Sport and Physical Activity Policy in Scotland: A Country Profile

I have worked at the University of the West of Scotland (UWS) for 6 years as a lecturer in sport and physical education. Upon moving to Scotland, having taught in the Northwest of England for 15 years, I was struck by the limited amount of academic research undertaken on sport development in Scotland.

This was most evident in the teaching of sport development modules on our BSc in Sport Coaching and Development programme. A prime example of this lack of academic research was Sportscotland’s flagship programme Active Schools where no independent research has been produced since 2009. This creates limitations for our students but also highlights a wider concern as to the level of external critique of sport development programmes in Scotland.

In order to address these limitations, we decided that writing a country profile would be an excellent starting point to research across the areas of politics, policy, and sport development in Scotland. Country profiles are a specific publication format for the International Journal of Sport Politics and Policy and their intention is to increase awareness of the global diversity of sport policy and politics. Along with UWS colleagues Professor David McGillivray and Dr Eilidh Macrae and, Alastair Brown from the University of Strathclyde, I determined the key areas to be analysed. These were (1) historical context (2) the politics of sport (3) the structure and funding of sport (4) major sports events (5) equality and inequality in sport participation and, (6) health inequalities. A fundamental aspect of these analyses was to explore how Scotland has developed its policy since devolution in 1999 and to determine its impact on increasing participation in sport and physical activity. The key findings, reported in the article, were:

1. Throughout the 20^th Century the Scottish sport system remained complex, and post-devolution a range of strategies for sport were established to enhance cohesion and encourage collective development of the sector, but with mixed results.
2. Whilst the ongoing constitutional debate within the UK remains problematic, devolved powers from the UK Government to the Scottish Government have provided the opportunity for Scotland-specific policy development and investment in sport and physical activity.
3. A real terms cut in funding for sport and physical activity since 2016 is evidence of a lack of commitment to sport and physical activity above and beyond the health and wellbeing rhetoric.
4. While in the short-term Scotland’s major sports event policy generates valuable publicity, investment in facilities, improvements in infrastructures and benefits to the sport system, the long-term impact in terms of sport participation and improved health and wellbeing remains uncertain.
5. In the broader context of Scotland’s long-standing health vulnerability, future developments in national sport and physical activity policy should specifically address inequality of opportunity.
6. To address the lack of research in sport development, analyses of specific programmes success, or not, in addressing inequality and engaging the inactive is required. One way of doing so is to build strategic research partnerships between the voluntary sector in sport and universities.

In summary, we advocate for undertaking research now that will (1) analyse the content of previous and current policy with a specific focus on the position of sport and physical activity within the Scottish Government’s health and wellbeing agenda; (2) engage with key stakeholders from the Scottish Government and Sportscotland; and (3) analyse the impact of social, health and economic disparities on sport and physical activity participation.

The article is available open access, and you can download it for free here.

The most up to date policy documents for physical activity, sport and health inequalities in Scotland can be accessed at the following links:

A More Active Scotland: Scotland’s Physical Activity Delivery Plan: A More Active Scotland: Scotland’s Physical Activity Delivery Plan (www.gov.scot)

Sport for Life. A Vision for sport in Scotland: Sport For Life: A vision for sport in Scotland – sport scotland | spórs alba

Health inequalities in Scotland. An independent review: Health inequalities in Scotland: An independent review – The Health Foundation

This blog was written by Dr David Meir. David is Lecturer in Sport and Physical Activity at UWS.