Ian McKee: Refreshing lack of dogma as board elections go ahead

Published on Monday 23 March 2009 18:22

SO NOW we are to have elected health boards. Well, not all at once, but the major health event in the Scottish Parliament last month was the passage of the bill that will enable pilot elections to run in two health board areas.

After a period of assessment and evaluation, the legislation will come back to parliament for a decision as to whether the pilots have been successful and whether the scheme should be rolled out all over Scotland.

It was perhaps surprising but, with a minority government and against the relentless hostility of most professional organisations and vested interests, the bill passed on a unanimous vote at decision time.

A lot of this can be attributed to the flexible approach of Nicola Sturgeon, the secretary for health and wellbeing, who listened carefully to all objections and willingly made alterations to the legislation when a good case had been made.

Cynics would say she had no option, and of course they have a point, but isn't it refreshing to see a parliament in which constructive criticism is heeded, no matter from which quarter it comes?

This minority government business started accidentally, but it may be catching.

Elsewhere, the parliament's health and sport committee is coming to the end of its evidence-gathering sessions as part of its investigation into how children can be encouraged into sport and physical exercise in general.

Many witnesses cited poor facilities for PE in primary schools as major obstacles – and so they are – but good local authorities, such as East Renfrewshire, seem able to overcome them, so why not others? Perhaps the key is determination.

George Black, the chief executive of Glasgow City Council, for example, was one who cited poor facilities in some primary schools in his area as an impediment in achieving PE targets. However, he incurred the wrath of Christine Grahame, the committee convener, for not being able to say exactly how many of his schools fell into this category.

We have not yet written our report, but I will be surprised if we do not make some mention of the Cinderella status of PE that still exists in many education circles today.

Committee members don't just sit on their bottoms gathering evidence – we get out to as many schools as possible, and here a very varied picture emerges. I went to one school that allegedly meets its physical education targets, yet which has no specialist PE input at all.

Other members of staff do their best, but can you imagine a school taking the same attitude towards the teaching of any other major subject?

Three schools I visited complained that the Private Finance Initiative scheme under which they were built and are managed inhibits the use of sports facilities in the evenings and at weekends. One teacher rather optimistically said her children climbed the fence to play football, but, as a subsequent inspection revealed the fence to be about 20ft high, I rather doubt this explanation!

There was also a complaint that schools in well-to-do catchment areas have parents who can afford the steep cost of using sporting facilities, while those living in less affluent communities can only look on. Yet it is in these latter communities that physical fitness has so much to offer in the prevention of ill-health.

It seems strange that schools built and funded by taxpayers' money – even if they are future taxpayers – should have superb facilities yet have to deny them to the very children that need them most.

Of course, physical education is only a start, and what we want is for children then to get into outside school activities, whether it be games, athletics, rambling, dancing, or even more esoteric activities such as cheer-leading and baton-twirling.

I was surprised to find such a variation from area to area between sports and in the way children are encouraged – or, more seriously, not encouraged – to join local clubs. Joining an adult club can be intimidating for any child, yet some do not even have a junior section, let alone an induction programme. We have a long way to go yet.

&#149 Ian McKee is a Lothians MSP and a member of the Scottish Parliament's health and sport committee.