Reflection 4

Make sure each reflection has a name, date, course, and reflection #, properly documented and illustrated on the title page to receive full credit. This reflection must be at least 1 full page in length (double-space is acceptable). Reflections will examine the specific chapter covered in the course textbook, highlighting the main points discussed through critical thinking and informative evaluation.

For your fourth reflection, you may choose any article, TedTalk, outside resource, or information regarding bias that you found interesting related to the parks, recreation, tourism, and sport management field. This reflection will be based on your research so please feel free to be creative as possible when conducting further information learned throughout Chapter 4: Bias. For example, you may choose to review a recent TedTalk you found beneficial and write about any new information received. Another example would be to refer to any recent news article in any PRTSM industry and provide more detail on how this news increases or decreases bias awareness, specifically as it relates to stereotypes in the field or other chapter-related material presented in Chapter 4. Again, this is your chance to research a topic of your interest.

this are the chapters you need to write this

Chris Cutforth

SUMMARY

The aim of this chapter is to help you understand the roles of different organisations involved in the way sport is developed, managed and provided within communities. Primarily, this will be done by exploring community sport organisations in England; however, the reality is that some of these organisations operate across the United Kingdom or Great Britain and Northern Ireland as well. With this in mind, having read this chapter, we invite you to explore for yourselves how community sport is organised in other countries around the world.

AIMS

By engaging with this chapter, you will be able to

identify the roles and responsibilities of key organisations involved in community sport and physical activity,

describe the roles played by publically funded sport and physical activity programmes in local communities,

understand the current status and profile of sport and physical activity in local authorities and

explore the opportunities and challenges local authorities are currently facing in relation to their role in community sport and physical activity.

WHY IS GOVERNMENT INTERESTED AND INVOLVED IN SPORT?

In order to understand why any government might be interested in sport, there is first a need to define two interrelated terms government and the state. Government refers to the political party, or more than one party in the case of a coalition, with a mandate to run the country for a specific period of time. This mandate is given to them by the general public who are eligible to vote in a general election. In contrast, Houlihan and Malcolm (2016) refer to the state as comprising not only the government, but also a range of publically funded organisations (sometimes referred to as institutions) such as the military, the courts system, the police, local councils and the education system. The state might be considered to be relatively more stable than government because we the people decide normally every five years in the UK who we wish to be in government. Although in reality the relationships between government and the state are rather more complex, these definitions provide a useful starting point for the remainder of this chapter.

The government and sport

One of the fundamental rationales for any government taking an interest in community sport relates to the economic arguments referred to as public good and market failure. Public good relates to anything that is deemed good for society as a whole, and, as a result, governments do not want a high demand for that entity to drive its price up, thereby leaving it less accessible for certain groups (Hoye, Nicholson, Stewart & Smith, 2015). To prevent this from happening and to keep this entity accessible for a majority of society, the government or state-funded organisations may provide a subsidy to keep costs to the general public low. An example of this in community sport is the funding given for the construction and management of a public swimming pool or a municipal golf course, which enables the costs of using the facility to remain at an affordable level for the general public. The idea of public good may extend beyond community sport. A good example of this is the continued support provided by successive governments for elite sport, which in part is justified on the basis of international sporting success boosting the countrys international reputation and national pride or in providing role models to inspire young people. In trying to reap the good elements of sport, any government may also choose to engage with the idea of market failure. Market failure materialises at two points, either when there is an undersupply of something that is highly desirable (often because there is little margin for profit) or when there is an oversupply of less desirable products (Hoye, Nicholson, Stewart & Smith, 2015). In community sport, we might look at the increase in budget gyms in the private sector as one area where, in the future, an oversupply might lead to market failure. Similarly, the shortage of third-generation AstroTurf pitches is a good example of an undersupply of a desirable product. The final point to make on this is that public good and market failure can be viewed as part of the same process; the way government seeks to prioritise particular groups, such as women and disabled people, reflects the public good that can come from this and some level of support missing from markets for example, the empowerment and improved health and well-being that may be secured by these priority groups through participation in sport and physical activity.

Government roles in sport

If the rationale for government intervention is set, what do governments actually do as part of that intervention? The first function to explore is the important role governments play with regard to policy and strategy. Sport: Raising the Game (1995), A Sporting Future for All (2000), Game Plan (2002) and A Sporting Future: A New Strategy for an Active Nation (2015) are examples of government adopting this policy and strategy role. All of these publications have provided a clear indication of the governments priorities for a particular period of time. When the Labour Government under the leadership of Tony Blair published Game Plan in 2002, key strategy themes included an emphasis on creating a mass participation culture, an increased focus on elite sport including the staging of major international sporting events, structural reform of publically funded sports organisations and ensuring efficiency and value for money from public investment.

