Government U-turn concerns remain for school sports

The latest government U-turn on selling off forestry land has brought some wry smiles from the sports world. They're still trying to work out the repercussions of one of the Coalition's early policy reversals.

It was the Education Secretary Michael Gove who last December sounded the retreat on big cuts to the funding of sport in schools.

He argued that the Sport School Partnerships (SSP) were too bureaucratic and a classic example of Labour top-down government. That caused a row and a quick ministerial about-turn. But three months on, schools and sports administrators are still unclear what funding they are likely to get in future.

Three SSPs in the East Midlands - North East Derbyshire, Rutland and Hinckley & Bosworth - are facing funding cuts of 80% or more. In Lincolnshire, the SSP team of three will lose their jobs next month. The North East Derbyshire Labour MP Natascha Engel has already raised the funding uncertainty with the Education Secretary.

"The government has said it'll find the funding from other departments, but the money is nowhere to be seen," she says.

The SSPs run sporting activities for children both at school and reach out into the community. The delay on any decision on future funding is causing renewed anger.

"It is particularly frustrating," says Karen Shopland, who runs the School Sport Partnership in North East Derbyshire.

"We are only a year away from the London Olympics. We should be ensuring that the funding is there to give children the opportunities to take up sport."

Once again, it may need the intervention of Debbie Foote, a 17-year-old, A-level schoolgirl from Lincolnshire. Her online petition kick started a wave of protest against the original SSP cuts last October. She led a delegation to Downing Street.

Informal talks with the government resulted in a change of heart. Debbie attends Baroness Thatcher's old school, but there's no sign of any Grantham-style hand bagging in her dealings with ministers.

This head girl from Kesteven and Grantham Girls School wants to maintain a channel of communication with the Coalition.

"When the funding was cut back in October, we were in a very dark place," she told me.

"But there's been a huge transformation from then. We do have some funding back and I think that is extremely positive. Young people will still be supported by some form of sports structure."

In fact, the Department for Education says the SSP funding will continue until this summer. Then £65m will be available so that every secondary school can release a PE teacher one day a week to co-ordinate wider sports activities.

Says Debbie: "There will be something in place. It won't be the School Sport Partnership but fingers crossed that we can still keep working together to make sport as positive at it can be for young people."

Just like the forests sell-off, the row over SSP illustrates the tough politics involved in the Coalition's attempts to cut the deficit.

It might not get any easier if there's little to celebrate over future sports funding.

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