Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the effect of Primary School Sport Partnerships on participation in sport.

The Department for Education does not collect information on the effect of primary school sport partnerships on sport participation. The last school sport survey was published in September 2010 and is available online at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/pe-and-sport-survey-academic-year-2009-to-2010.

The report measured take-up of PE and sport by young people in schools and colleges over the period in which school sport partnerships were centrally funded. The survey contained a number of key findings which included information across years 1-11, and found that 84% of pupils were spending at least 120 minutes a week taking part in curriculum PE. Since we introduced the Primary PE and Sport premium, time spent on curricular PE at primary level has increased by 13 minutes from 109 to 122 minutes, from 2012/13 to 2013/14.

Funding for school sports partnerships ceased in 2011 as too little money reached the school directly and the programme did not have the intended impact on participation in sport.

It is for this reason that the government is committed to supporting primary school sport with £150 million a year, paid directly to headteachers. Through the primary PE and sport premium, over £300 million of ring-fenced funding was paid direct to schools across academic years 2013/14 and 2014/15. The government has committed to continuing to support this until 2020.

We know from the interim findings of our independent research of the Primary PE and sport premium that it is having a positive impact on PE and school sport. A research brief was published in September 2014 and can be found online at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pe-and-sport-premium-an-investigation-in-primary-schools.

The final report will be published in the autumn. 91% of schools reported an increase in the quality of PE teaching thanks to the funding and 96% of schools reported improvements in pupils’ physical fitness. Schools reported wider improvements in behaviour, healthier lifestyles for their pupils, increased pupil engagement with PE during school time and an increase in participation in after school clubs. A third of schools used the premium to reduce the costs of after school clubs, while a fifth made some clubs completely free to attend.