Last month (December 2021), the House of Lords released its recommendations for the future of PE and school sport. The National Plan was greeted by Youth Sport Trust, ukactive, and the Association for Physical Education (afPE) positively for the significance it placed on school sport and PE.

The report released by the House of Lords Sport and Recreation committee includes a comprehensive list of recommendations for raising the profile of school sport and PE. For the committee, the benefits of PE are such that it should be recognised as a core subject.

Referencing PE and school sport, the committee recommended:

• Committing the necessary resources and time to PE & School sport without being undercut by academic subjects.
• Establishing Ofsted standards to maintain consistent quality and delivery in PE and school sport.
• Increasing the time devoted to training teachers in physical education and the confidence to teach it.
• Providing all students of all backgrounds and abilities access to sport and recreational activity.
• Including guidance from the Department for Education (DfE in the School Sport and Activity & Action Plan, to support students in trying a wide range of sports and activities as well as creating provisions for disabled young people to participate in.

The committee went on to stress that allocation of Primary PE and sport premium should be consistent. The premiums’ existence, they stated, was integral to a school’s capacity to plan for and execute PE lessons.

The focus, therefore, was on the primacy of the DfE as the central organ for organisation, evaluation, and monitoring. The committee recommended that the department continue to provide timetabled access to the £320m fund for school sport each year. In addition, to extend their role by offering further guidance, accountability, and accreditation for schools wishing to use their provision on external coaching providers.

For many providers who are already regulated by Ofsted, CRB-checked, and operating as essential partners to schools, further guidance can only evidence coaching providers as a cost-effective platform for expanding teacher-led PE instruction.

For more information and to download the report, see here.