducing mortality from Coronary Heart Disease among the under 75s in deprived area;
- to reducing the number of smokers.
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| Contract for supplies of healthy food only for Games venues and use the Games to encourage local authorities and venue owners to make this change sustainable. | |
| Adjust NHS workforce plans to accommodate new sports medicine advisors and practitioners. | Create experts in the field of sports medicine advisors and practitioners to support high-performance teams and to enhance Scotland's capacity and attractiveness to support and host major sporting events. |
Use the 2014 and 2012 Games to help drive forward the two outcomes of the national sports strategy, Reaching Higher: increasing participation in sport and improving performance | Provide leadership and support to our partners in Scottish sport. | A stronger and more qualified sporting infrastructure. |
| Invest Government resources in line with the priorities of increasing participation and improving performance. | An increase in sports participation particularly amongst under-represented groups. |
| Engage local authorities and sports governing bodies to take a more strategic approach to improving and expanding the sporting infrastructure to ensure we are in a state of readiness to respond to an increased interest in sports participation. | Strong evidence base for sport including best practice.
A professional infrastructure for paid and voluntary coaches. |
| Initiate and develop programmes and ways of working to support the development of the sporting infrastructure. | Develop a quality improvement scheme to assist those working in sport to develop and implement a systematic approach to self-evaluation. |
Use the 2014 and 2012 Games to help drive forward the two outcomes of the national sports strategy, Reaching Higher: increasing participation in sport and improving performance | Encourage Scottish Sports Governing Bodies to develop plans, against which sportscotland can invest, which will deliver the priorities set out in "Reaching Higher". | 2012 Games
Olympic Games |
| Identify a clear pathway from grass-roots to elite performance in those Commonwealth and Olympic sports that can deliver the Government's performance objectives. | To have 45-65 Scottish athletes compete in the Games and to win 6 medals and/or have 10 medallists. |
| Improve and expand the support service delivery structure of the Scottish Institute of Sport and Area Institutes of Sport. Enabling individual athletes and Scottish Governing Bodies to increase the number of individual athletes and teams to reach qualification standards, achieve personal bests/ranking and win medals on the international sporting stage. | Paralympic Games |
| To sustain and increase the number of medals and medallists on the world stage in Commonwealth and Olympic sports. | To have 22-25 Scottish athletes compete in the Games and to win 10-15 medals. |
| | 2014 Games |
| | To win a record number of gold medals and have a record number of medallists of any Scottish team at any Commonwealth Games. |
| | To compete with distinction in all sports in the Commonwealth Games. |
| | To have a record number of Scottish athletes meeting the minimum selection criteria for the Games, as set by the Commonwealth Games Council for Scotland. |