Equal Access to Sport

On International Women’s Day the Government set out new standards for equal access to sports, making it clear that girls and boys should be offered the same sports during PE and extracurricular time in schools.

This follows on from the success of the Football Association’s campaign to change perceptions and ensure girls get the chance to play football within the school curriculum, as well as at breaktime, after school and at local clubs.

Alongside this work, Ofsted will be publishing a report into PE in the coming months, which will inform future inspections and set out what they believe is possible in terms of offering high quality PE and equal access to sports.

The full package being announced includes:

• Equal access to sports in school – setting out that offering girls and boys the same sports, where it is wanted is the new standard
• Delivering a minimum 2 hours of curriculum PE – with more support being offered through a refreshed School Sport Action Plan
• Expansion of the Schools Games Mark – to reward parity of provision for girls
• Over £600 million across the next two years for the PE and Sport Premium
• A new digital tool for PE and Sport Premium – to support schools in using the funding to the best advantage of their pupils
• £22 million for two years of further funding for the School Games Organiser network (SGO) – Annually the 450 strong SGO workforce supports 2.2m participation opportunities for children including 28,000 competitive school sport events
• Up to £57 million funding for the opening school facilities programme – to open up more school sport facilities outside of school hours especially targeted at girls, disadvantaged pupils and pupils with special educational needs.

Schools will receive updated guidance this summer setting out how to use the funding to the best advantage of their pupils. A new digital tool will be introduced for schools to report on their spending of the PE and Sport Premium and allow the Government to understand where further guidance is needed.

The overall aim is to help young people to develop healthy habits whilst having fun at the same time, regardless of gender or background.