The final theme of Game Plan leads us nicely to the second function of government when it comes to sport, namely in determining where and how public money will be invested. Having developed the policies or strategies, there is then some level of expectation that state-funded organisations will follow these themes. To highlight how a change of government may impact the direction of strategy, the Conservative governments 2016 strategy placed less emphasis on increasing sports participation per se and more on the individual and societal benefits of sport. At the core of this strategy are five outcomes relating to physical and mental well-being; individual development; and social, community and economic development. Like its predecessor Game Plan, this strategy will continue to shape the priorities and expectations of government in relation to sport for the foreseeable future.

THE ROLES OF NATIONAL AND LOCAL SPORT ORGANISATIONS

Moving beyond the role of government, broadly speaking, community sport organisations can be grouped into two categories: direct provision and enabling organisations. Direct provision organisations operate at the front line of community sport; that is to say, they are the closest to participants and provide sporting opportunities to local people by operating within and engaging with local communities. Community amateur sports clubs are a good example of direct provision organisations, but there are others such as youth organisations, charities and private coaching companies, all of which play important roles in the provision of community sport. In contrast, enabling organisations mostly operate one or more steps removed from the front line of community sport by adopting strategy, planning and funding roles or by providing information and advice to direct provision organisations. Examples of enabling organisations include Sport England; Sport and Recreation Alliance (SRA); national governing bodies (NGBs) of sport such as the Football Association, England Hockey and England Athletics; local authorities; and county sports partnerships (CSPs). In reality, describing the function of an organisation as either one of direct provision or enabling is not always that simple; indeed, some organisations such as local authorities may combine both functions.

Let us now briefly examine the roles played by those organisations that fall predominantly within the enabling category.

Sport England

Sport England is a non-departmental public body, which means it is accountable to, but has a degree of independence from, government. The organisation plays a key role in coordinating the implementation of government sport policy. Sport England is accountable

chapter 4:

David Broom and Stuart Flint

SUMMARY

This chapter will introduce you to and define physical activity and sedentary behaviour. It will highlight the low levels of the population meeting the recommendations of physical activity in the UK. Thus, interventions are needed to increase physical activity levels. Using a lifespan approach, we will introduce you to key interventions. Case studies will highlight the key components of these interventions as well as what community sports managers need to consider when developing their own approaches through the highlighting of good practice.

AIMS

By engaging with this chapter, you will be able to

Define physical activity and sedentary behaviour,

Highlight the physical activity recommendations and the percentage of children and young people, adults and older adults meeting those recommendations,

Identify good practice from previous physical activity interventions and

Provide key considerations for community sports managers when developing physical activity initiatives.

INTRODUCTION

Physical Activity is defined as any bodily movement produced by skeletal muscles that results in energy expenditure (Caspersen et al. 1985). It is a broad term that describes bodily movement, posture and balance all requiring energy. It includes different types of sports, physical education and dance activities, as well as indoor and outdoor play and work-related activity. It also includes outdoor and adventurous activities, active travel (e.g., walking, cycling, rollerblading and scooting) and routine, habitual activities such as using the stairs, doing housework and gardening. Exercise was initially defined by Caspersen et al. (1985) as a subset of physical activity that is planned, structured, and repetitive and has as a final or an intermediate objective the improvement or maintenance of physical fitness. A new definition is offered by Winter and Fowler (2009) as a potential disruption to homeostasis by muscle activity that is either exclusively, or in combination, concentric, eccentric or isometric (p. 447). This definition applies to exercise and physical activity that encompasses elite-standard competitive sport, activities of daily living and clinical applications in rehabilitation and public health.

On the opposite end of the activity continuum is sedentary behaviour, which is defined as any waking behaviour characterized by an energy expenditure 1.5 metabolic equivalents while in a sitting, reclining or lying posture (Tremblay et al. 2017). Sedentary behaviour is not the same as being inactive, which is an insufficient physical activity level to meet present physical activity recommendations. In the UK, according to the Chief Medical Officers (2011), adults (aged 1964 years) should aim to be active daily. Over a week, activity should add up to at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity in bouts of 10 minutes or more. One way to approach this is to do 30 minutes at least five days a week. Alternatively, comparable benefits can be achieved through 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity activity spread across the week or a combination of moderate and vigorous-intensity activity. In addition, adults should also undertake physical activity to improve muscle strength at least two days a week as well as minimise the amount of time spent being sedentary such as sitting for extended periods.

