Cameron forces Gove to rethink school sports cuts
Following a public outcry over cuts to funding for school sports, the prime minister David Cameron says there will now be a review of the policy.
Education Secretary Michael Gove has been told to rethink cuts to school sports funding after a public outcry over the decision to axe a £162m scheme put in place by the previous government.
Just a week after describing the School Sport Partnerships (SSPs) as a complete failure, David Cameron hinted at a rethink in today’s Prime Minister’s Questions.
The 450 School Sport Partnerships runs PE classes, clubs and competitions. But after the spending review central government announced it would no longer fund the scheme – angering headteachers and top athletes.
Now though, ministers from a range of departments have been asked to find tens of millions of pounds to invest in school sports. Our political correspondent Cathy Newman says the new money won’t be anywhere near the £162m cut. But it may at least allow the prime minister to argue he hasn’t betrayed school sport as he attempts to score in England’s World Cup bid.
The Prime Minister told MPs that ministers were in talks with head teachers and that an announcement would be made “soon”.
But at Prime Minister’s Questions today, he struck a far more conciliatory tone, saying he was looking closely at last night’s Commons debate on effect of axing of SSPs in England.
“It does seem to me that we all have a shared interest here,” he said in response to a question by Labour former sports minister Gerry Sutcliffe.
“We all want good sport in schools, we all want more competitive sport and we have all got to make sure that money is spent well.
“I think everyone accepts that not every penny was spent well in the past and there is quite a bureaucratic system.
“The Culture, Media and Sport Secretary (Jeremy Hunt) and the Education Secretary (Michael Gove) are working hard on this.
“We are talking with head teachers so we can make sure that what we come up with actually works on the ground. I hope we will be able to make an announcement soon.”
Downing Street said the existing central government funding for SSPs was still being withdrawn, but the Government was looking at other ways of promoting competitive sport in schools.
“There has been a decision taken by the government to withdraw that central funding stream because we didn’t think that was working. The system was overly bureaucratic,” the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said.
“But we are thinking about how we can achieve our objective which is to see more competitive sport played in schools.” he said.
In a joint letter to Mr Gove, shadow education secretary Andy Burnham, shadow culture secretary Ivan Lewis, and shadow Olympics minister Tessa Jowell, said they were “encouraged” by Mr Cameron’s comments and offered to work with the Government.
“We believe that there could be great benefit in further discussions between us to develop proposals that would safeguard the sporting programme valued by parents and children across the country,” they said.
Mr Cameron’s intervention came after more than 80 British Olympians and Paralympians weighed into the row, urging Mr Cameron not to end SSPs.
World champion diver Tom Daley, 16, and Beijing Olympic champions including boxer James DeGale, canoeist Tim Brabants, cyclist Jamie Staff, rower Peter Reed and sailor Andrew Simpson plus Sascha Kindred who won his seventh Paralympic swimming title in Beijing were among the signatories to a letter calling for a re-think.