CHILDREN’S health in Stafford and Stone will be “set back 10 years” by Government spending cuts, sports chiefs claim.
Stafford and Stone School Sports Partnership (SSP) lost Whitehall funding of £350,000-a-year in last week’s spending review.
It now has no budget but has been saved by Stafford Sports College, which has pledged its support for the next two years.
But other schools have pulled out of the partnership, which provides a range of sporting opportunities in a bid to battle child obesity.
Partnership development manager Steve Glover told the Newsletter that education chief Michael Gove’s cuts mean the longterm future of SSP is under threat.
He said: “The next few years will be a case of trying to keep the partnership alive and there’s a nationwide campaign to save partnerships across the country.
“This move will decimate a lot of what’s been achieved over the past decade and set sport, physical education and health among children back 10 years.
“Mr Gove justified his move by citing that just under half of school pupils were taking part in competitive sport.
“To me, just under half is a phenomenal figure and that’s been rising steadily since we came into existence in 2005. It’s a positive, not a negative.
“He also says there’s been a decline in traditional sports like rugby, hockey and netball.
“But, if he’d bothered to ask young people, they’d tell him they want more choice than the limited options they’d been given in the past.” The cuts come as part of £162million being diverted from SSPs across the UK to the general education pot.
Mr Glover is set to meet headteachers from schools across Stafford Borough to assess their level of support in the coming months.
He said: “I’ve already spoken to a lot of heads who have pulled out of the project, which is disappointing.
“But this is far from the last we’ll hear on the subject as a lot of people are very unhappy about the cuts.”
