A recent report has recommended that making P.E a priority subject in schools, doing more to connect sport with preventative health methods and limiting barriers between a watching sport and ‘giving it a go’ will all go towards ‘getting people moving more’.
Dame Caroline Dineage MP, Chair of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee who created the report, listed bowls as a focus sport when setting out steps to ensure access to activity for people of all ages:
“We’re a country of sport lovers when it comes to supporting our stars at home and abroad”, she said, “but there are too many barriers stopping people from getting up and giving it a go themselves at school and clubs in our communities. What we need is a national shift in the way we think about sport and a commitment at all levels to deliver a healthy and more active nation.”
While the Government has a major part to play in coordinating policy and committing to spending, our report sets out steps big and small, from ensuring access for people of all ages to sports like bowls, pickleball and padel through social prescribing, to waging a war on ‘No Ball Games’ signs, that could make a genuine difference to participation.”
She also emphasised the importance that sports attract and are open to people who don’t want to necessarily excel, but use sport for wellbeing, both physical and mental.
She said: “Taking part in sport isn’t just for those aspiring to be the next Joe Root or Lucy Bronze. Everyone deserves the chance to feel the upsides of being more active. The evidence of the benefits to both our health and wellbeing and to the economy are unmistakable. What we need now is a big effort to ensure everyone is rowing in the same direction to get the nation moving.”
The Committee has also called for the Government to legislate a requirement that councils and housing associations remove all ‘No Ball Games’ signs from open spaces, reclaiming them for casual play and allowing impromptu games of sports – such as bowls – that are adaptable.
It has also instructed that teachers should be better trained to deliver P.E sessions within a curriculum that caters for all, which will particularly help to connect girls and children with special educational needs with sport.
Increased spending on initiatives to boost participation, to help more of the British public recognise the physical and mental health benefits of sport and to remove unnecessary barriers to activity and play should go some way to helping all sports thrive, especially a sport with the benefits that bowls brings.
To read the full report from the CMS Committee, click here.