The English Sports Council’s ‘Big Picture’ reinforces how the ESC in collaboration with a range of different partners is aiming to develop sport in the future. The ‘Big Picture’ is a generic term describing how the ESC has developed programmes around the 3 key headings of:

More People playing sport

More places to play sport

More Medals won through higher standards of performance

Under each of these headings there will be a set of initiatives that together will create what we believe will be the most comprehensive sports development programme in the world, and one that will lead to immeasurable, clear and achievable outcomes.

In terms of Youth Sport Development this is all about ‘More People’ playing sport in schools, in the community and in clubs which will lead to higher levels of participation in sport.

The English Sports Council is therefore now proposing 3 comprehensive programmes and a new approach under the following headings:

Active Schools Building on our work through the National Junior Sport Programme and introducing new programmes essentially linked to schools to encourage young people into sport and to keep them there. (Table Tennis is already heavily involved through the BT Top Sport programme!);

Active Communities To ensure that the whole community has the opportunity to take part in sport and active recreation whatever the interests and standard of play - participation remains the important feature;

Active Sports To encourage those who have the interest and ability to improve their performance will be about providing opportunities particularly for our best young players, for quality performance.

The ‘Big Picture’ is completed by linking the 3 ‘More People’ programmes to the World Class programme where the opportunities to excel are being developed through closer liaison with our major Governing Bodies of Sport.

Active Schools aim is simple - "to support Physical Education and school sport to stimulate participation by all young people". Active schools will continue to build on the 12 TOP activities that have been developed through our partnership with the Youth Sport Trust - it has been a huge success because of the way it links to the National Curriculum and despite the new pressures on PE at primary level we are continuing to develop dance and fitness packages.

But Active Schools is more than just TOPS:

The Coaching for Teachers scheme is on schedule to reach 12,000 teachers and remains a major programme with 15 sports including new sports of badminton, volleyball and boccia. A key role of the ETTA RDO’s is to influence Local Education Authorities to provide more table tennis courses for teachers

In its first 2 years Sportsmark has attracted 20% of our secondary schools to apply for accreditation. For its third year we are making the programme more developmental, particularly where extra curricular provision is concerned ..... and we hope to have a ‘recognition’ award scheme in place soon for primary schools to assess their sports provision against best practice benchmarks

In its first year the Challenge Fund programme reached over 1000 schools, representing over 60 different sports - the new ‘Sportslink’ scheme will continue to promote school and club links - it will be launched nationally in April under the ‘Awards For All’ banner as part of the Millennium Festival and will provide significant new funds for schools and sports clubs to continue to work together. This will offer a great opportunity for table tennis clubs to link with their local schools and help obtain funding to develop school-club link programmes.

We are also expecting the Aussie Sport ‘Sport Search’ model to encourage young people aged 11-15 to find out about sports in their area - sports they may enjoy - sports that may suit them and sports they may just be good at. The aim is to reach every school in England and every young person in England over the next 4 years.

Active Communities - the aim here is ‘to achieve continuous improvement in the delivery of sporting opportunities and services at the local level for all the community.’ Building on the success of the Lottery community programme is vital - it has had a huge impact on our communities, supporting local people and specialist provision, but not all of our communities have been reached. The new Minor Grants scheme being proposed will look to work with clubs who are not asset-owing - ‘Awards For All’ is the theme, and significantly we will be working not only with existing sports clubs and governing bodies, but also with non sporting agencies like Youth Clubs, Health Centres, Women’s Groups and Community Organisations to help extend their activities to include sport. Imagine the impact on local sporting communities of 10,000 small grants in the next 2 years - this is our target! Again more opportunities for table tennis are here especially through the new ETTA ‘TOP CLUB’ structure. More information and application forms should be available from April ‘99 - watch this space for further details!

As part of Active Communities, sports education and training through Running Sport will help to make our community sports more effective, plus the Sportstrain initiative and new proposals to work with teenage girls will be important in helping our partners in the youth work sector to promote sporting activities. In addition TOPS in the Community follows on from the curriculum delivery with after school sports specific clubs operating on school sites and then moving to leisure centres and club sites.

Finally, the third strand of the More People programme is for those young players who have the ability and desire to start on the pathways to the top of their sport - Active Sports - an ‘into performance’ programme to provide a strategic, nationwide and co-ordinated programme to help our best young people to improve their sporting skills and give them access to organised sport through clubs and development squads, and for the very best, access into the World Class Programmes.

The frameworks for delivery of Active Sports are being developed as we speak and the English Sports Council will be working closely with Sports Governing Bodies and County Consortiums over the next few months to establish the most appropriate format for partnership working and the implementation of the Active Sports Programme. In the West Midlands the delivery of Active Sports will be via 6 consortiums in Birmingham, the Black Country, Warwickshire (including Coventry and Solihull), Shropshire, Staffordshire and Herefordshire / Worcesterhire - and will bring together local authorities, education and county governing bodies to concentrate on:-

Links between competitive school sport and sports clubs and NGB squads

Progression using approved NGB Development Frameworks delivered locally

Co-ordinated support progarmmes for coaches, clubs, volunteers and officials

Special measures programmes for young people who are disadvantaged and currently excluded

In conclusion, the above is a summary of the ‘new’ initiatives under the ‘More People’ programme being introduced over the next 12 months or so. For further details and developments watch this space and keep in touch with your Regional Development Officer.

If you have any queries about table tennis in the West Midlands contact the Regional Development Officer Chris Newton who is based at The Training & Development Centre, Popes Lane, Oldbury B69 4PJ.

Tel 0121 569 4461
E-Mail: ChrisNewton@etta6214.freeserve.co.uk