In 1994, the epidemiologist Jeremy Morris described physical activity as the best buy in public health (Morris 1994) because undertaking moderate-intensity physical activity has numerous health benefits. This includes the prevention and treatment of non-communicable diseases (i.e., chronic diseases that cannot be passed from person to person) including cardiovascular disease, obesity, Type 2 diabetes and some cancers and can reduce the risk of premature death, improving mental health and quality of life (Lancet Physical Activity Series 2016). Despite numerous organisations promoting the health benefits of physical activity and encouraging more people to be active, over the last 60 years, there has been a large shift towards less physically demanding work, which has been accompanied by an increasing use of mechanised transportation, a greater prevalence of labour-saving technology in the home and fewer people participating in active hobbies. Using historical data on time spent on occupational and domestic work, travel and leisure activities, Ng and Popkin (2012) estimated that between 1961 and 2005, physical activity levels dropped by around 20 per cent in the UK. The greatest reduction in physical activity was observed in occupational and domestic activity, and although voluntary active leisure or recreational activities have increased slightly, this was insufficient to account for the shortfall. Ng and Popkin (2012) also predict that by 2030, time spent in sedentary behaviour will exceed 50 hours per week.

The Health Survey for England reports 67 per cent of adult men and 55 per cent of adult women met the Chief Medical Officers (2011) physical activity recommendations in 2012 (Joint Health Surveys Unit 2013). However, due to the introduction of these new recommendations, there are no long-term trends. Health Survey for England (2008) data has been reanalysed to measure physical activity against the 2011 recommendations, which shows that there was no overall change between 2008 and 2012. However, these statistics should be interpreted with caution since they measured physical activity using self-report, which is prone to over reporting, as this is a subjective measure. It should be noted that an objective measure of physical activity was used in a subsample of adults who wore an accelerometer for a week in the Health Survey for England in 2008 (Health and Social Care Information Centre 2009). Only 6 per cent of adult men and 4 per cent of adult women met the Department of Health (2004) recommendations, which is alarming, as this demonstrates that a large proportion of the population is not achieving the recommended levels of physical activity to benefit health.

In England, a higher proportion of boys (21 per cent) than girls (16 per cent) reported meeting recommendations aged between 5 and 15 years in 2012 (Joint Health Surveys Unit 2013). In boys, the most activity was reported between the ages of 8 and 10 years (26 per cent), whilst for girls, most activity was reported in 57 years (23 per cent). In both boys and girls in England, the proportion of children aged 515 years meeting recommendations fell between 2008 and 2012. The largest declines were aged 1315 years for both sexes. Globally, physical activity levels decline with age, and men are more active than women in 137 of the 146 countries for which data are available (Sallis et al. 2016). There is a large decrease in activity, particularly in sport participation once young people leave school (Telama et al. 2005). Due to the prevalence of health inequalities associated with physical inactivity and increasing sedentary behaviour, there is a clear need to develop effective interventions that will lead to population level increases in physical activity.

A physical activity intervention encourages participants to make their own choices about how to increase their physical activity (Foster et al. 2005). Laboratory-based research and experiments reporting increased physical activity are largely ineffective in real-world settings. The concern of many health and physical activity promotion specialists is which interventions are effective for getting people to change their behaviour in the community. Thousands of physical activity interventions exist, but the remainder of the chapter will focus on a case study approach to introduce the reader to some that have been successfully implemented in the community. These successful approaches can be considered by sport-development coaches when designing and implementing new strategies to engage people across the life course in physical activity.

Case study: young people Sheffield Lets Change4Life

In November 2008, Sheffield City Council and NHS Sheffield were awarded ?5 million from the Department of Healths obesity unit, which they match funded to develop the Sheffield Lets Change4Life programme. The ?9.6 million programme, which commenced in April 2009, aimed to prevent obesity in children, young people and families by modifying attitudes and culture in Sheffield by delivering a range of universal and targeted interventions on all levels and, thus, a Whole Systems Approach: individual, families, childrens centres, schools and communities within the city (See ).

chapter 5:

Chris Platts

SUMMARY

This chapter is designed to give you critical insight into the way sport and physical activity is used to improve community cohesion. Bringing communities together is advocated as a key advantage of sport and physical activity schemes, however, this is often accepted uncritically. The aim of this chapter is to offer a balanced view of the possibilities and limitations of sport and physical activity being used for social inclusion purposes.

AIMS

By engaging with this chapter, you will

Have a better understanding of the term social inclusion,

Be introduced to the key debates that aim to explore whether sport and physical activity can help improve social inclusion,

Explore a range of issues that those working in programmes aimed at improving social inclusion need to consider and

Outline the different approaches used by StreetGames as a way of including socially excluded groups.

INTRODUCTION: UNDERSTANDING THE TERM SOCIAL INCLUSION

As has been noted in other areas of this book, such as , over the past thirty years or so, an increasing… [Content truncated to 3000 words]

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