Sports Development

Children from the South African township of Sebokeng discuss which activities should be provided at the new sports facility. They are using beans to make choices. 2000

Our report 'Social Inclusion and sport, the role of training and learning' commissioned by Sport England (through SPRITO TCL) drew attention to the role of community involvement in successful community sports development. The report uncovered a low level of understanding of a community development approach to sports development, the root of which is community involvement. Some of the key findings with relevance to the concept of community involvement are as follows:

	A traditional model driven approach to sports development is being used by many to try and reach socially excluded groups
	Many of the sports development officers interviewed saw the need to adopt an approach based around working with community members themselves and allowing them, to decide how their needs should be best addressed, rather than applying a rigid model. One sport development professional commented ‘How many sports development departments actually put a coach education programme based on what people want rather than what they think they want?’ Another respondent talked of the need for ‘engaging with communities and helping them to develop the skills necessary for them to be able to like respond to the issues’
	Few people were able to offer examples of approaches they had used which had successfully involved socially excluded people
	Many saw the need to adopt an approach, which uses working closely with community members themselves (to identify their own needs) as a starting point
	Few sports development personnel have experience of ‘consultation’ methods other than questionnaires and forums
	Some respondents expressed their doubt over the use of more traditional approaches to community involvement. ‘(in) my area they won’t touch questionnaires. They have had so many in the past that haven’t been delivered. They won’t enter any questionnaires’. ‘A lot of community people are scared of the council and don’t want to have anything to do with the council so they stay away from those types of meetings’. One person complained of the token nature of much consultation with the agenda being set by the local authority (i.e. the lower levels of the ladder of participation) ‘often its just a fig leaf…this is the local plan what do you think?’

Our findings clearly demonstrate that there is much to be gained from adopting an approach to community involvement which puts local people at the centre of decision making.

Recently the Audit Commission has added its voice to the issue of effective community consultation and sports development.

Sports development and PLA. One sports development officer who had experienced PA / PLA training explained how they felt that a PA / PLA approach would be different.

‘we currently have trouble extracting information from communities, because in the past thousands and thousands of surveys have been done, and promises made and nothing done with them. So the way PA training asks you to deliver breaks down some of those barriers. The views stay within the community, so they don’t go up to the powers that be, never to be seen again. So right from the beginning of the process, through to the end that consultation stays within the community’.

We have used the PLA approach to sports development in disadvantaged communities in:

	South Africa when Peter Bryant as manager of the UK / South Africa Sports Initiative (employed by DfID) worked with the National Sports Council (of South Africa, now the SA Sports Commission) to develop a Community Involvement training programme for people involved in managing community sports and recreation facilities. Three national PLA training courses (of 7 days) were run and a resource manual and workshop is currently being piloted as part of a national sports development training programme.
	Rochdale, Lancashire UK 2002. A Sport England sponsored training course for sports development personnel from the NW of England. This 5 day course involved the practical application of the P L A approach in a deprived ward in Rochdale, UK. Post workshop evaluation was very positive and Sport England aims to repeat the course as a national training programme for other sports development personnel.
	Redruth, Cornwall UK, 2003. A N.A.S.D. (National Association for Sports Development) sponsored training course over 5 days for sports development professionals in the South West.

Earlier this year we were contracted by NASD to design a one day introductory workshop on community involvement these are now being run throughout the UK.