SCOTLAND has seen no increase in participation in sport amongst children despite a rise in investment and big increase in sports clubs and community sports hubs after the 2014 Commonwealth Games - research indicates.
A new briefing from Sportscotland over the Glasgow 2014 legacy based on a Scottish Health Survey study showed "no statistically significant changes in sports participation" amongst youngsters.
In 2015 around two in three children aged two to 15 participated in sport in 2015 in the week prior to a survey, the same as the previous year. Overall the numbers making any sporting participation excluding walking rose slightly by 51 percent to 52 percent.
And the numbers volunteering to coach and administer sports in the country has flatlined too.
But sportscotland, which provided the briefing to the SNP, says they add more weight to their own figures which show a seven per cent annual increase in participation in the Active Schools programme of after-school activities since 2014/15 but with a five per cent increase in sessions. The activities are available in Scotland across all 32 local authorities and reach almost 300,000 pupils.
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Sportscotland and its partners have ploughed £96.2 million into community sports facilities in 2015/16, more than four-and-a-half times that spent two year previously. And the national agency for sport put £53.8 million into grassroots sport including schools and clubs in 2015/16, a two-year rise of 30 per cent.
Meanwhile the number of Scottish governing body-affilated clubs have risen by 34 per cent since 2013/14 to 13,491 in 2015/16.
The number of community sports hubs based in schools has increased by 20 per cent to 157 in the last financial year.
The conflicting research has come to light in the wake of MSPs launching an inquiry into the sporting legacy of the 2014 Commonwealth Games and examining whether hosting the event has led to more people taking up sport in the medium to long-term and if it has increased access to sporting facilities.
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By the end of the 11 days, hailed as "the standout Games in the history of the movement" by Commonwealth Games Federation chief executive Mike Hooper, Scotland had won 53 medals - 19 gold, 15 silver and 19 bronze - coming fourth in the medal table. It spawned new Scottish sporting stars such swimming gold medallist Ross Murdoch and boxer Charlie Flynn.
Charlie Raeburn, the former PE teacher, who is chairman of the Observatory for Sport in Scotland think tank said more needs to be done to increase participation in sport outwith the creation of sports hubs and clubs and said the cost of participation in sport might be a factor.
He said children's involvement in sports and physical play in general was affected by the competing interest in computers and concerns from parents about safety on the street.
He also pointed out that there were still waiting lists for people wanting to be involved in areas like athletics.
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"It is recognised that these big events aren't going to do anything per se just by having this big party for ten days or whatever, you have to look at the infrastructure," he said.
"You might have a star but we have to be able to look after any big increase in interest. But there is no one strategy in my view. Where do golf clubs, for instance, fit into all this.
"We have to look at new, cleverer ways of doing things, where you dont' have to pay a lot of money for the facilities."
A sportsscotland spokesman said: “We know that the work we are doing in partnership with local authorities and the Scottish Government is having a positive impact on children’s activity levels in the delivery of Physical Education and in Active Schools. In 2006 only 10 per cent of our primary and secondary schools were delivering two hours or two periods of PE; that figure has dramatically improved to 98 per cent meeting the targets in 2016."
SNP MSP Clare Haughey, who is deputy convener of Holyrood’s Health and Sport Committee, said the briefing showed "yet again that the SNP Government is offering effective and substantial support to grassroots sports across the country – encouraging more people of all ages into sport and exercise."
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And she added: “There is no doubt that the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow have left a positive legacy, with the number of sports clubs ballooning since 2014 – and sportscotland confirming that the total number of sports clubs will be even higher than the 13,491 in their official figures.
“It is this investment in sport and exercise that is encouraging more people to become active, with all the knock-on benefits for both physical and mental health. The Scottish Government will continue to focus on developing grassroots sport in Scotland, as well as continuing to improve equal access, helping to nurture the sports stars of the future and create a healthier, more active society.”
Last summer sportscotland said the number of people participating in sport had increase from 706,764 to 768,212 since 2013/14. The rise applied to almost all sports for which data was available, and was recorded across all age groups.
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